A glance back at our favourite moments of 2022

The year 2022 was eventful to say the least and we don’t just mean this from aNewSpring’s perspective. But the latter is what we’ll be reflecting on this time around.

For the handful of you who may be wondering who I am: Well, I’m Amresh and I’ve been lurking in the shadows since joining aNewSpring in September 2022. Being someone new to this industry, there was (and still is) plenty for me to absorb and familiarise myself with. Fortunately, the people here have been nothing short of hospitable, supportive and welcoming. But what really got me was their genuine passion and intentions to help other people learn! This is something I’d proudly want to be a part of. So, I thought, why not start off the year with all of you joining me for a glance back at 2022?

The theme of ‘Reflections’ shall span over the next few editions and in this particular post, I’ll be focusing on three initiatives – the annual aNewSpring Awards, the launch of aNewLetter along with 2022’s top read articles and Ger’s Learning Notes turning 50.

I’d like to share some of the insights I’ve learnt and perhaps also give you a glimpse of what’s being worked on in our secret garage.

The beginning…

The aNewSpring Awards, a yearly event for users of the platform, began in 2017. During the awards, various companies showcase their learning journeys and the top one is chosen by their L&D peers.

Stefan van den Tol, aka the aNewSpring Awards man himself, shares: “Martèn and I were having a coffee at a café in Rotterdam when we were discussing: ‘How cool would it be if we host an event where our customers can share the stage. A day when we can let our customers show the awesome thing they thought of, to make an impact on their learners?’ That was the first seed that was planted to host The aNewSpring Awards.”

The evolution… 

Stefan: “We started off pretty small. We chose the Maaspodium in Rotterdam as our location venue and invited around 10 customers to show their learning journey in a conference setting. Visitors could walk around and listen to the stories of our customers. Then, we selected the top three who would present their case on stage.

A few years later, we decided to have all customers present on stage and then choose the winner, since the market setting was somewhat difficult to follow for visitors.”

In 2021, due to the pandemic, The aNewSpring Awards went from an offline to a fully online event, even including a set of workshops for all participants. Anyone could send in their case for consideration and all nominees were then assessed by a jury panel of experienced L&D professionals.

After the selection process, the top three presented their case during the awards main show. During the live show, the top three would again present their cases and the winner would be picked by an audience of L&D peers.

Stefan tells me more: “COVID-19 hit and we had to go online. To our surprise, it turned out to be really great. We managed to receive a lot of compliments in a time when most online events were boring. It felt like a TV show where people could attend. We really liked it, and Jos, my co-host, and I learned a lot since we never did such a big online event before. We got help from an online streaming partner, though.”

The 2022 aNewSpring Awards became the biggest awards edition to date. The live show was online accessible for people from all over the world, but we also took things a step further and turned it into a hybrid event! Not only could you follow along online… we also had a great group of true aNewSpring enthusiasts joining us right here in Rotterdam.

“After getting so many positive comments about the online aspect in 2021, we decided to hold a hybrid event in 2022. Online and at the Arminius church in Rotterdam. We had online workshops and live workshops. We even created battles between the online people and the live people. Again, we really enjoyed it and received great feedback!” recollects Stefan.

What’s next?

As the 2023 edition of the aNewSpring Awards approaches, we are reminded of the incredible milestone that we are reaching: 20 years of aNewSpring! So of course we’re going to celebrate. “An event that will bring together individuals who are passionate about making a positive impact on learners and learning from one another”, is how Stefan describes it.

Throughout the years, we've seen our community growing and expanding, so we thought it would be fitting to also expand the categories. This year, members of our learning community can be nominated in two different categories:

• The Most Impactful Learning Journey

• The Best Learner Experience

We can’t wait for the online party to start! Will you join us, too?

Content is my passion and since joining, I was curious to look into what content has gotten the most traction amongst our readers since aNewLetter launched.

aNewLetter was introduced early last year with the intention of staying in touch with our community with relevant, useful and unique content to help empower training providers all over the globe. Exclusive interviews, events and webinars, downloadable content, guides and how-to’s, case studies, quests for answers and more: it was as much of a learning journey for us as it was, hopefully, for all of you.

One thing’s for sure – we had a lot of fun putting it together and we had the privilege of meeting some absolutely inspirational people! So without further ado, I present to you (in no particular order) the Top 5 Most Read Articles of 2022:

• Skills obsession theme takeaways:

What’s it about?

In this wrap-up article, we looked back at our initial questions and shared the answers we could find on the skills obsession.

Read more about the most important findings here »

• 8 learning activities to enhance soft skills training:

What’s it about?

Soft skills can be developed and assessed online. You just need to find the right methods and tools to do so.

In this blog, several Customer Success Managers chimed in and shared some practical features that you can use to successfully train soft skills through online learning. From video to forms and much more in between. Read the article about soft skills training here »

• Adaptive learning reduces study time by 30%:

What’s it about?

Do you believe in miracles? Do you believe in data? Because the two sort of go hand-in-hand if you ask us. By utilising all the right information, a strategic and efficient approach can be taken in the form of adaptive learning. What’s the miraculous bit, you might ask?

Well, how does more than 30% of reduction in study time sound? Read how it all went down in this study conducted together with Bohn Stafleu van Loghum (BSL). Dive into the data about adaptive learning »

• Most downloaded content – Perspective’s Guide:

What’s it about?

We at aNewSpring tend to like questions more than answers, or better said: the search for answers is often more valuable than the answers. That’s why we asked a lot of questions to some very smart people about the skills obsession.

We got great answers about the forces behind it (yes, the pandemic is one of them), main challenges and good practices for training providers. A bonus: we came up with five useful tips. Have a look at the Perspectives Guide here »

• Favourite free learning resource – Learning Methods Infographic:

What’s it about?

You might have seen their name pop up before: RedThread Research. They love good research and they’re interested in learning. That’s a great combo in our books!

They’ve added one more thing we can appreciate: an infographic. It’s about learning methods. And we all know how many of those there are, so putting them in a clear overview definitely helps. Not all of their content is free, but the one in this link is »

What’s next?

Through some proper analysis and with the help of data, we’ve got an idea of what type of content has appealed to our readers the most. What we’ve put together over the past year is merely the first step (think of it as an experimental phase). Through community feedback, insights from our like-minded learning pioneers and plenty of reflection, we’re keen and driven to produce even more content with value for an even wider audience.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Six years ago, two legends in their own right, Corjan Bast and Ger Driesen joined the aNewSpring family. Corjan has always been thrilled by new ideas and concepts and he observed that Ger had a lot of knowledge about the learning world. He came in as sort of the learning innovator/evangelist with lots of strong opinions, attended a lot of conferences and was a part of many working groups.

They thought, since there’s so much content out there, why not curate the best ones and share them with the learning community? Right now, Ger’s Learning Notes has just celebrated its 50th edition and has grown with subscribers from many different countries, including the Netherlands, UK, South Africa, USA and Belgium!

What’s next?

Find out more about this amazing milestone and what Ger has planned in his Learning Notes #50. You can also share the topics, resources or any other thoughts with Ger about future Learning Notes in there.

As for me, I can’t wait to see what’s coming next.

2023: What's ahead?

I’m thrilled to be a part of all this and from our discussions and plans for 2023, I’m certain you, our dear readers and community, have much to look forward to! Thank you kindly for being a part of this journey and rest assured, we have absolutely no plans on slowing down.

Do you have a personal favourite moment for 2022? What are you most looking forward to and excited about for this coming year? What do you want to see more (or less) of? As always, feel free to reach out to us at editorial@anewspring.com.

Have a pleasant and great 2023 ahead, all of you – and keep on learning!