COCON24 was the hashtag for this year's edition of the Copetri Convention in Offenbach. And somehow this designation makes perfect sense, as it has little to do with a traditional HR fair. I prefer the term "Happening": Lectures, workshops, and deck chairs on green fields meet Offenbach's industrial romance – any questions?

HR Fair with Event Flair

Visitors from previous years know: When Copetri happens, the weather is usually nice. This year it was not as hot as last year, yet the huge outdoor area of Fredenhagen, a former factory hall transformed into an event location on the outskirts of Offenbach, was bustling with activity. Many visitors already knew each other from previous years, as COCON24 was the third edition of these two event days.

A slightly different event location: Fredenhagen in Offenbach-South

According to the organizer, about 5,000 people pilgrimage to Offenbach each year to find out what is currently moving the HR and education world. The high proportion of lectures and workshops, where even very prominent names provided insights into their world, offered visitors a great value in further education.

One saw and heard a lot of new things, experienced disturbing moments (e.g., from my perspective, a job interview + onboarding with an AI bot) and went home with new impressions. And yes, Copetri does not see itself as a classical sales event: With the topics of people, transformation, and innovation, it rather considers itself a kind of network or think tank where large and small companies learn from each other in regular exchange formats. The convention is merely the annual highlight where "providers" (not exhibitors) meet on-site.

Since great value is placed on sustainability throughout the Copetri cosmos, the stands are made of wood. There is no carpeting, and you can hardly find any paper, as much of it operates excellently digitally – very commendable, as it is well known how much waste such events usually produce. This impression is reinforced by the relaxation area with green lawns and sun loungers, as well as the food trucks, where a lot of vegan and healthy options are also offered.

Pitfalls in E-Learning

That a lot of rubbish is also produced in e-learning here and there (unfortunately) was the subject of a workshop by Canudo's managing director Hajo Noll: “E-Learning: Failures, Mishaps, and Snafus” was the title of his workshop that attracted many interested parties from the continuing education sector.

Of course, it was mainly about what can be done better in e-learning, but first, problems were revealed and the biggest fails were discussed. For example, one company once rejoiced about introducing a whole armada of e-learnings, only to then – of course after the prototypes were completed and months of work – discover that the WLAN connection at the premises was not sufficient to provide the present learners with the corresponding digital learning content. In other places, learning cubes for further education at the PC were set up in factory halls, which were then happily used by employees as smoking and break rooms. E-learnings without WLAN and smoking cabins - such a shame...

Knowledge Sands in (Digital) Folders

Later, many workshop participants complained that the carefully created e-learnings and all LMS were present, but simply not used. A widespread problem, which, as Hajo Noll reported from his work experience, makes significant marketing efforts for e-learning within the company necessary. One has to first show people what e-learnings can do and that they provide significant added value - also for their own progress. Activities must be desired, appreciated, seen, and rewarded by management – otherwise, the knowledge remains in the (digital) folders that motivated people have painstakingly created.

There were also reports of technical hurdles, for example, when dealing with SCORM containers across multiple LMS. Here, I can personally recommend DIESE SEITE, where our LMS connector solves this exact problem. :-) And of course, the creation and updating of learning content for e-learnings is a topic that ties up a lot of time for personnel developers and L&D officers, and sometimes consumes budgets whose ROI can be difficult to measure.

Hajo Noll
Canudo GmbH

Well Spun Holds Better

A real surprise guest at Copetri was Spiderman - at least in the form of a presentation and as a role model from which one can learn. Basti Koch, Product Director at Haufe Academy for their Future Skill Guide "sparks" explained why e-learning and learning in general is no longer a one-way street today, but why many "threads" are crucial to becoming a true skill-spiderman.

Sparks offers the opportunity to consume small smart lessons on all sorts of topics via smartphone in every free moment. Further qualification doesn’t happen in traditional schooling scenarios or in LMS, but simply on the side when one has time, playfully and almost without noticing! In this way, the average Peter Parker can equip himself with skills that one would not have otherwise expected of him.

Basti Koch
Haufe Akademie

LMS vs. LXP

On the Haufe Partner Stage right at the entrance of COCON24, there was clarification about the famous LXP term: Stefan Krüger, Head of Learning Platforms, explained the seemingly hard-to-see difference between LXP and LMS in the Haufe context. Here, the LMS serves as an administrator-centered learning distribution tool that primarily includes training that affects everyone and has a compulsory character. The LXP, on the other hand, is the more personal learning place that promotes the individual with connections to various curated learning content, also from external sources, in a more playful and media-oriented way.

Stefan Krüger
Haufe Akademie

AI in E-Learning

And then there is the all-pervasive topic of AI: Stephan Rothe, Business Owner Digital Learning Content at Haufe, somewhat dampened enthusiasm for the future technology by pointing out that real AI innovation comes from individuals and not from people making their work easier through it.

There is a need for application cases where AI can help and contribute to a real uplift. Otherwise, it is just a kind of end in itself that serves to say externally that one is "doing something with AI." According to Stephan Rothe, it is crucial to focus on what and to what end. At the same time, there needs to be an awareness that AI can only provide good services if the data basis on which it operates has sufficiently high quality. However, in many companies, this is still not the case, so a lot of preliminary work is needed before the introduction of AI.

Overall, however, one had the impression at COCON24 that AI is the all-dominating topic – all the better to hear a statement that adds some realism to the hype topic. Even on these points, the Copetri Convention 2024 profiles itself as an event that, while talking a lot about innovation, does not lose sight of the people involved. In the end, it is also about AI being used by people within ethical and moral standards and generating business cases that ultimately help everyone.

We hope you enjoyed our report from the Copetri Convention 2024 and wish you continued success with your e-learnings!