A couple of weeks before the User Conference 2018, we look back at the User Conference 2017 in Geneva

The ActivityInfo User Conference 2017 in Geneva
The ActivityInfo User Conference 2017 in Geneva

As the days for the ActivityInfo User Conference 2018 approach, we look back at the ActivityInfo User Conference 2017 in Geneva. If you want to refresh your memories or get an idea of what to expect this year, sit back and and take a look at the key moments of our last User Conference.

If you want to join us on September 26th-27th in Amman make sure you buy your ticket now because sales end on September 12th!

View training schedule

A productive day for ActivityInfo and its users in Geneva

On June 15th, 2017 the ActivityInfo team headed to Geneva, Switzerland for the first User Conference of ActivityInfo. Driven by our desire to come closer to our users and to listen to their needs, we decided to run a full day event dedicated to our users. Humanitarian professionals from all over the world joined us in Geneva and offered their insights about the challenging work they do and the way they use ActivityInfo to facilitate their work. We got the opportunity to learn what works best for our users and what they need to benefit more from our software. You can find out more about the ActivityInfo Conference 2017 in Geneva by watching the videos from the User Conference in 2017.

Humanitarian Professionals coming together

Being the home of the European headquarters of the United Nations and hosting more that 250 NGOs, Geneva was one of the most ideal cities to host the ActivityInfo User Conference. The arrival of the attendees started early in the morning in Impact Hub, Geneva, a working space for individuals committed to creating a better world. By 10.00 am, fourteen organisations from Europe, Africa and the Middle-East had joined the Conference. Humanitarian professionals from both UN agencies and smaller NGOs introduced themselves and connected with each other.

ActivityInfo Sessions to empower users with technical knowledge

A lot of interesting talks and presentations gave the opportunity for attendees to get a better understanding of ActivityInfo as a monitoring and evaluation tool and to express their concerns and questions. A variety of topics highlighting the way ActivityInfo can alleviate an organisation from complex processes regarding Information Management and Reporting were covered throughout the day by the ActivityInfo team.

ActivityInfo History and Introduction to the team

Claire Barnhoorn, the former Lead Consultant of ActivityInfo, gave a short presentation of the history of ActivityInfo going back to 2009 when the challenge of keeping spreadsheets and lists updated was considered a nightmare even by large organisations such as UNICEF in DRC.

A peek behind the curtains of ActivityInfo was made possible thanks to a presentation made by Maarten-Jan Kallen, the Managing Director of ActivityInfo. Maarten-Jan presented the team that makes ActivityInfo a reality as well as the rest of the activities of BeDataDriven, the company behind ActivityInfo. He revealed that the key components that define ActivityInfo are a highly skilled and dedicated team, a highly reliable and extremely secure infrastructure and the continuous collaboration with users for constant improvement of the system.

Technical Aspects of ActivityInfo and Basic Training

During a more specialised session, Maarten-Jan presented the ActivityInfo API explaining in which ways an organisation can benefit from it, and provided some basic training on the concept of the API. In less than 20 minutes, the attendees got acquainted with the advantages of using the ActivityInfo API in their organisation, such as creating interactive web apps and custom reports and exchanging data between ActivityInfo and other systems. They also found out how to save a considerable amount of time by importing legacy data into ActivityInfo.

Alex Bertram, the Technical Director of ActivityInfo offered a presentation on the new Form Designer and explained what drove the team to create it. Alex listed all the Field types available to users and he analysed how users can build relationships between Forms using references. He went on presenting the Sub-Forms and the way they can be used to create hierarchies between Forms.

ActivityInfo Users explain how their organisation uses ActivityInfo

Apart from the presentations from the ActivityInfo team that had the goal to inform, educate and prepare current and potential users for an optimal use of ActivityInfo, there were sessions dedicated to some of our most active users. Rodolphe Ghoussoub from UNICEF in Lebanon and Sasha Abdi from UNRWA gave their insights on the way ActivityInfo can be used.

UNICEF in Lebanon together with UNHCR generate meaningful content using ActivityInfo

UNICEF together with UNHCR operate one of the largest roll-outs of the ActivityInfo platform in the world. Rodolphe Ghoussoub from UNICEF in Lebanon gave a 20 minute presentation on how the organisation and its partners use ActivityInfo since 2014 to monitor reporting and to create meaningful analyses from the gathered data.

Mr. Ghoussoub analysed the stages through which the organisation goes every year regarding information management and explained the needs for each stage. He also listed the various outputs produced by UNICEF LCO using ActivityInfo. The organisation creates 50 donor maps and 50 donor reports per year, 10 sections maps, a convergent map and a SitRep on a monthly basis and an integration map on a quarterly basis. You can watch the whole presentation here.

UNRWA uses ActivityInfo for case management and reporting on indicators

UNRWA is a service delivery agency with offices in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank including Jerusalem and Gaza. UNRWA provides essential services for human development and protection to five million registered Palestinian refugees in education, health, relief and social services. Sasha Abdi from UNRWA gave a short presentation on the agency and the way they use ActivityInfo for case management and reporting on indicators since the end of 2015.

Mrs Abdi explained the internal and external dimensions of the agency's framework and presented their basic tasks and how these led them to their decision to use a system for more effective case management of protection cases. These tasks include mainstreaming protection in service delivery, case tracking and referral, protection programming and monitoring, reporting and advocacy and data need to be managed in a safe, ethical and confidential way ensuring increased accountability. You can watch the whole presentation here.

The following day and the ActivityInfo User Conference 2018

The ActivityInfo User Conference in Geneva was very informational and valuable for us. The discussions, the questions and the presentations of our users offered great insights on the way humanitarians work worldwide.

For this reason, we are very excited to host a two-day event this year in the heart of Amman in Jordan. We plan to give the chance to more organizations to present the way they use ActivityInfo and we want to make sure that every voice will be heard. Also, we are carefully designing detailed trainings to make sure that whoever attends the "Trainings Day" will leave from the User Conference fully-equipped with all the knowledge needed to work with ActivityInfo very efficiently.

If you want to join us on September 26th-27th in Amman make sure you buy your ticket now because sales end on September 12th! To learn more about the User Conference and buy your ticket visit: http://bit.ly/aiconf18-tickets