The 2021 ACSG Virtual Conference was a conference of firsts.  In the 41 years of existence, the recent ACSG conference was hosted virtually for the first time, allowing more international delegates to attend.  The virtual nature of the conference also enabled the ACSG to have two international keynote speakers: George Thornton III and Sandra Hartog.  

It is also the first time that the recorded presentations are available on-line until 31 May 2021 allowing people to participate in the conference asynchronously if they could not attend the conference on 18 and 19 March 2021. 

The third “first” is the translation of the conference into Russian to allow Russian speaking people, not able to converse in English, to also learn from the conference.

Five themes emerged from the 20 presentations, namely:

• Artificial Intelligence and Assessment Centres
• Assessment Centre Case Studies
• Competence, Guidelines, Ethics and Assessment Centres
• Competencies Measured by Assessment Centres
• From In-person to Online Assessment Centres

LEMASA was well represented on the agenda:

Martin Lanik, CEO of Pinsight and LEMASA partner, shared with the audience during a presentation titled: Moving Assessment Centres On-line, the lessons learned from converting various in-person assessment centres to virtual assessment centres (VACs).  The purpose of the presentation was to share the advantages of using an integrated platform rather than various platforms that had to be integrated “manually”.  He proposed the use of an integrated platform that can enable written as well as real-time interactive simulations.  An integrated platform can also automatically and efficiently schedule all people involved in the execution of the VAC. 

Carl Herman and Landi Mashiloani from the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation (AGOF), a client of LEMASA, shared how the unique requirements that their selection Assessment Centre has to adhere to were accommodated for during the design of their new Entrepreneurs Camp.  Their presentation was titled Designing an Entrepreneurial Assessment Centre: Experiences from the Journey. The purpose of the presentation was to share how practical and logical it is to follow a systematic process when developing an Assessment Centre.  The presentation also highlighted the importance of allowing a diverse team to work together in creating the Assessment Centre.

George Thornton III, representing the Assessment Centre Global Village (ACGV) of which I am also a member, explained how adaptability can be defined and measured during an Assessment Centre. His presentation was titled Adaptability: Definition, Assessment and Development.  The purpose of the presentation was to launch the ACGV’s White Paper on Adaptability.

Petrus Nel and I hosted the conference’s IGNITE session titled The Tripartite Model to Achieve Assessment Centre Competence: A Stakeholder Perspective.   The purpose of this session was to create the awareness that universities, together with organisations and the ACSG need to take hands and work together to achieve the various levels of competence required to deliver ethical, evidence-based Assessment Centres.  Anyone of the stakeholders on their own, cannot achieve the required AC competence.

Linda Fourie, Raeanne Naidoo and I presented Assessment Centre Ethics: In the Eye of the Beholder.  The purpose of the presentation was to share that the “voice” of the Assessment Centre participant should be heard since the experience of the AC participants contribute toward whether an Assessment Centre can be considered ethical.

To register and earn CPD-points until 31 May 2021, click here.