Community Showcase: Nicola Vegiopoulos

Luis Malbas  
All right. Hello, everybody. Thanks for joining the training, learning and learning and development community. I forgotten where I was for a second. Um, yeah. Thanks for joining us today everyone. I've got I know I've got I saw Yun was in the audience, and I'm sure we'll see more people logging in as we get going. Today, we've got a member showcase for everybody and very excited to have our guests on today. Australian guests living in Germany, currently in her room with shoes behind her that are hidden behind screen. All right. It's really wonderful. I love that. And what what's for good reason, right? You've got some, some guests at your house.

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
It is yeah, so we have some some refugees from the Ukraine, who are now using my guest room and my office has been converted to their living space. So that's the reason I'm in my bedroom now is my office.

Luis Malbas  
No, that is so great. Um, you thank you so much for doing that really, just is such a wonderful thing to be to be helping other folks. And it's also 10 In the evening, 10pm where you are. So thanks for staying up late and being able to do this member showcase with us. Hopefully, we won't stump you too much with some of these questions, but I am very excited to be able to talk with you. It seems like you have a really interesting background marketing manager, your video producer. And all of that fits to me really, really well with l&d. And so currently, you're like a learning consultant with a biotech company?

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
Sure, yeah. So I'm actually as I mentioned, in the greenroom, I'm actually quite new to the field of instructional design or training and disrespect. My market. My background is more in marketing. Although saying that I was managing the marketing team for a training program in a scientific Institute. So I do have that experience. But I was really focused on digital marketing, content marketing, social media, everything really the whole spectrum of marketing.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit. And and like I was mentioning to you earlier, when I host live events, I see oftentimes from especially from from the Silicon Valley companies, they don't send like instructional designers to my conference, they tend to send like marketing folks, or at least by title. How did you fall into that, like, as a learning consultant going from marketing manager video producer to l&d What, explain that transition?

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
Yeah, sort of, I guess I fell into it. I also fell into marketing, to be honest, I actually I studied music and German. So I started in the music field, you know, doing press and publicity for, for theatres and for opera company. And that sort of got in that way into the marketing field and ended up at a scientific Institute 12 years ago. And then last year, I changed roles to my current company, starting out there in marketing, and we had a big internal restructure. And then the opportunity just came about, they needed someone with experience producing videos. And of course, in marketing, I was responsible for producing a lot of marketing videos, they saw that I'd been working in a in a training related field, albeit not as a trainer or learning consultant. And yeah, since February, so I'm quite as I said, I'm quite new to it. Since February, I've been in the global training team at Satorious stead of biotech,

Luis Malbas  
so is video production, still a big part of your, your role?

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
Video Production is actually what I was brought in to do. So. Basically, I work together with a videographer, there's two of us who make up the, the video side of things, and we're responsible for producing specifically training videos for our customers. So how to use different products. Yeah, user manuals turned to video, this kind of thing. So yeah, so the marketing side is a little bit pushed aside, but I'm also seeing a lot of crossover. So you know, experience with looking at analytics, and KPIs are all things that are also relevant in video production. So there's a lot of things that I can use from my background.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, I was gonna, I was gonna say just sort of your marketing knowledge has probably lent itself to actually becoming a learning professional, there's, there's probably a lot there that you can pull from.

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
There's definitely a lot also with regards to sort of looking at the target audience looking at the customer journey, this kind of thing. So these are these are all very, very similar processes. So I didn't have to stretch too far in that respect. Where I had to stretch of course, is that these are very scientific things. We make bioreactors, filters, bags, this kind of thing. I've worked with scientists for years, but I'm not a scientist. As I said, I studied music. So this is this is the in completely different, different spectrums. But we have all this subject matter experts to help us out there. And that's, you know, that's helpful.

Luis Malbas  
And even just that shift going from you're going from the arts to biotech, that in itself is kind of interesting. Yeah. Honestly, do you still I mean, do you still play in both worlds? Do you still do things? Like for the arts at all, are you like pretty much

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
until the pandemic, so until Corona started. And my previous as I said, my previous role was Fortran. So scientific Institute, and they had the kindergarten there. And I taught music there after work. So I sort of kept my hand in that way to do. But what teaching piano when I had my first child, I got a little bit too much to have lots of students and I just wasn't flexible enough anymore. So yeah, that so I was a little bit pushed to the side now, but my kids are now learning music, so I help them a bit and it's not completely gone.

