This is the last blog post of the year here and will be back in 2021.

2020 has been awful for many people. The impact of Covid 19 across the globe, the lockdowns and economic impacts are still to be fully realised.

I was lucky.

I was able to set up a business, produce a podcast, get through having Covid personally and kept the lights on and wheels moving. Covid has had a massive impact on the profession of LnD but, with the activity I’ve been doing over the last 10 years means I’ve been partially protected from it. Understanding digital and working in both camps as a supplier and purchaser, meant I am in a hugely fortunate position to be able to cope.

The podcast has exceeded any expectations I may have had. My target was 500 downloads and it’s double that after a few weeks. I started it to amplify women’s voices and the best example of how that has happened will be next year. In January we will publish an episode where two women, unknown to me or each other before the podcast was launched, have come together to produce a simply brilliant episode.

This blog has had it’s most successful year ever with c. 200k views. If you’d told me in 2011, when I first started writing here that I’d go from 500 views to a number 400 times that I wouldn’t have even dared to believe you. There have been 248 posts (including this one) this year and the most popular – by a country mile – was this one about bread and crumpets. People seem to like the analogies I write.

My personal favourite blog post of the year was the one comparing the disruption of the learning industry to the event industry. This still holds true:

I really feel for people who have based their entire offer on face to face delivery and design. But this has been happening for a while; all that the lockdown and post-lockdown activity has done is to accelerate a timetable that was already running.

Andrew Jacobs September 2020

It still feels weird to me that people read this blog so regularly and engage with the content. To everyone who has read, supported, amplified, commented, criticised, argued and engaged with it, thank you. You have no idea how positive your interaction is for my mental health.

I can only hope that 2021 is a better year than 2020 has been. I wish you the most peaceful of Christmas holiday periods and the best of wishes for you in the New Year.