Introduction
Aflatoun International is a non-governmental organisation based in the Netherlands. Aflatoun offers social and financial education to children and young people world-wide. They work with a network of 275+ partners and 35 governments, reaching 8.6 million children and young people each year in more than 100 countries.
Menno de Vries and the Aflatoun team are responsible for maintaining and further developing the network of the organisation. Among other tasks, they are focused on building bridges between different societal stakeholders, connecting Aflatoun partners, donors and staff while aiming to raise awareness for the purpose of their organisation.
“ We create high-quality curricula, for different age groups, which can be contextualised to local needs or specific circumstances. In addition, teachers are provided with training and we conduct research to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of our programmes. We are working towards a world where children and young people are socially and economically empowered – acting as agents of change in their own lives and resulting in a more equitable world.”
Menno de Vries
Partner Network & Administration Manager
Challenge
Aflatoun held its Global Social and Financial Skills Conference at the end of October 2019. The duration of the conference was 3 days and it focused on bringing Aflatoun partners, donors and potential partners together to explore the current and future educational trends, share ideas, be inspired and connect. This year’s conference held 250+ participants, from 80 different countries all looking to learn, share and benefit from the organisation’s strong network. As their sessions focused on exchanging knowledge, they wanted to ensure that conversations continued outside the “classroom.”
Thus in order to provide the best conference experience possible, Menno and the team were looking for a tool that would help them:
“ The strength of our organisation is our network. We wanted attendees to experience and reap the benefits of collaborating with people in their regions or focus areas. Our sessions focused on exchanging knowledge and multiple voices on stage but we wanted to ensure that conversations continued and that real connections could be made.”
Menno de Vries
Partner Network & Administration Manager
Solution
Aflatoun contacted us with the aim to upgrade their conference’s experience. They were also in search of an easy to build conference app that would ease the work load needed regarding all conference logistics.
The app had a quite positive impact on all stages of the Aflatoun conference.
Among other Networkapp features, the most used were:
Pre-conference
Aflatoun started building their app way before the actual conference date. They easily mastered the dashboard and put together a nice app on their own.
During the conference
Menno and his team discovered that among other Networkapp features, some proved very helpful in successfully boosting participants’ engagement.
After the conference
The success of the Global Social and Financial Skills Conference was significant. The success was also depicted in the reports that Aflatoun received by us.
Results
In addition to Aflatoun’s satisfaction with the use of our app, the success of the conference also reflected in numbers.
Specifically:
Looking Forward
“We were surprised and excited to see how engaged people were with the app. Not only were people connected – it also made our job easier. We could send out last minute updates, upload presentations and see the kinds of connections people were making. We’ve seen the power of the app and will keep it top of mind when planning our next event. “
Menno de Vries
Partner Network & Administration Manager
"The strength of our organization is our network. We have seen the power of the app and will keep it top of mind when planning our next event."
Menno de Vries, Partner Network & Administration Manager, Aflatoun