Luis Malbas  
Oh, no, that's great. That's great. I mean, everybody knows that I'm, I'm a musician as well. And

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
I didn't know because I'm new to the community. Oh, yeah. I

Luis Malbas  
have like a gazillion guitars behind me and all that stuff. I'm always I'm always talking music. And I love it when, you know, I bring in guests that are musicians or, you know, we even had I think it was Patrick Coots, who was a songwriter and songwriter, instructor that they came on, and we got to talk about it. But I do find that in l&d in particular, there are a lot of people that come in from the arts, especially theater, it seems like, theater seems to be a pretty a solid background for anybody that wants to be an instructional designer. And because they'd like to, you know, present and, and be in front of people, and they're comfortable with that aspect of it. Yeah, it's very true. Yeah. So for you, what do you like most about being a learning consultant?

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
That's a really good question. Um, as I said, I started I started February. But I love it. I mean, I think one of the main things for me that makes a job enjoyable is a team. And I'm really lucky, I work from home office. So my company is about three or four hours by train from where I live. So I'm in southern Germany, and they're sort of in more of the middle. But I think even though, sort of I work virtually, there's never been an issue we get along really well. You know, as I said, I've worked with a videographer, we hadn't met until I think it was mid March for our first first shoot. And we work together so well, we quickly found a way where we sort of, you know, could work efficiently and effectively, we get along very well. And I think it really makes it just extremely enjoyable. I've been really lucky in that respect. My last team was was amazing. I've always had really good colleagues. And I think for me, that's just, it's a great, a great part of it. And for the worksite, I mean, what I'm doing, it's not, it's not just video production, it's not just learning consultant, there's a bit of marketing there, I get to look at the overall digital learning concept. I can try out different styles, try it lots of different things, I can still be creative. We look at also strategic plans. And I can talk to people like from all over the globe. So whether they're colleagues or customers, I collaborate with just some great people. This makes it really fulfilling basically,

Luis Malbas  
I think that is probably the fun part really is, especially on the on the learning side is the collaboration and being able to work with other folks on this stuff. And just different even from from the marketing side of things. When it gets shifted to learning. It's kind of almost has just a different feel to it. But I would love to know Nikola, like so you're working virtually. And but you're video producers. So what do you do? Or do you storyboard? Do you I mean, are you sort of like, do you build out the marketing campaign? Like do you write out? You know, what your learning objectives are? And all of that, or what exactly is your role? Oh,

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
yeah, so we split it with with Microsoft, the videographer, he is more focused on the technical side of things. So he's, he does all the camera work, he does all the editing, post production. Any graphics we need to do that's his side of things. And I then do sort of the pre filming stuff. So I do the storyboarding, the scripting, I do all the project management, consult with the with the subject matter experts. I even do the layout, voiceovers, this kind of thing, because they like to have a native speaker for that. And I'm also more responsible for looking at the overall concept and and basically, there's quite a new thing at Satorious which may be a bit surprising, because I know it's been around for a long time video video trainings, but um, we're also sort of trying to build something up and make it scalable and look at how to prioritize Do requests, which is not always easy, because everyone thinks that their, their request is the most important. So sort of look at the whole the whole scope of things.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah. What's your biggest challenge right now? Hmm. Is it too late? Is it too late in the evening to be asking this question?

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
My biggest challenge right now, um, I think my biggest challenge is probably knowing exactly who to talk to about things. So there's a lot of areas that I haven't had a lot of interaction. And it's quite it's very big company, a very global company. The other thing that we're trying to do is, which is not not fun, but has to be done is really audit what exists. So a lot of people, you know, everyone has iPhones, they produce stuff quickly for their customers. They're about 10 different sites that these places are hosted. And we're trying to really find out what exists, what can we maybe adapt and make it a little bit more professional and use it properly in an external way? Where's all this stuff hosted? How can we bring it all together? Where are the gaps, what still needs to be made? And this is? Yeah, as I said, audits are never fun. But necessary. And I think that at the moment is pretty challenging, really just finding out what is there and what we can, what we can use and what we still need to develop for our customers.

Luis Malbas  
Wow. So when you were a marketing manager, you probably were doing a lot of project management. Is that still the case? As you know, doing the learning side of things? Is the are you still really having to kind of exercise that muscle that project management muscle?

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
I am although I feel like the projects are a little smaller on a smaller scale. So they're not such huge marketing campaigns as they used to be. So each each video production is one project, of course. So I do have to do a lot of that still. But I actually enjoy it as long as I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to be a project manager purely. But I think I like having that aspect aspects still. Yeah, also, it's sort of nice to to know that you're in control, you're in control of what's happening, you know, when things need to be they need to chase up when necessary. And I think we use we use Asana for that, which I guess a lot of people use. For our purposes, it works really well. Yeah.

