How Saïd Business School elevates learning for future leaders
As a young, disruptive business school embedded in a 900-year-old institution, Saïd Business School combines academic excellence and legacy with a bold, modern approach to education.
Unsere Lehrenden sagten uns, das zentral angebotene Tool erfülle ihre Bedürfnisse nicht – sie wollten mehr Flexibilität, Interaktion und schnellere Rückmeldungen.
Unsere Lehrenden sagten uns, das zentral angebotene Tool erfülle ihre Bedürfnisse nicht – sie wollten mehr Flexibilität, Interaktion und schnellere Rückmeldungen.
Sara Wright, Associate Fellow, also relies on Mentimeter as one of the engagement tools to help her design and deliver executive education programs. She uses Mentimeter to:
Kickstart discussions with word clouds
Rank organizational challenges to tailor learning to participants’ needs
Gather live feedback in a way that’s more visually engaging than traditional Zoom polls
The feature she values the most? Anonymity.
“When you ask a question out loud, the loudest voices dominate. With Mentimeter, everyone gets a say - without fear of judgment. This is particularly valuable in executive education, where senior leaders might hesitate to admit their doubts or challenges.”
- Sara Wright, Associate Fellow
Saïd Business School hosts some of the world’s most influential and inspiring community events. With speakers ranging from top business leaders to government officials, the school’s Distinguished Speaker Series and Impact Festival attract large hybrid audiences.
For Tom Madden, Audio Visual Delivery Lead for these events, one challenge was ensuring equal opportunity for in-person and online attendees to participate. The solution? Using Mentimeter for live Q&A. During the event, they display the Mentimeter QR code on-screen, allowing everyone to join and submit their questions.
“Mentimeter’s Q&A functionality helps us create a sense of parity for in-person and online attendees of our hybrid events. If you're a bit shy or remote, you can still ask a question without raising your hand in front of hundreds of people.”
Sara Wright, Associate Fellow, also relies on Mentimeter as one of the engagement tools to help her design and deliver executive education programs. She uses Mentimeter to:
Kickstart discussions with word clouds
Rank organizational challenges to tailor learning to participants’ needs
Gather live feedback in a way that’s more visually engaging than traditional Zoom polls
The feature she values the most? Anonymity.
“When you ask a question out loud, the loudest voices dominate. With Mentimeter, everyone gets a say - without fear of judgment. This is particularly valuable in executive education, where senior leaders might hesitate to admit their doubts or challenges.”
- Sara Wright, Associate Fellow
Saïd Business School hosts some of the world’s most influential and inspiring community events. With speakers ranging from top business leaders to government officials, the school’s Distinguished Speaker Series and Impact Festival attract large hybrid audiences.
For Tom Madden, Audio Visual Delivery Lead for these events, one challenge was ensuring equal opportunity for in-person and online attendees to participate. The solution? Using Mentimeter for live Q&A. During the event, they display the Mentimeter QR code on-screen, allowing everyone to join and submit their questions.
“Mentimeter’s Q&A functionality helps us create a sense of parity for in-person and online attendees of our hybrid events. If you're a bit shy or remote, you can still ask a question without raising your hand in front of hundreds of people.”
At Saïd Business School, part of the University of Oxford, innovation isn’t just a buzzword - it’s the foundation of how they teach, engage, and prepare future business leaders.
Whether it’s an executive leadership program, a hybrid global event, or an interactive MBA class, technology plays a key role in making learning accessible and impactful. From senior faculty to event coordinators, Saïd Business School has integrated Mentimeter into its work to amplify quiet voices, enable open discussion, and support hybrid learning.
Here’s how they’ve done it.
When Jyotveer Gill, Associate Director of Education Technology, and Leo Prince, Senior Digital Learning Technologist, first introduced Mentimeter at Saïd Business School, it wasn’t through a top-down decision - it was demand from faculty that drove the decision.
“Our faculty told us the centrally offered tool wasn’t meeting their needs, and they wanted more flexibility, engagement, and faster responses,” says Leo. With some already using Mentimeter, it quickly became a top contender for a school-wide solution.
“We drew up a matrix to evaluate the functionalities we need in an engagement tool. Mentimeter did all of it and more - it was easy to get started with, offered flexible licensing, and scaled naturally across faculty. It helped bring more structure and dialogue into teaching, so it became the provider of choice.”
- Jyotveer Gill, Associate Director of Education Technology
At Saïd Business School, part of the University of Oxford, innovation isn’t just a buzzword - it’s the foundation of how they teach, engage, and prepare future business leaders.
Whether it’s an executive leadership program, a hybrid global event, or an interactive MBA class, technology plays a key role in making learning accessible and impactful. From senior faculty to event coordinators, Saïd Business School has integrated Mentimeter into its work to amplify quiet voices, enable open discussion, and support hybrid learning.
Here’s how they’ve done it.
When Jyotveer Gill, Associate Director of Education Technology, and Leo Prince, Senior Digital Learning Technologist, first introduced Mentimeter at Saïd Business School, it wasn’t through a top-down decision - it was demand from faculty that drove the decision.
“Our faculty told us the centrally offered tool wasn’t meeting their needs, and they wanted more flexibility, engagement, and faster responses,” says Leo. With some already using Mentimeter, it quickly became a top contender for a school-wide solution.
“We drew up a matrix to evaluate the functionalities we need in an engagement tool. Mentimeter did all of it and more - it was easy to get started with, offered flexible licensing, and scaled naturally across faculty. It helped bring more structure and dialogue into teaching, so it became the provider of choice.”
