This time last year I had never heard of http://www.accountingweb.co.uk. Yesterday I heard that I have been named their personality of the year. I am very proud and very grateful.

AccountingWEB's Community Award winners of 2014, featuring @henryhtapper @NMPatel & more http://t.co/YMgyA3YwqJ

— AccountingWEB.co.uk (@AccountingWEBuk) December 19, 2014

There are over 400,000 people who receive updates of one kind from Accounting Web. They range from the CFOs of our largest companies to the book-keepers of sole traders. They are the people who run businesses, submit tax-returns , make sure people are paid and increasingly they are the people on whom the DWP, tPR and the pension providers rely on to make our workplace pension system work.

So to be recognised, and for Pension PlayPen to be recognised as a source of skill and knowledge is a real honour.

During the year, I’ve written several blogs for this site and helped promote their “no-one gets left behind campaign both through http://www.pensionplaypen.com and through the Friends of Auto-Enrolment. I have made good friends with their editorial team , especially Andy North (who is now building the American version of the site).

I’ve taken a lot from the way they bring differing audiences together to share information and just as I hope some members have learned about workplace pensions, I’ve learned about payroll, accounting  and even Excel skills. This applied learning through knowledge sharing is what social media can bring to the business community and nowhere have I seen it better practices than on this site.

The Pitch

Accounting Web is one of several ventures, organised by Sift Media, others are the Business and HR Zones, both of which have been valuable to us.

Business Zone and Dan Izzard, its editor, have for some years been running a nationwide competition for start-ups to display their wares through short, recorded pitches to their peers and to judges.

This year, http://www.pensionplaypen.com won right through to the Final and though we didn’t win, we got a lot out of the competition, learning how to pitch our business but- as importantly- finding out what issues and solutions, our peers were facing and finding.

The big picture

It feels shameful that I never knew about all this before this year. Pension people have a carefully crafted cocoon provided them by organisations such as NAPF and the PMI out of which they need not step. The 1.3m SMEs and Micro companies who are still to auto-enrol know nothing of pensions but pensions know nothing of them. With the high fees and high barriers of learning, the pension trade bodies are of little relevance to the 1.3m.

But for the big picture to emerge and for auto-enrolment to work for the chip shop in Accrington as well as the NAPF membership, we need Accounting Web.

That Accounting Web, has welcomed pension people like me, and to my huge delight, given myself and Pension PlayPen a Community Award says a lot.

While Pension People have done little to  reach out, the accountancy profession- including ACCA, the IMA and ICAS have stepped up to the plate. The Federation of Small Businesses, IOD and the chambers of commerce up and down Britain are spreading the work.

The Friends of Auto-Enrolment has not been created by the pension community but by the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals.

In the Big Picture, these non pension bodies have stepped up and given us a platform. I don’t think we’ve said thank you and I don’t think we should look this gift horse in the mouth!

So http://www.accountingweb.co.uk, I’d like to say thanks to your face and give you a big fat Christmas hug hoping that in 2015 you can do as much for pensions as you did in 2014 and that we can continue to work so well together for another year!