Luis Malbas  
So falling into the learning side of things. Was it? Was there a particular project that helped you fall into this? Or was it just, we need a learning person? You know, let's ask Nikola, or how did that work? How did that shift happen?

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
Let's be honest, I was in segment marketing beforehand at the same company. So I started the company in April last year was not planning to change roles in such a short period of time. But as I said, there was a big restructure. So everything was moved around. And it was quite unclear in how far our jobs would still exist as they were. And I was in a team of scientists, I was the only non scientist. So I brought me in for my marketing background. And basically, everyone in the team was just keep your options open, just talk to people. And so of course, I did. And then had a nice offer from the from the head of Global training, that I she made me an offer I couldn't refuse and yeah, and here I am. So

Luis Malbas  
okay. Yeah. That's great. And then you were saying earlier to I think it was it was probably the community day where we were talking about maybe writing for instructional design. Maybe

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
I did the Yeah, I think I listened to Christy Tucker, I think

Luis Malbas  
Christie recall. So I can't recall exactly. What else are you doing, like on the learning side to be able to kind of help you grow your knowledge within this space? Is there anything else that you're kind of, you know, looking into?

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
Yeah, I mean, I'm always looking at more training. I do a lot of LinkedIn learning. So courses on storyboarding on how to, you know, make videos more interactive. So I think sometimes the topics that we cover quite dry, which perhaps people at my company won't agree with me, but I think some it's really, it's a step by step, you know how to first you do this, and then you do this. And there's the kind of thing where if you don't make something out of it can sort of sit there and then realize you've missed miss two minutes, because you've, you know, those off a little bit, right. Yeah. And so I think I'm always trying to do stuff to find new ways to make training videos interesting. Yeah, so it's not always easy. Sometimes if it's just a plain a note software, how to it's not always easy to make that interesting, but at least if we break it down into micro learning, this is a nice way to make it more navigable and Yeah, digestible, I guess,

Luis Malbas  
right? Well, I'm not sure if you know, but sort of shameless plug but this week, on Thursday and Friday, we are having the elearning tool Summit, which is a couple days of, of just like exploring a bunch of tools. We've got 12 tools and 12 speakers. But Jane, David's from the UK, she is actually gonna be talking about Camtasia. She's absolutely fantastic with that tool. So interactivity, all of that. Jonathan rock is going to be doing some stuff on storyline at a variety of things. So the recordings will be available for members might be something that you might want to check out. If you can't attend live, but that is actually going to be I think, really, really helpful for somebody, somebody like you just to sort of see what the possibilities are out there for especially working with video because video is such an important thing. It's just all around us. Even seeing l&d professionals, you know, like Vanessa Rosati, she has like a an l&d Tiktok presence, which I just never thought that it, you know, tick tock like it would go there. But I guess, tick tock Yeah. Right. Right. And, and so it's interesting to just see people producing video in that way. I, I've always loved video production, I have one of my best friends as a video producer. And so it's fascinating. I just love, you know, talking about it. So it's interesting that you do that. So, what keeps you inspired? Is it anything in particular that you go to whenever you want to just, you know, just keep building things?

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
And that's interesting. Um, I mean, I would, I can't really pinpoint one thing. As I said, I like to talk to people and really get inspiration from from others learn from their experiences, I of course, look, I'm always online, looking LinkedIn, whatever. And finding out, yeah, new possibilities, new technologies. But I really find that just talking to others really inspires me to try new things, maybe things that I hadn't thought of before, or at least approach it from a different angle. So that's on a professional level, of course, on a on a private level, my kids give me inspiration, you know, to keep going try hard and, you know, work hard play hard. So, yeah.

Luis Malbas  
How about, um, do you ever integrate any of your own sort of internal creative pursuits into what you do? Like, do you ever? Or are you really particular about the music that gets added to your training videos,

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
we have some corporate branding. So I don't have much say in that. We did actually, with my previous team, at the end of the year, sort of as a farewell didn't do a really fun, a fun video, which I did, which we use bandlab. And everyone, I sort of read text to do A Christmas Carol, kind of way it was rocking around the Christmas tree. We rejected that. And everyone, you know, they had to, I had to convince them that they also recorded this individually. We put all together and guitar and backing music. And so we did in that sense, do something nice and creative and fun. But as I said, this is only for internal audiences, unfortunately,

Luis Malbas  
yeah, yeah. So

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
was it with others in the team, there are also some musicians who were thinking we could do something, something similar to that just to, you know, see what we can do and bit of fun to the colleagues.

