Ascot Communications

Last night, the Ascot team were privileged to attend the 2013 Learning Awards, hosted by the Learning and Performance Institute. It’s always a fantastic chance to celebrate the achievements within learning and we heard some great stories being shared over drinks and around the dinner tables. What made the night even more special was the annual charity auction which supports the charity Dream Flight. Before the awards ceremony, Paralympian Liz Johnson gave an utterly inspirational speech which moved everyone and prompted some amazing generosity from the attendees. It was a special night and you can see the full list of winners here.

After the two of the busiest days in the learning and development calendar, here’s a review of Learning Technologies 2013. With unique access and insight, Kate Graham ran the back channel and social media coverage for the event for the second year running. Trending at number one on Twitter with the hashtag #LT13UK, Kate’s coverage created an amazing buzz and took the key themes and messages of the conference to learning professionals around the world. Here’s a link to Kate’s thoughts on another fantastic Learning Technologies event.

 It’s that time of year again. No sooner have the Christmas festivities finished then it’s the end of January and time for Europe’s (if not the world’s) largest event focused on organisational learning and development. Learning Technologies and Learning and Skills 2013 kicks off next week and Ascot’s Kate Graham is yet again working with Don Taylor and the organisers to bring you a back channel  that is worthy of such a great conference and exhibition. Check out Kate’s pre-event blogs here.

We’re delighted today to celebrate Ascot Communications’ first birthday. We can hardly believe it’s been a year since we were officially incorporated – and what a year! We’d like to extend a huge thank you to our clients, our partners and everyone who has supported us during our first twelve months. The learning, HR and education marketplace is such a vibrant industry to work in, with fast paced technological innovations and work that makes a real difference to people’s lives and organisational performance. We look forward to many more birthdays to come!

Our social media commentator Kate Graham was recently part of the team that covered the annual LEARNING LIVE event for the Learning and Performance Institute. Here, on her own blog, she captures her thoughts on the event and reflects on the increasing importance of curation.

Our very own Kate Graham will be tweeting and providing rapporteur services for this year’s Learning Live conference. Find out what’s going on at the event on Kate’s blog here and follow the action via the hashtag #LEARNINGLIVE.

New crowd-sourced learning US start-ups such as Skillshare and Codeacademy, focused on the concept of the ‘democratisation of learning’, are being tipped to continue their rapid growth as both consumers and organisations discover the benefits and breadth of the courses offered compared with more traditional content providers.

These new organisations aim to democratise learning by bringing it to the ‘community marketplace’. They offer online platforms that allow anyone to teach and share what they know, as well as learn whatever they would like.

Skillshare was top of the ‘Companies to watch in 2012′ list featured in Mashable Business earlier this year, a position reitereated only last month when it was described as one of ‘the hottest startups in New York’ by the same publication. Last month Skillshare announced new tools for sharing notes and asking questions. In 2011, Skillshare raised $3.1 million in a first round of venture financing, led by Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital.

Less than a year old, Codecademy recently announced that it has raised a further $10 million round of venture financing led by Index Ventures and joined by Kleiner Perkins, Union Square Ventures, Yuri Milner and Richard Branson.When Codecademy recently launched a new initiative called Code Year, over 100,000 users signed up within 48 hours. The company was recently described by TNW as a ‘shining star’ in the “learn to code” movement,. It has been offering front-end technology courses on technologies such as JavaScript, jQuery, HTML and CSS since August of last year. Its has most recently launched Python courses to the public.

Authoring tool providers Articulate is also aligning itself with the democratisation fraternity. At the recent launch of Articulate Storyline , the company’s US-based VP of Community Tom Kuhlmann suggested that advances in technology are bringing about the ‘democratisation of e-learning’. Explained Kuhlmann, ‘In the same way that anyone can now make videos and put them onto sites such as YouTube, anyone can now create e-learning content using a tool like Storyline and make it available to others via social media channels’.

Ascot Communications is delighted to support the upcoming event ’5 days to success: Great online learning in just one week’.

This one-day workshop, hosted by Willow DNA, will explore how applying best practice in learning design can enable you to take even the most complex programmes online. From quick skills boosters to online diplomas and certification, understanding which techniques work best and what activities build the most engagement will help you develop transformational online learning.

Our very own Kate Graham will be facilitating an interactive session on social learning. She will be joined by other expert speakers including Rob Hubbard, John Curran and Lisa Minogue-White.

Click here to find out more about the event and how to book.

Ascot Communications is officially launching its newsletter publications services at Learning Technologies 2012.

Martin Belton and Kate Graham formed the company less than three months ago. Already Ascot is working with some of the world’s leading organisations in learning technologies. These include Questionmark, Unicorn Training Group and Good Practice.

At Learning Technologies, Ascot will be launching its new newsletter services and applications to help connect learning professionals with the information they would like to know from the industry.

Ascot Communications is also supporting the Learning Technologies conference. Director Kate Graham is the official ‘rapporteur’, providing live commentary and insights from the conference sessions, plus writing the event’s blog and curating on and offline resources for reference after the show. She explains, ‘So much happens at Learning Technologies and Learning and Skills, that between attending sessions, catching up with people you know and visiting the exhibition, it’s easy for key themes and discussions to pass you by. I’m looking forward to using social media to capture the debate and bring it to the wider learning community.’

Ascot also provides a range of services marketing and learning support services including:

• Sales prospecting: putting learning providers in touch with prospects that genuinely wish to hear from them
• Marketing services: social marketing, branding and collateral production
• Learning consultancy: helping learning professionals find the best mix of services from their organisations

Ascot can be found on Stand 18 at the show. For more information visit www.learningtechnologies.co.uk