- Jyotveer Gill, Associate Director of Education Technology
Scaling Mentimeter wasn’t just about getting it approved - it was about demonstrating real value to educators. Leo’s team ran internal workshops, offered hands-on training, and encouraged faculty to join webinars hosted by Mentimeter’s customer success team. The result? Adoption jumped from 50 to over 500 users in just 12 months.
“Mentimeter is so easy to pick up and use that it’s taken off across the school. People hear about it, try it, and run with it. Features like “Start with AI” make it even easier to overcome obstacles and start creating right away.”
- Leo Prince, Senior Digital Learning Technologist
Michael Smets, Professor of Management, teaches senior leaders like CEOs, entrepreneurs, and law firm partners - an audience where traditional lectures don’t always work. Instead, he flips the classroom, using Mentimeter to let participants reflect on their own experiences first, making learning more relevant and engaging.
For example, in his leadership sessions, he starts by asking the participants to rank their strengths using Mentimeter’s scales question, displayed as a spider diagram. When the results come up on screen, the conversation shifts from theory to self-reflection.
Visualizing cohort power profiles: comparing collective use of political capitals and the diversity of individual positions within the group.
“Rather than me telling them what’s important, they see their own data and discover gaps or strengths,” Michael adds. “That’s where learning really starts.”
Beyond self-awareness, Mentimeter creates a psychologically safe environment for tough discussions. In one session, Michael used a word cloud to ask participants how they felt before making high-stakes decisions. As words like “nervous,” “doubt,” and “fear” grew large on the screen, it became clear that these emotions were common. Seeing how everyone felt assured the participants that they weren’t alone and sparked deeper, more open discussions about the challenges of leadership.
Word cloud of emotions people feel before making high-stakes, uncertain decisions, highlighting shared vulnerability and common experiences.
Scaling Mentimeter wasn’t just about getting it approved - it was about demonstrating real value to educators. Leo’s team ran internal workshops, offered hands-on training, and encouraged faculty to join webinars hosted by Mentimeter’s customer success team. The result? Adoption jumped from 50 to over 500 users in just 12 months.
“Mentimeter is so easy to pick up and use that it’s taken off across the school. People hear about it, try it, and run with it. Features like “Start with AI” make it even easier to overcome obstacles and start creating right away.”
- Leo Prince, Senior Digital Learning Technologist
Michael Smets, Professor of Management, teaches senior leaders like CEOs, entrepreneurs, and law firm partners - an audience where traditional lectures don’t always work. Instead, he flips the classroom, using Mentimeter to let participants reflect on their own experiences first, making learning more relevant and engaging.
For example, in his leadership sessions, he starts by asking the participants to rank their strengths using Mentimeter’s scales question, displayed as a spider diagram. When the results come up on screen, the conversation shifts from theory to self-reflection.
Visualizing cohort power profiles: comparing collective use of political capitals and the diversity of individual positions within the group.
“Rather than me telling them what’s important, they see their own data and discover gaps or strengths,” Michael adds. “That’s where learning really starts.”
Beyond self-awareness, Mentimeter creates a psychologically safe environment for tough discussions. In one session, Michael used a word cloud to ask participants how they felt before making high-stakes decisions. As words like “nervous,” “doubt,” and “fear” grew large on the screen, it became clear that these emotions were common. Seeing how everyone felt assured the participants that they weren’t alone and sparked deeper, more open discussions about the challenges of leadership.
Word cloud of emotions people feel before making high-stakes, uncertain decisions, highlighting shared vulnerability and common experiences.
- Tom Madden, Audio Visual Delivery Lead
For Tom, Mentimeter’s simplicity and accessibility make it a go-to tool for audience engagement, built into event planning from the start.
It runs directly in a browser with no extra software, ensuring a seamless experience for in-person and remote attendees.
The Q&A moderation feature keeps discussions relevant and respectful.
It helps centralize audience interaction, eliminating the hassle of juggling multiple chat and question streams.
As Saïd Business School continues to deliver world-class education, tools like Mentimeter will continue to support them in making learning equitable regardless of where students come from.
As the school shapes the next generation of business leaders, it’s ensuring that they leave not just with outstanding knowledge but also the right tools to engage, learn, and make an impact in their own organizations after graduation.
“Our faculty, staff, and students are delivering a world-class service - they’re changing the world. Tools like Mentimeter make that possible by enabling conversation even when we’re not in the same room. It’s thanks to our suppliers, our teams, and the technologies behind the scenes that we’re able to bring people together, spark ideas, and achieve great things.”
- Jyotveer Gill, Associate Director of Education Technology
- Tom Madden, Audio Visual Delivery Lead
For Tom, Mentimeter’s simplicity and accessibility make it a go-to tool for audience engagement, built into event planning from the start.
It runs directly in a browser with no extra software, ensuring a seamless experience for in-person and remote attendees.
The Q&A moderation feature keeps discussions relevant and respectful.
It helps centralize audience interaction, eliminating the hassle of juggling multiple chat and question streams.
As Saïd Business School continues to deliver world-class education, tools like Mentimeter will continue to support them in making learning equitable regardless of where students come from.
As the school shapes the next generation of business leaders, it’s ensuring that they leave not just with outstanding knowledge but also the right tools to engage, learn, and make an impact in their own organizations after graduation.
“Our faculty, staff, and students are delivering a world-class service - they’re changing the world. Tools like Mentimeter make that possible by enabling conversation even when we’re not in the same room. It’s thanks to our suppliers, our teams, and the technologies behind the scenes that we’re able to bring people together, spark ideas, and achieve great things.”
- Jyotveer Gill, Associate Director of Education Technology