Catarina Pereira
Inspired by the “customer experience” philosophy, LOBA’s mission is to provide excellent customer experience to our customers' customers, with positivity, innovation and confidence. We take this mindset also in the communication of our R&I projects, such as SMAGRINET, where LOBA was the dissemination and communication leader for three years.
SMAGRINET was a European Union funded project that set out to tackle the energy transition by educating the next generation of engineers and power the smart grid expertise in Europe. To achieve this goal, Technical University of Tallinn, University of Lorraine, Technical University of Berlin, Technical University of Dresden, University of Ljubljana, Kaunas Universitity, Elektriliit, Civitta and LOBA worked together in a consortium to build “POWER ON” competence hub and the “POWERFUL SERVICES” capacity building programmes.
Through “POWER ON”, we built and engaged a community of experts and organisations from the energy field by organizing webinars, conferences, communication campaigns, etc. In another hand, the consortium built the materials for SMAGRINET’s “POWERFUL SERVICES”. These services include master level modules that were piloted at universities, the online courses “SMART Grid from A to Z” that certified participants who successfully completed them, an International Mobility Programme that included roadshows across Europe and internships, and a Train-the-Trainers programme to help universities to implement SMAGRINET modules and programmes.
As the dissemination and communication leader of the SMAGRINET project, LOBA was in charge of developing the project branding, promoting the project itself and its activities, and creating the audiovisual and other communication materials, among others. In addition, LOBA launched and kept alive the project communication channels (website, social media channels – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube), developed the communication kit, kept relationships with the media sector to promote the project through press releases, set up and distributed dedicated newsletters, organised the participation at events to promote the project, etc.
LOBA went beyond all the key performance indicators established for the project communication materials, having reached more than 2.000 subscribers, about 20.000 visitors to the website, 40 blog articles, more than 1.000 followers on social media, around 15.000 views of our videos, producing more than 60 videos… All in just three years.
In addition, LOBA cooperated with all the partners supporting them to deliver their activities and reach their audiences. For example, LOBA assisted University of Lorraine with the multimedia materials for the online courses, having done the design, voice-over and animation of more than 40 videos. Also, LOBA created the naming, visual identity and communication of the “ENERGY GAME CHANGERS” conferences that reached more than 500 participants.
We faced many obstacles, specially throughout the pandemic, which led to the project being extended for 6 more months in order to conclude SMAGRINET goals. However, through the amazing collaboration among all consortium members and a sharp coordination from TalTech, we were quick and resourceful, changing many activities to virtual or digital, making LOBA an important asset in the project.
On behalf of LOBA, and having been the project manager of this project for the last 36 months, I’d like to express my immense gratitude to all consortium members for what we accomplished together and for what we aim to achieve in the upcoming years, which involves continuing our SMAGRINET “POWERFUL SERVICES” … Stay tuned in 😉