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NHRC 2026 • Layup whitepaperThe Learning කඩේ
What 45 kg of මඤ්ඤොක්කා taught us about engaging Sri Lankan workforces.
01 • The storyThe කඩේ at the back of the hall
For two days at NHRC 2026, the busiest corner of Monarch Imperial wasn't a stage. It was a village කඩේ, built under a pol athu roof at the back of the exhibition hall. By the end of Day 2, it had won the award for the Most Innovative Stall.
We called it The Learning කඩේ. HR leaders queued for a ring toss. People sat on an old wooden bench to play checkers with bottle caps. On Day 2, our whole team turned up in sarongs and national shirts.
None of it was about software. All of it was about the thing every learning team is chasing: getting people to show up, stay a while, and come back.
The කඩේ opens for business
The L-shaped LED wall lit up, and the first tokens went out before the opening session started.
Queues for a childhood game
380+ people found the password
The Great Lankan Crossword දෙක sat on every table, and entries piled up at the කඩේ all day.
Sarongs and national shirts
The team dressed the part, and the කඩේ stopped feeling like a booth. It felt like a place.
45 kg of මඤ්ඤොක්කා later
Two days, one කඩේ, and 45 kg of fried cassava handed out, one packet at a time.
On stage at NHRC 2026
02 • WatchLearning can be a වදේ
Learning can be a වදේ, and our commercial said so out loud. It borrowed the look and sound of 1970s Sinhala cinema: a black-and-white garden duet that ends at a village කඩේ. Only the phones are in colour.
Why it landed
Every generation knew the reference
Graduates and senior HR leaders had both grown up with these films, so the joke worked across the whole room.
It made fun of the problem
Everyone has sat through training that felt like a වදේ. Admitting it, in song, earned instant trust.
The product was the hero, not the pitch
The features appeared inside the story, on the screens in the actors' hands, rather than in a list.
03 • The ideaNostalgia is a learning strategy
People lean in when learning feels like it was made for them. A plain tea, a power cut or a Big Match does more work than a stock photo ever will.
Familiar lowers resistance
When the setting is one people already know, they spend their attention on the idea, not on working out where they are.
Local says "this is for you"
Sri Lankan words, places and jokes tell people the content wasn't imported as-is. It was built with them in mind.
Shared memory builds belonging
A reference everyone recognises turns a room of strangers into a group. Learning that feels shared is learning people return to.
04 • PlayThe Great Lankan Crossword දෙක
Office life and pop culture, Sri Lankan style. Solve the grid and the blue squares spell out the password, just as they did at the booth.
at NHRC 2026
ACROSS
DOWN
At the conference, more than 380 people gave up part of their coffee break to argue over Galle Road traffic and lunch packets. Nobody had to be reminded. That is the engagement every learning team wants, and it came from content about their own lives.
05 • The කඩේ principleWhy one-stop shops win
The village කඩේ sells everything you need, knows your name and gives you a reason to linger. Tap each part of the කඩේ to see where it lives in Layup.
06 • Score your කඩේScore your learning කඩේ
A කඩේ people want to visit has a few things in common. Switch on every statement that is true for your organisation today.
A quiet කඩේ
The shutters are half down. People only visit when they have to. Start with one place for everything, then give them a reason to stay.
Fix my කඩේCome to The Learning කඩේ
See how Layup brings your courses, people and results under one roof, built for the way Sri Lankan teams learn.
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