Hornbill Academy Connect 25: What We Learned, Shared, and Built Together

On June 11th, 2025, Hornbill Academy Connect brought together a diverse group of Hornbill Administrators, our Academy team, and subject matter experts — all under one roof in London.

What made the day so special? Real people. Real problems. Real solutions.

Learning that sticks

This wasn’t your typical industry event. Academy Connect was built around doing, not just listening. Every attendee had access to their own Hornbill training environment where they could experiment, explore, and build with guidance from our Academy team.

Sessions included:

• Workflow Essentials & Automation: Covering Custom Lookups, SLAs, Board Manager, Auto Tasks, Authorisations, Email Routing, and even debugging workflows.
• Hands-on with HAi (Hornbill AI): A practical session exploring HAi capabilities in real scenarios.
• Knowledge Manager: A hands-on session showing how to build a smarter knowledge base and make knowledge sharing part of everyday service.
• Customer-Led Roundtables: Where the Hornbill community shared their solutions, challenges, and real-world experience on topics like Self-Service Portal, Asset Management, Service Portfolio, Reporting, and more.

The structure was simple: less theory, more action. Everyone got stuck in straight away and left with actionable takeaways, new ideas, and tangible skills they could use right away. 

Beyond the practical aspects, everyone had an enriching experience forging valuable connections throughout the day. The engaging conversations and shared insights fostered an atmosphere of collaboration where everyone could learn together. 

 100% of attendees rated the event 5 out of 5 stars.

• 100% agreed the event was well-organized and easy to follow.
• 100% said the hands-on activities helped them become more familiar with Hornbill tools.
• 100% found the content relevant to their role.
• 100% felt encouraged to participate and share ideas.
• 100% said they would attend another Academy event.

Relive the energy of the day in our short highlights video:

Our participants brought the day to life with their energy, curiosity, and openness. Here’s what some of them had to say:

Ann-Marie Holloway, IPO Wales:

“The Hornbill team are amazing. They're super, super friendly and it's nice to get to see people that you talk to on a regular basis but you don't actually know what they look like — so that's great! And the training sessions are really useful. Like I say, because everybody's kind of sat in together, you're getting to speak to people from all kinds of organizations and getting their perspective as well.”

Ewa Kaczorowska, Vinci Construction:

“We’re often busy at work and don’t always have the time to experiment with new features or even think of new ways of doing things we’ve done for a long time. Here, you've got a very friendly and relaxed way of actually learning and just finding out what other options are there within the system. The same process can be configured in many different ways — and you can't think of everything! So this is a really brilliant way of learning in a safe training environment and also learning from others’ ideas.”

Mosharraf Khan, Financial Ombudsman Office:

“I've been using Hornbill for a couple of years now and I love the product. It's really good. What’s really helped is having these Academy Live sessions online. I'm quite an active user, and that’s enabled me to do the work I need to for my organization better. Today, in person, even better — it’s been really fantastic.”

Geoff Soper, Intellectual Property Office:

“It’s a great opportunity just to get away from work, sit down, enjoy some conversations with colleagues from your own team and from other institutions as well. It’s just good to get in there and get yourself sorted. I’d recommend it to anyone.”

Thank You!

To everyone who attended, facilitated, supported, or simply joined in a great conversation — thank you. The willingness to share knowledge, ask questions, and support each other is what makes this community special.

Let’s keep building, learning, and connecting. Until next time!