Modern Teaching Aids
How Australia’s largest supplier of teaching resources moved its internal Category Showcase online in six weeks, with 25 back-to-back sessions across a 20,000-product range, delivered on Jomablue Community.
“Given the time constraints we decided to keep production simple and focus our time on ensuring we delivered everything really well.”
Sarah Deere-Jones · General Manager – Marketing, MTA
Project Overview
Modern Teaching Aids holds Australia’s largest selection of teaching resources and education supplies, more than 20,000 products spanning digital technologies, STEM and STEAM resources, science equipment, stationery, books, art and craft supplies, sporting gear and toys.
MTA delivers face-to-face and online professional learning events across the country each year, building community and showing educators how its products work in a classroom setting. Keeping its own sales teams current matters just as much, and the internal Category Showcase had always been an in-person gathering, until MTA moved it to a virtual format for 2021.
The Challenge
MTA had committed to host product sessions for its sales teams in mid-January 2021. When the decision was made to move the Category Showcase online, the company was left with just six weeks to deliver its first virtual showcase.
With a range that large, the showcase is how the sales floor learns what it is selling. A thinner virtual version was not an option. The programme had to carry the same depth as the room it replaced, and it had to be built by a small internal team already under pressure.
- Move a full in-person showcase online in six weeks
- Keep production simple with a small internal team
- Let the team upload and edit content itself, mid-build
- Integrate Situ 360, a learning tool MTA already used
- 20,000-product range without thinning the programme
- Run 25 sessions back-to-back without a live gap
- Keep sales staff interacting, not just watching a screen
- Leave something reusable behind after event day
The Approach
Keep Production Simple
With six weeks on the clock, MTA and Jomablue agreed a deliberately simple production standard, then spent the remaining time on delivering it really well.
Build on a Platform the Team Can Run
Jomablue Community gave MTA a space its own people could configure, so late changes never waited in an external queue.
Design for Attention, Not Attendance
Live Chat and Q&A were built into the lobby and the session pages, so the showcase behaved like a room rather than a broadcast.
Build on a Platform the Team Can Run
Jomablue Community gave MTA a space its own people could configure, so late changes never waited in an external queue.
Plan for Life After Event Day
Every session was published on-demand as it finished, turning a two-day programme into an always-on product learning library.
What We Did
One virtual space carrying the lobby, the agenda and all 25 sessions, live on the day and on-demand from the moment each one ended.
01 Jomablue Community
A single virtual space holding the welcome page, the lobby, the agenda and every session page.
02 Live Streaming
Employees tuned in live on event day across 25 back-to-back product sessions.
03 Video On-Demand
Every session published straight to on-demand, watchable at any time from any location.
04 Pre-recorded Welcome Guide
A detailed video on the welcome page showed the team how to use the space before the programme started.
05 Live Chat
Embedded in the event lobby to encourage group discussion and feedback between sessions.
06 Session Q&A
Added to session pages so presenters and attendees could talk during the programme, not after it.
07 Self-Managed Content
MTA uploaded and edited its own pages, including an FAQ kept current as new questions came in.
08 Situ 360 Integration
MTA's own online learning tool embedded in the platform, then reused by sales teams with customers.
Online Content Becomes a Valuable HR Resource
MTA has taken advantage of having rich product content available online to strengthen the training and onboarding of its internal sales teams. New starters and long-term employees absorb the same product information in the same format, and control where and when they watch it.
- 25 recorded sessions, live from the day the showcase ended
- Self-paced onboarding instead of a five-day product workshop
- Situ 360 reused by sales teams with customers after the event
Jomablue Feature Highlights
Community
One virtual space holding the lobby, the agenda and every session page, with live chat and Q&A running alongside the programme.
Video
Two days of back-to-back sessions delivered live, then published for self-paced viewing the moment each one finished.
Reporting & Insights
Engagement data showing how the sales floor used the showcase, and where it exceeded the team's own expectations.
API & Integrations
Situ 360 embedded in the space, so the learning tool MTA already used came along.