Merry Christmas and many thanks!
Image is © D Ormiston
Time to reflect on another busy year for AJ Enterprises and to say a bunch of thank yous to clients, associates and coworkers!
With education remaining at the heart of Scottish Government priorities, we’ve had to work harder than ever to keep Informed Scotland subscribers up to date with learning & skills in 2017. In addition to the monthly digests, we published a Leadership Special commissioned by Scottish College for Educational Leadership, a UK General Election Extra, the fifth annual Organisations & People Special, and shared interesting guest blogs.
Thanks to our subscribers for the great feedback and for spreading the word about the benefits their subscription brings.
In January, Angela reviewed the hottest learning & skills topics of 2016 on Radio EDUtalk, and looked ahead to what was in store for 2017. In September, she ran an information briefing on school education for the Blake Stevenson research team. The session was so well received that this service will be offered more widely in 2018.
We continue to promote hundreds of conferences, seminars, teachmeets, exhibitions etc. via the Learning & Skills Events Calendar. Lisa at Media Bloom kept the Calendar updated until a few weeks ago – she’s now the proud mother of a beautiful baby boy – many congratulations! And thanks to Hannah for helping with the updates while Lisa is on maternity leave.
On social media, @InformedScot now has almost 3,300 Twitter followers, up 600 from this time last year! InformedScot has a long way to go to match this on Instagram, but has attracted 230 followers in its second year.
Turning to other business, in May, we were delighted to be awarded a joint three-year contract to produce a new quarterly Skills Research Digest for Northern Ireland’s Department for the Economy, in partnership with London based, long-standing associate Elaine Hendry of emh connect, who publishes the learning & skills UK Digest.
We’ve also provided communications consultancy, copy-writing, editing and proofreading services, research and horizon scanning to repeat and new clients with business interests at home and abroad, including Macmillan Education, EdComs, Sunrise Setting, Beyond Green and 3rd Horizons. Whatever the task, we’re fortunate to work with such lovely people!
Personal thanks once again to associates including Janey at Mamook Graphics (look out for her new Informed Scotland cover designs in 2018), adult learning specialist Jackie Borge, copy-writer Lewis Packwood, editor Cathy Tingle and others I’ve had the pleasure of working with this year. Thanks too to supportive fellow local members of the Society for Editors & Proofreaders and Edinburgh Editors’ Network, particularly our coordinator Lesley Ellen.
Working alongside other businesses has so many benefits. After a fab year at Hanover House (thanks to the wonderful Team Tanami), in June Angela moved into Evergreen Studio coworking space. Thanks to Sigrid, James and Shaun for the warm welcome, and for the opportunity to cowork in a creative community of talented people – and in an office with such a rich literary heritage.
Finally, thanks to Derek Ormiston for providing this year’s festive photo – you can see more of his atmospheric pics via eider.22.
The annual Informed Scotland Hottest Topics in Scottish Learning & Skills will be shared here in January.
Email [email protected] for more information about any of the above, to subscribe to Informed Scotland, or to discuss how we could support your work in 2018.