About the Authors

Kassy LaBorie is founder and principal consultant at Kassy LaBorie Consulting LLC. She is a virtual classroom master trainer, specializing in developing trainers to be engaging and effective when facilitating programs in Zoom, Webex, Adobe Connect, and other online platforms. She has worked with many Fortune 500 firms in a wide range of industries and sectors, including hospitality, pharmaceuticals, energy, government, NGOs, and nonprofits.

She trains and coaches producers, the virtual classroom trainer’s partner in effective facilitation, as well as instructional designers tasked with creating or converting content for virtual classroom delivery. Kassy also advises learning and development leaders in areas like virtual classroom strategy, technology selection, and logistics. She has more than 20 years of experience helping organizations, learning teams, and training professionals successfully move to the virtual environment.

Since 2008, she has participated in more than 100 industry conferences as a speaker, expert panelist, and workshop trainer. Kassy is a regular presenter at such events as ATD’s International Conference & EXPO, ATD TechKnowledge, Training Magazine’s conference, TechLearn, Learning Solutions, and DevLearn.

Prior to launching her consulting practice, Kassy was the director of virtual training services at Dale Carnegie Training, a consulting service that partners with organizations to help them develop successful online training strategies. She was also the product design architect responsible for developing the company’s live online training product and experience, which grew to be a $4 million business in only a few years.

Kassy has also worked as an independent master virtual trainer, a Microsoft software trainer, and a senior trainer at Webex, where she helped build and deliver training at the Webex University. In addition to Interact and Engage, Kassy’s authored Producing Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars: Master the Technology to Engage Participants (ATD Press, 2021) and The Virtual Trainer’s Guide to Becoming a Hero, which is available for download on her website. You can learn more about Kassy by visiting kassyconsulting.com/about.

Tom Stone is a senior research analyst with i4cp (the Institute for Corporate Productivity), where he is a writer, researcher, and speaker. His focus is on learning and development, but he has also led research studies on workforce readiness, succession management, people analytics, automation and AI, and more.

Tom has more than 20 years’ experience in the learning and development and broader human capital industry. Prior to joining i4cp, Tom was the director of technology-based learning at Dale Carnegie Training, where he led the product development for their live online and other digital offerings. Earlier in his career, Tom also served as a senior research analyst at Taleo and held various positions, including product design architect and content development manager at Element K.

Since 2008, Tom has spoken at more than 150 regional, national, and international L&D and HR conferences on a wide range of topics. In addition to his research and writing in the human capital industry, Tom is also an avid baseball fan and wrote the book Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises, which was published by ACTA Sports in early 2019.