Announced as winners of the 2021 CN Award for Nutrition Resource of the Year, we asked to Tanya Haffner, founder and CEO of MyNutriWeb, to share what it feels like to win, how MyNutriWeb got to where it is and what’s next…

You’re a 2021 CN Award winner – how do you feel?!
It is such an honour for us to be the proud recipients of the 2021 CN Award for Nutrition Resource of the Year! We are so humbled and thankful to all of the CN readers who voted for us – especially considering the amazing colleagues and resources that have been recognised through this award process. We really appreciate this support and recognition. Most of all, we feel very proud to be supporting a community that values not only nutrition education but human life on earth in general. 

How did it all start?
Finding new and innovative ways to communicate and positively impact on good nutrition for health and planet has been a lifelong mission of mine. And in the words of Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Education builds and changes lives and communities – and has impact that is long lasting if consistent and engaging.

At Nutrilicious, a niche consultancy and communications agency I founded in 2018, we have been providing varied nutrition and marketing expertise to support organisations to improve their strategy, credentials and communications. One powerful method we employed was to support health professionals – and professionals working in health and food more widely – with their nutrition knowledge, skills and expertise.

In early 2020, MyNutriWeb was born to expand and focus solely on this aspect. Our established grassroots experience, coupled with quantitative and qualitative research amongst professionals, showed a growing need for more and different support – and the potential impact it could have.

Our clear aim is for our community to help others eat well, both for the benefit of people’s health and the planet.

What has MyNutriWeb achieved so far?
In just over a year, MyNutriWeb has become a trusted online learning hub for professionals working in nutrition and health, also providing a collaborative voice for the sector.

Not all education is enabling. At MyNutriWeb we aim to go beyond simply providing information – focussing on professionals’ communication and their challenges in supporting patients and the public. Through our regular, expert, accessible CPD webinars, along with supporting resources, we provide the science but present it ready for everyday practice. This is crucial in making the difference to deliver on our vision.

As the world navigates the Covid-19 pandemic, there has never been a greater awareness of our ability to improve lives and prevent the destruction of planet earth. With so much work to be done, we feel very privileged to play a role in this way.

What are some highlights?

• Consistent growth, with 16,000 individual members in the UK, Ireland and around the world
• High engagement, with an average 1,300+ registrations for each bi-monthly webinar
• 98% of webinar survey respondents would recommend to a colleague
• Built relations and developed partnerships with 22 organisations to support CPD
• And of course, now winner of the 2021 CN Award Nutrition Resource of the Year as voted for by CN publication readers!

What have you learnt?
We started building MyNutriWeb pre-pandemic and launched whilst I was suffering quite badly from Covid-19, at a time when colleagues had sadly lost family to the virus. This past year has been a very trying time for everyone and we each continue to have challenges. Many of us have had to pivot our work and lives. I have personally learnt to focus better on what’s really important and (mostly!) let go of what’s not – I tend to be perfectionist. I am also much more grateful.

We are a small, predominately female-led business with a social purpose, which I am particularly proud of. We are also a lifestyle business: we work around the life we want to lead, rather than fitting life around work.

It’s been a huge effort since the launch to get where we are – from learning how best to work as new team, to learning curves in content marketing, community management and digital communications, not to mention business strategy. It’s all very exciting. And frightening at times. We make mistakes but we learn from them together, and I focus on the overall achievements and the great support we are lucky to have in each other.

I have been privileged to have good mentors and I’ve come to realise that it’s never been more important to have supportive sounding boards for the big ideas – ones that are honest but caring!

Our experts and our community members have been our heroes in all this, with a fantastic commitment to learning – so thank you for allowing us to serve you! When I read the results of our surveys and hear about the impact we are making in empowering professionals, it makes all the effort worthwhile.

What does the future hold?
It’s interesting times. Pre-launch there weren’t many others doing what we were doing. Now everyone is doing something and an underlying worry of course is webinar/e-learning fatigue post-lockdown.

We have seen a huge demand from health professionals to learn more to meet the lifestyle, public health and planetary challenges and opportunities of our generation.

We are set on continuing to raise the bar for educating and supporting health professionals with credible, accessible CPD opportunities in nutrition. Insights driven, well-curated, quality content is what will lead to success in this sector – and this is all part of our mission.

If you have ideas for events or resources, would like to be an expert speaker or platform partner please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

In the meantime, huge thanks again for being part of the MyNutriWeb community and I look forward to hopefully seeing you on an upcoming event!