The costs of professional development for employees is pretty darn easy to quantify. Travel costs, lodging, incidentals and food all get written up in an expense report when one of us goes out to a professional conference, class or workshop. But what is the benefit to the company that is footing the bill for all of this?

I was very fortunate to be able to attend the In Control 2010 Web Design Workshop Conference back in Februrary. Not only did I learn a lot but about issues that directly relate to the job I do day to day here at Scitent, but there were also a lot of intangibles that have positively impacted my job. At the conference I was able to meet a lot of other smart, motivated people who share a common interest in web design. Also, being away from home allowed me to immerse myself in the conference without the distractions of day to day life at home. Fast Company has a blog post that discusses the return on investment (ROI) for professional development far more articulately than I can. Here is an excerpt:

Once your employees realize that "the [corporate] machine" exists not only to produce profit, but to produce skilled, conscientious, enlightened, and self-actualized professionals, you have a labor force that recognizes cause and effect relationships between "Corporate Mandates" and their own individual need to pursue meaning and purpose in life. When you bring these together, you have power and with it an increase in loyalty, retention, high performance and profit.

While at the conference I "live blogged" my experience. If you are interested in how this humble designer experienced this conference minute by minute, you can check out my conference notes.