The new look TrainingZone is almost here!

We've already filled you in on the basic changes that will be coming to the site, but now that we're even closer to relaunch day we thought we'd give you a few more details, so that you can be as excited as we are.

Here are five things to look forward to once the new site launches on Wednesday 4 November...

1. Prettier Profiles
Your new member profile will be all-singing, all-dancing, with a larger profile image (time to dig out your best selfies), your job role and summary about yourself, as well as the new options of adding links to your website and social media accounts. You'll also be able to see any blog posts, comments, questions and answered you've posted. We want TZ to feel even more like a community than before, so the more information you put in your profile, the better (try not to make it too self promotional though!).

2. Improved Layout
We mentioned it a bit before, but the site will be getting a new navigation bar at the top of the page, aimed at helping you with your day-to-day tasks, whether it's leadership, development or delivering the best presentation. We'll also be suggesting other articles you might like at the side of the page, as well as content which is proving popular across the site.

3. Easy Registration
Signing up has been a bit of a long-winded process in the past - but not anymore. We'll be giving you the option to sign in using one of your social media accounts if you wish, otherwise it's just a quick two-step process to get your TrainingZone account up and running. For those of you who are already members (hooray), you'll have to sign in again once the new site launches, and your login details will not have been saved by the site, so make sure you know your username and password!

4. More community focus
We're already proud to say that we've got a very knowledgeable and helpful community here on TZ, but we could always do more to make the site as useful and collaborative as possible. With this in mind, we've made the blogging process even simpler, as well as making some aesthetic improvements to Any Answers (which will be called Discuss once we relaunch - as the area is used just as much for discussing industry issues as it is requesting tips or resources). We've also put together some handy Blogging Guidelines and tips on How to Make the Most of Your Blog - so now you've got no excuses to not have a go!

5. New features!
Of course, TrainingZone is about useful and insightful content first and foremost, so we've taken the opportunity of getting a fresh lick of paint to introduce some exciting new content series and features to the site. In addition to our popular guides, webinars, podcasts, videos and polls (phew), you can look forward to the following hitting the site soon:

- 'Learning Futures' video series with industry experts
- A threepart history of L&D from Thales
- 'Leadership Lessons', a new article series which kicks off with a look at Alexander the Great.

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Also feel free to take a look around our new help centre - we're still making some final tweaks, but we want it to be your one stop shop for any site queries, including submission guidelines, site rules, FAQs and our T&Cs. Let us know if there's anything we've missed off.

Oh and remember that we'll have a content freeze in the afternoon of Friday 30th, so you won't be able to post any comments or blogs from then until the site relaunches on Wednesday 4th - this will allow us to migrate all of the site content across. We hope it won't inconvenience you too much.

Let us know what you think in the comments below!