Luis Malbas  
Absolutely. Yeah. And it just, it'll just keep you engaged in everything too. So that's a big benefit. So I'm just interested you were like, so you fell into marketing. You're saying, you fell into learn learning consultant? Oh, you know, you were a musician. You know, you studied German and music. But what other kinds of jobs did you work in the past? And the reason I ask is because sometimes, like, when we're talking about these journeys, there's like, sort of these elements that you know, that are relevant in your past that kind of get you to where you are now, but is there anything like that, or is it just completely unrelated?

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
Oh, I have done a lot of stuff. So, I guess, you know, professionally, I really did start off in the theater, as I said, and then moved into marketing that way. But before I finished university, I think college is you say, I worked in a butcher shop. I was a swimming teacher. I was Santas. elfa Christmas. I always taught music. I was taught piano. Yeah, I think there's a long list, you know, when you're between the age of 14 and 21 I had the summer jobs. Was everything. So? Um, well, yeah. If the butchery helped me, but you know, I think also just I was 14 and serving over the counter and trying to build up the confidence. I mean, I think it still helps in one way and talking to customers all the time. I mean, it's it's still relevant. I think.

Luis Malbas  
Now Well, I mean, you know, the two things, the two things that I heard there was that you were teaching, right teaching music. And then did you say you're a swim instructor? Teacher as well? Yeah. Teacher. Yeah. So there's that education piece in there. That, yeah, that you have some experience with. So that, you know, that makes sense. And I guess that's, that's pretty much why I asked the question, because I always want to know, like, you know, what led you to where you are right now. And, and so education seems like it's been kind of consistent in there. But it was on

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
the background, I guess. Yeah.

Luis Malbas  
But if you weren't an l&d Professional Learning Consultant in this point, at this point, what do you think that you would be? or ideally, what do you think would you want to be when you grow up?

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
I mean, I know what I always wanted to be I always wanted to work in the theater. I love musical theater. I'm real, like, Seto in that sense, I sit there try not to sing out loud in the theater. And when I lived in England for a couple years, when I lived in Birmingham, I volunteered as an usher at the at the big theater there. And I got to watch every musical I could choose when I wanted to work and I just, you know, you missed the first 10 minutes. So let the late comers in and they just sit there and watch. That for me would just be the time to sit back in the theater and yeah, yeah, I

Luis Malbas  
get it. I totally get it. No, I love it. I love it. Excellent. Okay, so last question here. If there's one thing that people should know about you, Nicola, what is it?

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
I don't know. I mean, I can I can tell you the one question I get asked the most is, is, do I dye my hair? The answer's no. I have red hair. But otherwise, I couldn't think of anything work related, to be honest, that people need to know about me. I'm quite an open person. Oh, maybe one thing actually was just just friends of mine is that I actually really, really hate team building events. So this is a little I, I'm always responsible for organizing fun things. So the team gets to know each other. And I like that kind of just natural way to get to know your team members do fun things like I don't know quizzes, this kind of thing, trivia events, where you just go out and get to know each other really well. But there's really like formal, you have to work together to solve this task. I didn't know I never find it natural. And this is one thing that I always struggle with in Yeah, most teams, I always go along with it. Yeah. It's a little pet hate. All right.

Luis Malbas  
No, that's that's good to know. That's good to know. That's really interesting, though. It is it is interesting that you would bring that up. Because, you know, I asked that question sometimes and people like get very serious, like, you know, really, they answer that they like okay, here's the one thing that everyone needs to know about me and it's like, kinda really serious. But I like that and you know, you're like, Oh, what is it I'm I'm pretty open. No, that totally worth

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
serious so often. So let's keep things light hearted. Get it done. But I think it's nice to have a light hearted working environment. So I think it's good if you know, your, your colleagues that you don't have to be best friends with them. But at least if you know him on a little bit of a personal level, I think you're more likely to sort of, you know, go to them if you need something. That's stupid questions. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, he's really important. That just is this first one that is just

Luis Malbas  
well, Nicola, I'm sure that you are absolutely wonderful to work with. You know, and it was amazing being able to talk to you for this member showcase. Thank you for taking the time out to do this. And I just want to let everybody know that you know, if you need to reach out to a learning consultant, a video producer, Nikolas it okay, if I am paste your LinkedIn profile in the chat area. Post that in chat. And with that, thanks again for doing that. Thanks for helping with those Ukrainian refugees. That's so lovely. I get to i That says a lot about you. And yeah, and if you ever need anything from the community from to LDC, make sure you just reach out just hit me up, you have my email. Be happy to help you with anything. Anything that you need.

Nicola Vegiopoulos  
I will thanks a lot for inviting me, Louis, and thanks for

Luis Malbas  
listening. Absolutely. All right, take care. We'll see everybody next time and again, thanks for supporting TLD see Nicola, and appreciate your time. Thanks. Let's see why. Okay, bye.

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