Milestones are marked quickly in a start-up, and 2019 was undoubtedly a year of milestones for Cognota!
We had so much good news, change, and development this year, especially when it came to growing our fantastic team. We’ve been busy working playing hard in 2019 and are ready to dive into a new year and a new decade with fresh excitement for the future.
But before we do, here are some of our favourite highlights from the rollercoaster that was 2019!
Growing our team
We’ve been busy hiring across sales, marketing, client success, and engineering throughout the year. It’s been so much fun to welcome new team members and start to carve out our own unique Cognota culture.
Award wins
We were honoured to be the recipients of three awards this year:
Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards
BRONZE – Best Advance in Learning Technology Implementation
We won this award in partnership with our client Solenis due to the improvements they were able to make by implementing our unique solution.
Brandon Hall Group Excellence in Technology Awards
GOLD – Best Advance in Emerging Learning Technology
GOLD – Best Advance in Unique Learning Technology
These awards recognize innovative technologies that measurably benefit organizations’ leading HCM practices, and we were delighted to be recognized alongside some of the biggest names in tech and L&D.
Cognota just wants to have fun!
As our team began to grow, we took the opportunity to celebrate everything from Halloween to National Ice Cream Day. Our culture committee is always cooking up some fun activities for the team, and they really delivered throughout the year. Here’s to plenty more antics like these in 2020!
Culture across borders
Although our head office is in Toronto, some of the team are based in Merida, Mexico. In March, the Toronto team headed down there for some important team bonding, developing our corporate values, and (most importantly) having tons of fun in the sun!
Flash forward to Summer 2019, and we hosted the team from Merida here in Toronto for the whole summer. It was such a great opportunity to cement our relationships, get to know each other, and strengthen the team bond.
Conferences galore
What better way to meet up with some of our fellow L&D industry peeps than attending conferences? In 2019, we had a blast exhibiting at some of the biggest conferences in L&D and tech.
ATD
10,000 professionals, 400 speakers, and 300 sessions – what an incredible few days we spent at ATD 2019. If you couldn’t make it or are thinking of attending next year, check out our ATD highlights!
This year, the conference was held in Washington DC from May 20-23, so we headed down there to exhibit at the show.
We had a blast giving demos, chatting with others in the industry, and gaining fantastic insight into the challenges faced by L&D leaders in their organizations.
Collision
We took the opportunity to attend Collision 2019, also in May, right here in our hometown of Toronto! Collision is the fastest-growing tech conference in North America, with 25,000 of the best and brightest minds in tech in attendance. Whether you’re a buyer or seller, or you’re simply fascinated by the latest developments in the industry, we highly recommend heading along to the 2020 event.
HR Tech
As one of the industry’s leading events, the lead up to HR Tech 2019 was an exciting time. This year the conference was held in the beautiful Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, and it didn’t disappoint.
Here at Cognota, we traveled down to Vegas not just to attend the conference, but also to exhibit for two days at the HR Tech expo. But, with some of the biggest names in the industry delivering keynotes, we still found time to take in all the event had to offer. You can check out our highlights here.
DevLearn
October 20-23 saw Cognota back in Las Vegas for one of the most exciting L&D events of the year. DevLearn is all about embracing the frontier between learning and technology. Learning professionals from across the globe come together to hear about the latest developments, what the industry can expect for the near future, and to network with their peers.
Although we were exhibiting at the expo, we also took some time to soak up the atmosphere and listen in on the fantastic line-up of keynotes at the 15th anniversary of DevLearn.
New clients and partners
We’re fortunate to work with some incredible clients and partners. Some are based right here in Toronto, so we get to see them pretty regularly! Others are a little further afield, so we try to take the opportunity to schedule visits whenever we can.
We look forward to lots more of these in 2020!
Building our product
Start-up life can sometimes feel like a constant race, where new finish lines are being created or pushed back all the time, along with some good ol’ hurdles to keep us on our toes!
Working in an agile fashion is a crucial component of our success so far. We’re very proud of how far the product has come over the past year, but we’re equally excited to execute our plans for 2020.
Here’s to an excellent year, and decade, ahead!
