- 1-day event
- 16 partners
- 20 rooms
- 279 attendees
- 1226 chat messages
A self-paced online training event with interactive booths and engaging content
Following annual tradition, UNIZO organised the latest edition of “Dag van de Digitale Onderneming” earlier this year. The event brings entrepreneurs from different sectors virtually together to inform and inspire them. This year, the central theme was ‘Cybersecurity’ where entrepreneurs were given some practical tips & tricks on how to act digitally as safely as possible. The concept of this event involved a self-pace learning journey with the possibility to get in direct contact with the cybersecurity experts to ask for personal advice. Wondering how Paul Roevens, the event organiser, experienced the first edition of his online training day on Thola? You can read about it in the interview below.
What was the purpose of your online training event?
We have been organising this event for several years at UNIZO. As the name implies, this event aims to inform and sensitise our members and prospect members to digitalise. This year’s edition was fully dedicated to the theme of Cybersecurity, with the aim of providing online advice to entrepreneurs regarding doing business securely digitally.
Why did you choose to organise this event on Thola?
Providing online training means that experts and entrepreneurs need to be able to connect with each other easily. The previous tool we worked with was rather limited in these networking opportunities. When I started looking for a new platform, Thola was quickly recommended to me by Microsoft. After a demo, it became clear to me that with Thola we could strongly leverage connection between participants, get insights into event analytics and link to our CRM. In short, all my criteria to improve were ticked off and we could quickly get the platform up and running which was the deciding factor to organise our first “proof of concept” on Thola.
How was this online training day organised in Thola?
Participants were welcomed in the lobby where they could immediately watch an instructional video on how the platform works. Afterwards, they were guided to the Auditorium where participants could watch videos with tips & tricks from different partners and service providers at their own pace. In addition, each partner had also been assigned its own room where they could promote their organisation and also interact 1-on-1 with visitors at their booth. Finally, a networking room was also available where participants could connect with each other.
After a demo, it became clear to me that with Thola we could strongly leverage connection between participants, get insights into event analytics and link to our CRM. In short, all my criteria to improve were ticked off and we could quickly get the platform up and running which was the deciding factor to organise our first "proof of concept" on Thola. After this trial, we immediately decided to purchase a year license.
What was your experience in the end?
Both the experience of myself and my colleagues who attended the event, was extremely positive. On the one hand, the platform was very intuitive and nicely designed. On the other hand, the cooperation with Sofie and Wouter from Thola was also very pleasant. They helped us well in setting up this event at short notice, taking into account our requirements. Moreover, it was great that we could give our VLAIO service providers extra exposure thanks to this event. Looking at the statistics of the event, we can see that we welcomed no less than 70 times more participants and 100 times more chat messages have been sent compared to previous editions.
How did participants experience this event?
We sent out a survey to all participants and also here, Thola is received with great positivity. Participants scored the overall use of the platform with 91%. The setup of the rooms and the various networking features also received a nice score of 84%. In addition, we received feedback that participants were pleasantly surprised by the fun set-up which resulted in a unique online experience.
Would you recommend Thola to other organisations? And why?
Absolutely! I am a big Thola fan and have recommended the platform internally and externally several times within my professional network. The main reason for this is that Thola completely lives up to my credo ‘simple to use’. Another added value is that you can fully customise the platform and that the participants are visualised by avatars. This makes it very personal and creates a nice customer experience. Furthermore, the Thola platform has the necessary maturity and will only continue to evolve. This is something I personally support strongly.
