Launched over twenty years ago, the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship (SSES) collaborates with six member universities in Stockholm to coordinate courses and extra-curricular activities in entrepreneurship. This was an innovative topic for universities at the time and has only grown in importance since, inspiring students to connect, collaborate and think about how being an entrepreneur can solve challenges.
SSES organises 30-40 events a year as part of their offering, although what counts as an event can be quite different in form. It can be anything from PhD activities to a weekend workshop or a bootcamp.
“We use Lyyti very creatively. Once you understand that you can decide the meaning of what an event is, the magic of Lyyti really opens up. Let go of the traditional understanding of the word event. Collecting any kind of information can also be an event.”
Akseli Kaukoranta, Head of Student and Faculty Services, SSES
Starting using Lyyti
“I joined SSES about eight years ago and quickly introduced them to Lyyti,” says Akseli Kaukoranta, Head of Student and Faculty Services. “I had worked with it in my prior role in Helsinki and had quickly realised that it could be used to create new processes and save time. I thought it had the same potential here”.
“I trust Lyyti. I can recommend this product. I know how it works. I know it does what it promises, and a bit extra even. I didn’t consider anything else.”
Akseli Kaukoranta, Head of Student and Faculty Services, SSES
“Lyyti was very easy and logical to learn from the start. The team at SSES were very supportive, and Lyyti helped to show us how we could use it creatively,” he adds.
Reliable software and excellent support
Lyyti has always innovated, but, at the same time, it’s a mature platform upon which you can rely. “The core of the Lyyti system is so good you know you won’t be struggling with bugs all the time. You can trust it, and Lyyti takes good care of it,” says Akseli.
“The attitude of the staff at Lyyti is always first class. I know if I chat with them that they will help. They’re there to give me tips and hints on the best way forward and have been supportive on those occasions when I needed assistance. They always feel close, even though they are in Finland,” he adds.
“Of course, there are always ways software can improve, so for that reason
I would rate Lyyti as 9.5 out of 10.”
Akseli Kaukoranta, Head of Student and Faculty Services, SSES
Lyyti as the ‘always on’ colleague
We have an especially busy spring and summer coming up, and Lyyti helps us with all the extra-curricular activities. I’m happy that we were well prepared for this season by having Lyyti already available, as it would have been tricky to try and test a system and create everything at the same time. Even though it’s easy to use, you still need to prepare!” comments Akseli.
“Now, we were able simply to go to Lyyti and create all the new events, and it’s actually been a fun process. Mostly though, it’s a huge help to all of us since Lyyti, acting as a never tired colleague, is always taking care of stuff,” he adds.
“I consider Lyyti almost like an extra colleague. Only, it’s a colleague that never sleeps!”
Akseli Kaukoranta, Head of Student and Faculty Services, SSES
The flexibility of Lyyti for all kinds of events
You shouldn’t feel limited by the traditional view of what constitutes an event, and this is something that Akseli embraces. “I think it’s up to us as Lyyti users to decide what is an event. A seminar is an event. A Christmas mingle is an event”.
“Lyyti is a Swiss army knife tool that you can use in different ways.”
Akseli Kaukoranta, Head of Student and Faculty Services, SSES
He continues, “We also use it for data collection. We invite faculty to come up with ideas for weekend workshops using a questionnaire. This process of content creation is an event! Instead of writing ideas on different platforms, I summarise what we need to know and put it into Lyyti. Once the data is entered, I share it with my team, and we start creating text and graphics”.
“Another way we use Lyyti is to filter people as they move through the stages of a popular event with limited space. For example, we receive 70 applications for a 12 person event and have to select who is attending based on their answers. We can then filter the responses only to those 12 and ask for additional information without requiring them to complete everything again. Lyyti allows us to communicate only with those people we’ve filtered on, so we can ask them for extra details or supply documents to them for the workshop”.
A tool to help improve the performance of your events
Taking what has succeeded before and making it better is core to how Akseli works and how he uses Lyyti. He says, “I think the tool is really powerful for testing potential improvements because you can use the same process whatever the event, and just change a question or remove something. We don’t have to redo everything; you can take it straight from an old event. In that, Lyyti is very good”.
“For me, as someone who loves processes and likes to make edits here and there to improve them every time, it's a great platform,” he adds.
“Lyyti spent a lot of time thinking about how registration and event management should look. That structure supports our job. We can lean on it.”
Akseli Kaukoranta, Head of Student and Faculty Services, SSES
Shared reporting made easy
Akseli also appreciates the way Lyyti allows him to keep his colleagues informed. He says, “We have to coordinate a lot and support the faculty and students. Lyyti helps us give them access to the reporting data they need. You can select what info you share with whom and create reports to deliver that. Then they are up to date all the time.”
“Marketing may need to find how registrants found out about an opportunity, a faculty member may need to see which programmes they come from, and so on. Lyyti helps us to get the data needed to the right people.”
Hero photo by Mikael Kristenson on Unsplash
