We sat down with Manuela Gordea and HF Holidays to talk about how Convene’s user-friendly intuitive system has helped them in their Board meetings.
Could you describe your board management structure and how you use Convene within this structure?
We have a board of 12 directors, and we have a senior executive team of six and they all have access to Convene. I am the admin for Convene and I upload all the documents before all the meetings.
We have board meetings and we also have 6 committees that we use. We use Convene for everybody who meets five times a year.
How do you use Convene in the day-to-day of your job?
I don’t use it all the time because the meetings only happen 5 times a year. But I keep the document library updated on Convene. So if I made changes to whatever document and I needed to upload it to the document library, then I would use it.
But obviously when I’m in the middle of those meetings then I would definitely use it on a daily basis.
What system were you using before Convene and how does it compare to our software?
So I only joined a year and a half ago, and in my previous role we used Google Drive for the same purpose. I think it changed about 3 years ago at my current company.
Most of these apps you get used to using them and you just do what is needed to keep the work going. I don’t think you were able to make annotations in Google Drive, so that really helps.
Because obviously people want to ask questions, we have a rule where we ask the board to ask the questions 48 hours before the meeting. And then the senior executive team would answer those questions in 24 hours. That’s a really good process that Convene helps with.
How has Convene been received by your board and senior managers?
They’ve gone along well with it and they use it. Our board has three new members every year. So I get new people all the time. So I have to provide an induction for them and all of that.
But they get along fine with it, they learn quite quickly how to use it. It’s easy and it’s good that there’s an app because we provide them with iPads which helps.
So do you receive training from Convene when you have these new members or are you in charge?
I usually do the training on how to use it but I always offered the training provided by Convene as well if they need it, but I don’t think any of them needed it.
And when I started I had questions because sometimes you don’t know how to do things. But when I did call Convene your colleagues were really nice, very helpful.
How is Convene performing for you as far as security is concerned?
Obviously confidentiality is paramount in any organisation. I don’t think we ever had any issues with security because there’s a password to get into Convene.
So even if my directors would lose their iPad or damage it or whatever, no one would be able to access the documents. That means that there’s this extra security.
Would you recommend Convene to others?
Oh yeah, definitely. I would say that there are many apps that you can use for governance purposes. But I think sometimes if an app offers too much, it gets so complicated that especially with non-executive board members that are usually retired people, they may not be so much up to date on technology.
So when it’s user friendly, people do appreciate it.