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Interview with Julian Foe, Managing Partner, Qando Qoaching
Kirsten: Hello Julian! Thank you so much for taking the time to join us!
Julian: Thank you for having me! It is an honor to be here!
Kirsten: Word on the street is that you have been using Gnowbe in some really cool and innovative ways. Can you share with us a little bit about your background and the Global Leadership Summit?
Julian: I ran a nonprofit organization, Kingdom Business Community, that focuses on mentoring business leaders to build value-driven organizations. We have been running this program for the past 17 years with more than 30,000 members (alumni). Every year we have around 20—30 business camps to run. During the pandemic, no one could attend in-person events, and that is when we learned about Gnowbe and started using it to run our business camps and mentoring programs in what we call a 'Blended learning' program (online through zoom and in-person through digital platform, Gnowbe). This new approach has brought high engagement, a positive experience to our participants and gained 4.5 out of 5.0 program satisfaction rating, thus creating a new opportunity that allows us to continue growing amidst the pandemic that has caused lots of other programs in various organizations to stall.
Learning from that new exciting experience, in my role as Country Leader of Global Leadership Summit (GLS) Indonesia, I managed to talk with the leadership team here and take up the challenge to level up the experience to our participants from just a one way video cast digital conference to a dynamic hybrid learning environment using Gnowbe as our engagement tool. It really makes a difference.
Kirsten: That is incredible. So what did it actually look like for your team to use Gnowbe in this way?
Julian: We had about 1000 attendees for the summit; five studios from four different cities. 25% attended an in person gathering (we called it micro gathering), and the rest were individuals learning online. We used Gnowbe to create two digital workbooks - one in English and one in Bahasa, and sent it out to everyone before the event. Then, during the event, we use the Gnowbe Digital Workbook alongside a guided, live facilitation process to provide a new learning experience. We then mirror cast it directly to the live digital studios, which all participants could see and interact with, and thus created stronger connection with the learners through their reflection and feedback in the digital workbook.
In brief, for each session, we would start and play a high quality video recording of the speaker. After the main speaker, each facilitator would use Gnowbe to lead a live discussion and reflection with their group. The Gnowbe Digital Workbook was shown on the main screen while the facilitator would talk through questions and take turns highlighting some of the best comments from each participant in different locations.
Kirsten: I love that!! What did the attendees think about using Gnowbe?
Julian: People loved it because they felt like they were very involved in the process of facilitation. We could see their answers directly, call out their names, and post their responses on the live screen - the process was really quite smooth and seamless for them. For most people, their only experience with online events before this was just sitting on Zoom. I think Gnowbe was really different and exciting for them.
Kirsten: Was there anything specific that you felt like worked well?
Julian: From time-to-time during the event, to encourage people to share, we chose different posts and gave away a bunch of prizes. Prior to the program we conducted a self-guided onboarding program on how to use the digital workbook, with various gift vouchers and surprise gifts like headsets, wireless speakers, free coffee and more, for those who can finish all the onboarding process. People really loved this, and it got them really excited to share.
Kirsten: So fun!! Why did you choose Gnowbe over other platforms?
Julian: Almost all the other platforms we looked at before we found Gnowbe were very clunky, not user-friendly for the creators, not to mention the hassle that we would need to hire someone to help us like a developer or coder, which is pretty costly, tedious and time-intensive. The other options were really just to use Zoom and then blend it with other things like an LMS or Kaboom, etc, which is just really complicated for both the creator and user. Gnowbe simplified the whole experience for us by having everything in one place.
Kirsten: Did it take a long time to set up Gnowbe and get everyone familiar with it?
Julian: Not really. We spent about two weeks preparing everyone to use Gnowbe. We had to train our facilitators in how to use Gnowbe to facilitate the experience, set up a basic studio and green screen at each location, and we also made sure to onboard and prepare our attendees beforehand.
Kirsten: How did you prepare the participants?
Julian: We used Gnowbe to create a digital workbook before the event, and so all the attendees had created accounts, were logged in and familiar with it before the event. We created a linktree with relevant resources for the users to go through before the event, that included videos on how to use Gnowbe, along with a link to the program itself, and this helped familiarize our attendees with Gnowbe beforehand. But Gnowbe is very user-friendly so I think they got it quite fast.
Kirsten: This has been so helpful, and I am sure it will really inspire a lot of people. To wrap it up, what advice would you give to someone looking to use Gnowbe to do something similar?
Julian: Gnowbe will really help you bring your conference to life and add a lot of values. Number one, You can use it to create a digital workbook that can be edited and updated in real time. Usually people would just send out a PDF, but then it is very hard to change. With Gnowbe, you can make changes 5 minutes before the event - or even during the event! People will love it.
Secondly, during and after the conference, you can access real data and track everyone’s answers. You can also set up automatic reminders for them, which makes you look very professional even though it is all automated. Usually after an event, the last thing you want to do is try and follow up with everyone and send surveys, but you can set it all up ahead of time in Gnowbe to send it out automatically, which makes you look really professional and organized.
And then the last part, is that it can really spice up your engagement. People just love it, you know, because they can see their responses live on screen. It is really a great way to connect with people and see real engagement in the learning process.
So, those are three ways you can use Gnowbe to really set yourself apart during your live event.
Kirsten: Thank you so much for your time, Julian, and I hope many people are inspired to try Gnowbe for themselves!
Julian: Thank you!
Want to learn more? Fill out the form and get a link to view a sample conference program in Gnowbe!
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About Julian Foe
Julian Foe is a multi-faceted leader, consultant, coach and senior trainer. He is highly motivated and intuitive, creatively devising conducive learning environments for the programs he runs. With a Masters in Education, majoring in Education Technology, Pak Julian has developed learning and training methodologies that are not only creative but interactive as well, earning him much praise in what he does.
Pak Julian is actively involved in the development of human capital and talent management in non-profit organizations, wearing hats of : Coordinator, Kingdom Business Community (KBC), Partner, NEXLeaders (Eagles Leadership Institute, Singapore), and Coordinator, Global Leadership Summit for Indonesia.
As the Managing Partner of PT. Qando Qoaching – an organization that focuses on Talent Management and Company Culture, Pak Julian has the trust of his clients as a result of his dedication, skills and experience in managing and developing human resources. In addition to this, Pak Julian is also an executive coach with companies such as PT. Kalbe Farma (Tbk), UNDP, Standard Chartered Bank, BCA, PT. Charoen Pokphand TBK, CNOOC amongst others.
His creative yet simple to understand pragmatic approach to life’s issues coupled with his strong sense of humour makes Pak Julian a much sought-after speaker in Indonesia and internationally.
