Who are the Humanitarian Leadership Academy?

“We exist purely to educate and enable the next generation of humanitarians no matter where they are and no matter what they do currently.” Head of Business Partnerships, Liam Yardy tells us. “It's a pretty unique mission. We run events pretty much every week in different countries around the world to educate people.”

The Humanitarian Leadership Academy runs events ranging from training and seminars to full-scale conferences and exhibitions, the first of which was held in February 2024 – Humanitarian Xchange London. Held as a hybrid event, the aim was to showcase best practices in crisis solutions across non-profit, business, and academic sectors.

With speakers from across important and influential organisations such as University College Oxford, Bloomberg Television, EY, Ministry of Finance Federal Republic Somalia and the World Health Organisation, the Humanitarian Leadership Academy knew they needed a enlist the support of a partner with a solid events resume. This is where they turned to agency, Brandfuel.

Working with the experts - Brandfuel

“Our collaboration with Brandfuel was a dream solution, because Brandfuel come with such a pedigree of working with so many global companies. Their collaboration as a high-end agency has been crucial in helping us build out how we deliver the event online and in person”, Liam explains.

Brandfuel are a creative experience agency based in London. They have a huge amount of experience across conferences, events and exhibitions including onsite design and have worked with clients such as Android, Zoom and the Ukraine Embassy to the UK.

“We've always maintained a space in the business to have some clients who are doing things for good purpose and that's why we're here. We're really happily partnered up today in supporting the Humanitarian Leadership Academy with their event, Humanitarian Xchange London.” David Ball, Chairman & Founder, Brandfuel

A collage of images showing event attendees checking in, printing badges, and attending sessions.

Technology partners

Brandfuel recommend Cvent to many of their other clients and utilised OnArrival in particular for the Humanitarian Xchange London. “OnArrival's been great because it is really quick, and it gives us almost instant check in data.” David highlights the need for instant reporting, keeping their client updated with key check-in information for both in-person and online attendees.

“The humanitarian exchange lives and dies by its global nature, so we need the event to be as accessible globally as possible. And having this particular product, having the attendee hub, has meant that we've been able to provide a very global platform which is super accessible for everybody online as well as all those in person.” David Ball, Chairman & Founder, Brandfuel

Onboarding Cvent

“We really have used every nook and cranny of what the system is capable of”, David explains. Every event is uniquely complicated, which is why customer support is key. The Cvent Customer Success team loves it when clients push the tech to the limit and utilise as much as possible.

A woman is using her mobile phone to check an event guide while sitting in front of a laptop.

From a customer experience point of view, I think the mobile platform has been fantastic, the system itself and the registration team have found it seamless, and we've used pretty much all of the tools, we've used chat, we've used polling, we've used surveys, Q&A. All the bells and whistles and dongles – we've used them.

The Humanitarian Leadership Academy will continue its mission to nurture a progressive and developmental platform to enable real change. The capability to have a broad reach across the globe from one single event accelerates the mission of a new humanitarian era, and Cvent is excited to be a part of this journey.

Products Used

Onsite Solutions

Streamline the experience