Council of Canadian Innovators
How CCI Scaled Governance Education for 300+ Learners with Disco
Disco’s Customer Stories highlights the impact our customers are making through AI-Powered Learning.
“We couldn’t run five programs and four summits on a two-person team without Disco. The platform made our board governance education program scalable, engaging, and self-sustaining.” — Gabriella Boulos, Director of Programming and Events, Council of Canadian Innovators
Impact at a Glance
The Challenge
Scaling a High-Touch Program on a Small Team
The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) serves over 165 high-growth tech companies across Canada. To support stronger governance in the sector, CCI launched its Innovation Governance Program (IGP): a three-level, cohort-based training initiative for board directors.
Interest soared—IGP reached 1,000 alumni in just three years. But the program was straining under a patchwork of systems:
- Communications, event registration, and content were all handled on separate platforms
- Onboarding was manual, segmented resource access was nearly impossible
- Alumni engagement required separate channels, manual updates, and external messaging tools
“It worked, but it wasn’t sustainable. Learners had no single hub to engage, and our team had to manage everything manually.”
The Disco Solution
One Platform for Cohorts, Community, and Scale
Disco provided CCI with a unified platform that brought together every element of the learner experience—from onboarding and communications to events, resources, and alumni engagement.
With Disco, the IGP team was able to:
- Replace 3+ platforms with a single community-powered learning hub
- Launch cohorts across three learning levels, each with automated access to relevant content and discussions
- Segment resource access by program level using automated group logic
- Centralize onboarding and profile setup, reducing questions and support requests
- Drive real-time engagement with announcement feeds, email triggers, and in-platform events
- Re-engage alumni by offering always-accessible resource libraries and future event invites
“Learners from past cohorts reached out saying, ‘This is way better than before.’ Everything is in one place, and the experience feels truly modern.”
Operational Impact
The Strategic Shift: From Bootstrapped to Scalable
By centralizing operations in Disco, the IGP team unlocked the ability to scale offerings without expanding the team. They now run:
- Three cohorts per year across all levels (up to 300 new learners annually)
- Five different educational programs
- Four high-impact summits
Each program shell is templated and easily duplicated with minor updates based on learner feedback. What once required manual duplication is now a streamlined, repeatable workflow.
“Every piece of our learner journey is now faster and more polished. And the platform’s flexibility lets us adapt as we grow.”
AI-Powered Time Savings and Engagement
Disco’s integrated AI tools have been key to CCI’s operational gains:
- AI Feed Writer: Weekly comms that once took 15 minutes now take 2–3
- Automated Email Notifications: Learners are informed instantly of updates and changes
- Onboarding Flows: Automatic access, welcome emails, and profile setup
- Future-ready AI Tools: CCI is piloting Disco’s AI curriculum generator and Q&A engagement bot to further increase efficiency
“We love how fast we can communicate with learners now. It’s helped with everything from last-minute Zoom updates to streamlining onboarding.”
Looking Ahead: Expanding Programs Without Expanding Complexity
With Disco, the IGP team is positioned to scale its offerings in 2025 and beyond—including future expansions of its AI and cybersecurity training programs. And with templates, automations, and community engagement all in one place, they’re able to maintain a high-touch learner experience with a lean, focused team.
“Disco lets us run a national governance training initiative as if we had a much bigger team. And learners can feel the difference.”
