A recap of our L&D Summit at Living Tomorrow

A true Tobian bonding event

On Friday 14 October and Saturday 15 October, Tobania organised a Learning & Development (L&D) Summit for its business unit Tobania.Business at Living Tomorrow. The purpose of the event? To discover new insights, inspire and connect outside one’s comfort zone. And now our get-together is over, we can all agree: an inspiration hub such as Living Tomorrow (which doubles as our long-standing innovation partner) definitely fulfilled that purpose by 100%.

From self-picked break-out sessions …

Our two insightful days of learning and development included no fewer than three keynote speakers, twelve break-out sessions and a special (VR) visit to Living Tomorrow. The options for learning were therefore numerous, the eagerness to discover all the greater. By the way, did you know that the break-out sessions our Tobians could choose from were mostly provided by other Tobians themselves? This turned the Summit into the perfect occasion for cross-BU learning and discovering what fellow-colleagues are engaged in on a daily basis.

For example, our very own Data Director Geert Verstraeten unravelled the biggest myths surrounding Artificial Intelligence, discussing the various AI applications through concrete examples and uses cases. Meanwhile, our Business Analyst and Sustainability Expert Vladimir Lyutyy opted to deliver a session on sustainability, explaining exactly why it has become a crucial keystone within Tobania’s Digital Governance – SMART.Business solution.

Additionally, we benefited from in-house sessions on negotiation skills, strategic execution, strategic networking, sustainability and digital adoption, to name but a few.

… to plenary visionaries

The plenary agenda also featured quite a few headliners. Joachim De Vos (Managing Partner at Living Tomorrow) immersed us in his book “Why Innovation Fails” and provided insight into the technological evolution of the next decade, while Rudi Peeters (CEO Vandersanden Group) and Arnoud Raskin (Co-founder StreetwiZe) dug deeper into change and prioritised the importance of authenticity, self-development and self-awareness.

For example, Rudi mentioned the fact that in a changing context, you should see the opportunities and, above all, seize them. Take ownership of the things you want. And be yourself by doing so. Dare to stand out. Be authentic. Or to put it in Rudi’s words:

Similarly, internationally recognised social entrepreneur and Ashoka Fellow Arnoud, cited the importance of authenticity and boldness to innovate in his “Change-maker Leadership” session. In short, our Tobians gathered some thought-provoking insights that they will be happy to incorporate into further future projects.

In short – our five key findings

As you can notice, we could go on and on about all the fun facts and insights we gained at our L&D Summit, but if we must summarise really briefly, these five key findings keep dangling at the forefront:

1. Be a salmon with a purpose. Going against the current is often fun.
2. Identify your energy gainers and energy drainers. Amplify your gainers, get rid of your drainers.
3. With this renewed energy, choose your battles and focus on making a difference.
4. And become a change maker.
5. But above all: remember that YOU are in the driver’s seat when it comes to learning and development.

Watch the aftermovie.

Some Story Wall quotes

By the way, did you know that at our L&D Summit, we created a Story Wall on which our Tobians could stick their wildest ideas, compliments and feedback notes? So, to round off our article, we’d like to wrap up with some cool quotes from our Tobians that continue to resonate:

• “Great talk from Arnoud. This is a nice paradigm to use in everyday life.”
• “Thanks Rudi for the paradigm shifts you presented. “Why?” is an important question. Change the context, and people will change their behaviour.”
• “Great event to get to know your fellow-Tobians, what they do, their interest, and projects they worked on.”
• “Impressed by Rudi. Empowered by Peter (Business Director at Tobania) and Rob (SMART.Business Manager at Tobania). Proud of our team.”
• “When is the next one?!”