Proving Frontline Readiness: Seertech at TechLearn 2026

If your workforce operates cranes, works underground, handles patients, or maintains equipment in the field, you already know that most learning technology was not built to support the unique needs of frontline, on-the-job training. Course catalogs, completion dashboards and satisfaction surveys were designed around desk work. The people doing the most consequential work in your organization are often the least well served by the systems meant to develop them.

That gap is the focus of TechLearn 2026, taking place September 15–17 at the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center in Austin, Texas. And it is why Seertech is presenting this year’s Featured Breakout Series: Learning in Frontline and High-Risk Environments.

Scott Mahoney, John Wright and Quint de Visser will be on site across all three days.

Learn more and book time with our team → here!

What Makes TechLearn Worth the Trip

TechLearn has built its reputation as a practitioner conference rather than a vendor showcase. It draws more than 500 L&D professionals for three days on learning technology and design, covering AI, learning evaluation and assessment, adaptive learning, simulations, and game-based learning.

Keynotes this year come from Amy Herman, author of Visual Intelligence, on seeing through the noise, and Rory O’Connor, inventor of Rory’s Story Cubes, on what actually matters when designing with AI.

The format rewards people who come to work rather than to watch. Braindate conversations, hands-on clinics, the Innovations in Training Test Kitchen, and a breakout structure that favors depth over breadth.

The Featured Breakout Series: Learning in Frontline and High-Risk Environments

The frontline series returns this year in a format worth noting. Each session is delivered as a live interview recorded for Training magazine’s Innovations in Training Podcast, hosted by Jeff Weaver, Director of L&D at Farm Credit of Florida.

That means five conversations with practitioners who have solved these problems in production, not five slide decks. All sessions take place in Room 101 on Level M1.

Wednesday, September 16

• 11:15 AM – 12:15 PM — The Future of Training Design in Frontline and High-Risk Environments, with Richard Hannah, Research Director at the National Center for Construction Education and Research
• 1:30 – 2:30 PM — Accelerating Frontline Readiness for High-Risk Behavior Situations Through Skills Training, with Amanda Fullbright and Andrew Blomstrom of BlueSprig Pediatrics

Thursday, September 17

• 8:30 – 9:30 AM — AI in the Field: Delivering Just-in-Time Learning for Skilled Trades Workers, with Susan Roussel of Barnhart Crane & Rigging
• 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM — Leading From the Frontline: How Hands-On Chainsaw Training Builds Safety, Readiness, and Resilience at TxDOT, with Daniel Britton and Andrew Wilson of the Texas Department of Transportation
• 1:15 – 2:15 PM — Less Frustration, More Flexibility: Consolidating Disconnected Systems for Frontline Learning Impact, with Scott Mahoney, Chief Strategy Officer at Seertech

Construction, healthcare, skilled trades, transportation. Different industries, one shared problem: the work happens away from a desk, and the systems tracking it were built for people who sit at one.

Why Frontline Learning Breaks Conventional Measurement

Roughly 70% of frontline skill mastery happens on the job rather than in a course. A worker learns to operate the equipment by operating it, under supervision, until a trainer judges them ready.

Most learning platforms never see that part. They record the safety module completion and stop. There is no shared checklist, no structured trainer sign-off, and no record a quality lead can stand behind when an auditor asks who was qualified to perform a task on a given day.

The result is a familiar situation. You can prove someone was trained. Proving they are currently competent to do the work safely is a different claim, and it is the one that matters after an incident.

This is what we call the missing middle: the stretch between a completed program and a demonstrated business result, where learning becomes capability, capability becomes confidence, and confidence becomes reliable behavior. Most measurement strategies stop before any of it.

Frontline organizations are further along than most in one specific way. They already measure output. Incidents, downtime, defect rates, throughput, audit findings. They have the performance half of the equation in hand. What they usually lack is the connection between that data and what people were trained to do.

Plan, Execute, Prove

Our approach to on-the-job training follows three steps.

Plan. Assess workforce skills to identify gaps and systematize resource planning, then build training plans specific to each role rather than generic to the organization.

Execute. Deliver structured, automated training paths supported by skills assessments and evaluations from qualified trainers and auditors, so the on-the-job portion is designed rather than improvised.

Prove. Capture evidence of developed skills so certifications and licensing stay compliant and audit-ready, and so the record ties back to business value rather than sitting in a filing cabinet.

The third step is where most systems stop being useful, and it is the one that determines whether learning gets treated as a cost or as a control.

Where to Find Us in Austin

Our team is available throughout the conference, and there are a few specific places to catch us.

Innovations in Training Test Kitchen — Wednesday morning, September 16. A round-robin format with short rotations, so come with a specific question about your on-the-job workflow and we will work through it directly.

Demo table in the breakout room — Open across the full conference in Room 101. This is the easiest place to find us between sessions.

Opening Reception — Tuesday evening, September 15. Informal demos and conversation to open the event.

Morning coffee chat — Thursday morning before sessions begin. No presentation. Bring the thing that is not working.

Meet Seertech at TechLearn 2026

📅 Dates: September 15–17, 2026

📌 Location: AT&T Hotel and Conference Center, Austin, TX

🎤 Our session: Thursday, September 17, 1:15–2:15 PM, Room 101 (Level M1)

🌐 Event website: techlearnconference.com

Most organizations in this room have already built the training. The harder problem is that the judgment about whether someone is ready usually lives with a trainer, in their head or on paper, and never becomes something the organization can query, audit, or act on. That gap is what we’re coming to Austin to talk about.