INNOVATORS VS COVID 19

How Corona Formed the Basis for Insightz.io, a New Future Proof Conference Format

Published

3 years ago

04/12/2021

Kossi Adzo

Peter Buelens, founder and CEO of Insightz.io tells us about virtual/digital conferences.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times?

Peter Buelens: Everyone is doing fine. We discovered that one could live his life in a much more conscious way than we usually did before, with less stress, more physical activities, better-eating habits, and a better work-life balance..…

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Insightz.io.

Peter Buelens: After a career that started as an adviser for a Belgian Minister, I became a public sector strategist for a European computer manufacturer and then CEO of a company that developed digital maps. After that, twenty years ago, I started as a freelance consultant in strategy, strategy execution, and later on, also in operational excellence. I still have some projects running in these domains. Because I already organized smaller seminars for my customers, I decided 6 years ago to split off this activity in Brewery of Ideas. From that moment on, we started organizing larger conferences. All of our conferences are supporting and motivating companies and other organizations in their digital transformation and innovation journey.

How does Insightz.io innovate?

Peter Buelens: Already in March 2019, we understood the consequences for our business, and we decided to launch Insightz.io, a conference platform, where our audience can watch the speakers we had in our virtual/digital conferences. You’re not in the ability to follow a conference life? No worries. All content stays available on Insightz.io, where you can watch the presentations whenever you want, for free. If you have questions for the speaker or for his company, you can easily get in touch with them through our platform.

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Peter Buelens: Physical conferences are not possible. This means the effect is huge. We compensate this with our Insightz.io-approach, but it will still take some time before we will reach the revenues we did before corona. Our last conference had +300 life attendees, and some presentations on Insightz.io got already more than 100 views. We steadily move in the right direction.

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Peter Buelens: The question is always: Will our strategy work? We see it does, but we have to adapt and improve on a weekly basis. Nothing is a given. Partners can organize webinars themselves, for free, and thus have become more aware of their expenses, for instance.

What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to navigate this crisis?

Peter Buelens: I have a young and dynamic team. This is probably our strongest tool, together with a strong focus on our objectives and all this seasoned with sufficient discipline.