A personal look back at 2012

On stage with Elliott Masie at Learning 2012

As well as a time to make predictions for 2013, December is also a great month for looking back and reflecting.

I’ve been lucky enough to have had a great year.

From January’s Learning Technologies Conference to this week’s Learning Directors’ Network meeting, it has been a year of meeting new people. And there will be even more travel and speaking  next year.

But of the entire year, the highpoint was undoubtedly October, for four big reasons:

• Publication of the Learning Technologies 2013 Conference programme
• The Learning and Performance InstituteI launched the LPI Capability Map, our first attempt to outline the skills needed in the L&D profession
• I ran a two-day event for CERTPOINT Systems in New York
• Attending and speaking at at Elliott Masie’s Learning 2012 Conference

Any one of these events alone would have been the highpoint of a great month. To have all four together in October made it something very special.

The Learning Technologies Conference programme is a real labour of love. The pleasure of its publication is a mixture of pride, relief and anticipation. Launching The LPI Capability Map was the same, but even more so – provided we put the effort into getting it right, this will be the common language, world-wide, of skills for our profession, and I do feel that with it the Institute has once again started something significant.

As for the two US events, they were both made great by what makes any event great – the people. It was wonderful to meet Certpoint’s clients and learn more about their success stories, and of course at Elliott Masie’s Learning 2012, the sheer number attending (around 1,600) meant great opportunities to meet some practitioners and thinkers working to advance our profession.

October was a great month. 2012 was a great year. Yes, I’m looking forward to the Christmas break, but I’m also very much looking forward to 2013.

Oh, and that picture at the top? That’s a close up. Elliott’s conference is just huge. This is what the view looks like about one third of the way back in the audience: