Last week, over 10 people from the ILAC sales team participated in the first ever ICEF Virtual Berlin Workshop, a 72-hour online marathon of one-to-one meetings, panel discussions, presentations and networking.
ICEF seems to have come up with a new paradigm, as so many entrepreneurs are doing in the era of COVID. At the end of the three days, the entire ILAC team agreed that agent engagement during the meetings was even better than at traditional conferences.
ILAC CEO Jonathan Kolber was pleased with the outcome. “ICEF has invented a new model for the industry that is far more effective and efficient than what we’ve had in the past. We did not expect this event to be so meaningful. The virtual event will definitely survive post-COVID due to its value proposition of effective meetings without the travel and the cost. ICEF even pulled it off with access to Marlene Bar, the bar we all love”.
After the event was over, ICEF confirmed that next year’s ICEF Berlin will be a blended model that will include both in-person and online individual agent meetings, on-site seminars that will be live streamed around the world and on- demand sessions and webinars with international speakers in different locations.
According to Markus Badde, CEO of ICEF, all events will be hybrid from now on. “Many people are looking forward to travelling again and that will never change. But there are others who now prefer the online model, where there are no interruptions, no distractions, no risk, no travel, no money spent and you can meet the whole world in your living room.”
Here is what individual members of the ILAC team had to say about ICEF Virtual Berlin:
“The platform could be compared to a German car, a Porsche or a Mercedes – very simple, very clean, very easy to navigate. It was a new experience but all the features were useful and the technical part was perfect. There was a such a good quality of image that it felt like you were in the same room, like a real ICEF workshop.” – Tatiana Dandzurovski, Canada, CIS
“There was no noise in the background to distract us, we didn’t feel tired and we could really concentrate. Of course we missed the hallway conversations and networking, but the meetings themselves were very productive.” – Tatiana Menniti, Brazil
“I absolutely loved it! Although I missed the hugs, I could still go to the Marlene Bar and chat with friends and the front desk to talk to the ICEF team. My schedule was completely full and I was especially impressed by the room with all the webinars, it was really easy to navigate and the quality was excellent.” – Dorothée Lamy, Europe
‘It was my first ICEF ever and I had a lot of fun with agents, I learned a lot and met many new agents I never had a chance to talk to before. It was very well organized, the structure was really good and the agents were on time.” – Jana Korkosova, Central Europe
“The event was very good. Agents were very happy and said it was amazing because they didn’t have to run to their next meeting, so everyone was on time. It was easy to use the platform and it was so nice to see all our agents in one place.” – Oscar Blanco, LATAM
“I enjoyed it a lot, it was very efficient and agents were punctual. I liked the functions and the navigation was very clear. The agent quality was great and we were able to meet new partners – we have already started working with two new agents and they are already sending students.” – Emily Lin, China & Taiwan
“It was really exciting, I loved it. We missed exchanging physical business cards which is important in our culture, so we decided to take photos of each other instead.” – Natsuki Kozuka, Japan
“It was really impressive. All the agent feedback from our agents was very good and the MarCom platform is really logical. It was easy to login and logout and keep track of the schedule.” – Tim Phan, Vietnam
“It was very straightforward and 25 minutes is perfect to cover all the bases. I’m already on the path of recruiting two agents from the event and it gave us a chance to re-establish existing connections.” – Kristina Dergacheva, Teens Program, CIS
“ICEF has come back to its origins and it slogan of Connect, Recruit, Grow. There is no better system than ICEF to connect and no better system to really engage with people. For me, this ICEF was the most productive one I had ever attended. People who never had time to talk to me before now really wanted to meet and hear about what ILAC is doing.” – Santiago Sanchez, Europe
We look forward to meeting all our agents at future virtual ICEF events around the world!
For more information about what’s new at ILAC, visit ilac.com
