Docebo Connect + Google Calendar: ILT sync guide for SMEs

For a European SME running Docebo alongside Google Workspace, the calendar integration is the difference between training sessions that show up on the right person’s calendar automatically and a weekly ops chore of copying session details into Google Calendar by hand. Docebo Connect for Google Calendar ties Instructor-Led Training (ILT) and Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) sessions to Google Workspace events — learners get invites the moment they enrol, instructors see sessions on their work calendar, and meeting links land in the event body automatically.

This guide walks through the integration setup, the OAuth configuration that matters in production, and the GDPR anchors that apply when Docebo pushes learner data into Google Calendar.

What the integration actually delivers

Three capabilities that matter for an SME running training as part of onboarding or compliance:

• Automatic event creation. When an ILT or VILT session is created in Docebo, a Google Calendar event appears on the instructor’s calendar and on every enrolled learner’s calendar. No Docebo login required to see “when is my training?”
• Meeting links in the event body. For VILT, the Google Meet (or Zoom, or Teams) link is embedded in the calendar invite — learners click once from their calendar and they are in the session, no Docebo redirect.
• Attendee management. Enrolled users are added as attendees with appropriate response status. If enrolment changes in Docebo, the attendee list updates on the next sync cycle.

For an SME of 40–80 employees running monthly training cadences, this typically removes 4–6 hours of manual calendar ops per month and closes off the “I didn’t know that session was today” failure mode that breaks attendance metrics.

The authoritative Docebo reference for the connector sits on help.docebo.com; the product overview is at docebo.com.

Prerequisites — Google Cloud and Workspace setup

Five items we confirm in week 1 of the integration:

• A Google Workspace account on Business Standard or higher. Free Gmail accounts do not expose the admin controls the integration needs.
• Admin access to the Google Cloud Console for the Workspace tenant. The person holding the admin seat has to be available on cutover day, not on PTO.
• The Google Calendar API enabled on the Cloud project that will back the integration. API quota of at least 10,000 events per month is adequate for most SME training cadences; request more if the SME runs a heavy ILT programme.
• An OAuth consent screen configured — Internal user type when the integration is only for Workspace users, External if external trainers are involved.
• A service account (optional but recommended) if the SME wants centralised calendar management rather than per-user OAuth. The service account needs domain-wide delegation for the Calendar scopes.

Two rules we enforce on setup: never ship production credentials from an admin’s personal Google account (credentials outlive the admin’s tenure), and always use OAuth 2.0 with refresh tokens rather than long-lived app passwords.

Connector configuration in Docebo

Once Google Cloud is ready, the Docebo side is straightforward:

• Log in to the Docebo admin console.
• Navigate to Admin Menu → Integrations → Google Calendar.
• Provide the OAuth client ID and secret from the Google Cloud project.
• Authorize Docebo against Google Calendar. The authorization step shows the scopes being requested — calendar.events and calendar.readonly are the minimum; avoid blanket calendar scope unless the recipe genuinely needs write-all.
• Select the recipes to enable: ILT session sync, VILT session sync, attendee updates, cancellation sync.

Each recipe runs on a schedule — typically every 15 minutes for attendee updates and on-create for event generation. In sandbox, we run a dummy ILT session end-to-end (create, enrol a test user, change the time, cancel) before switching on production.

Sample API calls for sanity testing

Before the first recipe runs in production, we confirm the Google Calendar API accepts the expected event shape:

# Create a calendar event with a Meet link (VILT pattern)
curl -X POST "https://www.googleapis.com/calendar/v3/calendars/primary/\
events?conferenceDataVersion=1" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer GOOGLE_OAUTH_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "summary": "Docebo VILT: Advanced Product Training",
    "start": {"dateTime": "2026-05-12T09:00:00+02:00"},
    "end":   {"dateTime": "2026-05-12T11:00:00+02:00"},
    "attendees": [{"email": "learner@company.com"}],
    "conferenceData": {
      "createRequest": {"requestId": "docebo-session-12345"}
    }
  }'

A 401 usually means the OAuth token has expired and the refresh flow is not wired. A 403 insufficientPermissions usually means the OAuth scopes do not include calendar.events. A 200 without a Meet link usually means conferenceDataVersion=1 was omitted — the Meet link only generates when that parameter is present.

GDPR anchors for the Docebo-Google Calendar flow

Pushing learner email addresses and session data from Docebo into Google Calendar is a processing activity under GDPR. Three items to document before go-live:

• Purpose. The sync exists to deliver training sessions to the right learners. Fields beyond what serves that purpose — for example, learner competency scores — should never appear in the calendar event body.
• Legal basis. Employee attendance is typically covered by legitimate interest. External trainers or contractors may need a different basis; check with the SME’s DPO.
• Retention. Calendar events for cancelled or completed sessions follow Google Workspace retention policy by default. If the SME has a stricter training-record retention requirement, configure Calendar retention to match rather than relying on Google defaults.

For Spanish SMEs operating under the Esquema Nacional de Seguridad, the Docebo connector logs plus Google Workspace audit logs together satisfy the traceability requirement for training-delivery processes — both need to be enabled, not just one.

Realistic deployment timeline

For an SME with Google Workspace already in place and a single Docebo instance, the Google Calendar integration lands in 5–7 days of calendar time: day 1–2 for Cloud project and OAuth consent screen, day 3–4 for Docebo connector configuration and sandbox validation, day 5 for production cutover, days 6–7 for monitoring and the first post-go-live adjustment. For eligible Spanish SMEs, the Kit Digital scheme covers up to €12,000 for digitalisation projects, and this integration fits comfortably inside a broader Docebo deployment under that voucher.

Ready to get started?

Working on this yourself? J4SGON S.L. delivers Docebo Connect, HRIS, SSO and migration work for European organisations — see what a scoped engagement covers or describe your project and we will reply with a written scope.