In June, we welcomed Hornbill customers to our latest Hornbill Connect events in London and Manchester, bringing together 80 administrators from 39 organisations for two days of hands on learning, collaboration, and knowledge sharing.
Following the success of Connect in 2025, we evolved the event into a structured learning experience designed to help customers develop practical skills, exchange ideas, and take away improvements they can apply within their own Hornbill environments.
Learning with purpose
Hornbill Connect was built around a simple goal: helping customers get more value from their Hornbill investment through practical, real world learning. This event's theme was Automation Maturity.
Attendees took part in five connected sessions covering:
Rather than sitting through presentations, participants worked directly within a dedicated Hornbill environment, completing guided activities supported by detailed workbooks.
One piece of feedback we were particularly pleased to hear was that many attendees planned to take these workbooks back to their organisations to support the learning and development of their wider teams.
Learning from each other
One of the most valuable aspects of Hornbill Connect was the opportunity for customers to learn from one another.
Throughout the event, attendees shared experiences, discussed challenges, and exchanged ideas with peers facing similar opportunities within their organisations.
Our customer led Show and Tell sessions proved especially popular, giving attendees the chance to showcase their own successes, share lessons learned, and inspire others with practical examples of what can be achieved with Hornbill.
The feedback reinforced the importance of these peer learning opportunities, with networking and hearing real world experiences ranking among the most valued aspects of the event.
A strong response from attendees
The feedback from Hornbill Connect was overwhelmingly positive.
Across both events:
Perhaps most importantly, attendees left with ideas they wanted to put into practice immediately.
While the ratings tell one part of the story, the comments shared by attendees give an even better insight into the impact of Hornbill Connect.
Hornbill administrators attending the event said:
"It was a genuinely valuable day, not only from a learning perspective, but also for the opportunity to connect with other organisations and hear firsthand how they are using and managing their Hornbill instances. The discussions and shared experiences were incredibly insightful and have given me plenty of ideas to take forward.
The sessions themselves were engaging, interactive, and refreshingly “snooze-free”, something that isn’t always easy to achieve at events like this. The hands-on workshops were particularly valuable, and I’ve already started applying some of the reporting techniques I picked up."
"The event was really informative, I learned a load around reporting from and it was great speaking/connecting with other customers and bouncing ideas of each other. I also felt relieved that we are not the only customers struggling in certain areas and this did bring a slight sense of relief. Overall a great event."
"It was really well thought-out, relevant, and one of the better if not, the best, event I've been to. The sessions were all informative, useful and really valuable to mix with other Hornbill customers."
"It was great to learn so much about Hornbill. It was very helpful being able to speak with other organizations about their experiences and how they were able to resolve some of the same problems that we have had. Excellent session."
Looking ahead
The enthusiasm, engagement, and willingness to share experiences made Hornbill Connect 2026 a huge success.
Thank you to everyone who attended, contributed to discussions, shared their stories, and helped create such a collaborative learning environment. Events like these are successful because of the customers who take part, and we are incredibly grateful for your support.
We're already looking forward to building on this year's success and continuing to create opportunities for the Hornbill community to connect, learn, and grow together.