HOW DO I CONTRIBUTE?
- Niki Manea
- Jan 20, 2019
- 8 min read
Updated: Feb 23, 2019
Amsterdam Dance Event
This story will describe my experience at Amsterdam Dance Event, where I was lucky enough to attend ADE University and work as a volunteer for two dance events: NMDS Paul Kalkbrenner and DGTL festival. This story will also highlight how ADE Conference helped me analyse the music industry and grasp a better understanding of it. Moreover, my participation and involvement during this week led me to creating new experiences. Amsterdam Dance Event offers the most extensive day and night program in the world and showcases the whole spectrum of electronic sub-genres. In my view not only does this event make Amsterdam more alive than ever, but it also opens the door to endless networking, entertainment and educational possibilities.
Analysing the music industry – ADE University
Given the fact that I do not know in which subsector in the leisure industry I want to work in the future, I needed to do dig deeper in my interests which resulted in me attending ADE University on Tuesday. ADE University is a conference dedicated to students who are passionate about the music industry. During the first day of the event which lasted around 6 hours, I got the chance to listen to professionals in the industry discussing different interesting subjects. The favourite talk of the day was entitled “Social Media Shots”, where Hardwell’s and Armin van Burren’s marketing manager and a phycologist discussed the effects of social media on ourselves. This talk provided me with some interesting insights.
I learned that in order for social media not to affect us, we should stop comparing to the lifestyle’s and looks of the people that we are following. Rather than that, we should look up to them and let them inspire us. This talk made me think about the fact that due to social media, we forgot how to think for ourselves. Media imposes views and opinions on us. We have a GPS for our dreams, and we use Google Maps to try to reach them. Listening to them, I obtained a completely new perspective upon the use of social media and I changed my way of looking at it.
On Friday, it was time for me to attend ADE University again. It was again 6 hours filled with inspiring talks where I got to listen to important people such as Jonas Blue, Phil Sales and Kölsch. They helped me get a better understanding of the music industry and analyse it in a deeper way. However, the most interesting talk for me was entitled:” How to land a job in the music industry.” The importance of networking in this industry was highlighted and techniques and tips on how to build a good CV were given. The thing that surprised me the most and made me think the most was what Emma Lee, the founder of Eelee Agency said. She mentioned that an internship is a two-way street. While the company has all these requirements that you have to fulfil, you also need to think about whether the internship can give you what you want in exchange. I will give take her point into consideration a great deal when applying for an internship.
Creating new experiences
On Wednesday night, I volunteered through the association WeRevolution to be a vanguard legend for the event NMDS featuring Paul Kalkbrenner. Given the fact that sustainability in the event industry is an important topic in the Netherlands and awareness is constantly raised on this topic, I felt accomplished that I could contribute to this movement. Together with my best friend, we worked for 2 hours, interacted with visitors and made new friends. Besides getting the chance of listening to one of my favourite artists, Paul Kalkbrenner, this experience taught me that contributing in such a way to a festival is not only helpful to the well development of the festival, but it is also rewarding to us as individuals.
On Saturday night, I created a new volunteering experience again but this time I applied for the role of entrance legend for DGTL festival. My shift lasted 4 hours and my responsibility was scanning tickets. I opted for this role because I have good people and communication skills and I like interacting and meeting new people. I think it being welcomed with a smile contributes a lot to the experience of the visitors and I was happy that I got the chance to welcome them with a smile on my face. I enjoyed working as an entrance legend because I could feel that I was able to improve the experience of the visitors and therefore I managed to contribute to the event industry, the field that I am most passionate about.
Conclusion
All in all, Amsterdam Dance Event was a great experience, which provided me with more freedom in thinking, with new perspectives and new contacts. Not only did I succeed in analysing one of my field of interested: the music industry in a better way but I also created two new volunteering experience which helped me develop professionally.
Erasmus Student Network
Erasmus Student Network
This story is about Erasmus Student Network and it will highlight my experiences volunteering within this non-profit organization and how being part of the ESN team helped me contribute to the event industry. Erasmus Student Network is an organization which focuses on providing opportunities related to multicultural understanding for international students. The association works on students helping students and focuses on achieving unity in diversity. Moreover, it will also show the customer journey map and empathy map that the event department created in order to understand the target group better and therefore to create a successful event.
I have been part of this organization for more than one year now and I can say that it contributed a great deal to my personal and professional development.I enlarge my network by meeting students from all over the world, but I also obtained hands on experience in organizing events. I am part of the events committee and together with the team, we create meaningful experiences for our multicultural audience.
Masquerade Ball
The biggest event which we organized this semester, took place on the 11thof December and inaugurated winter with a classy and elegant masquerade ball. The planning of the ball started two months in advance. Every week we had a meeting of one hour, which added all together results in around 8 hours of planning, filled with brainstorming and decision-making processes. Every aspect of the ball was carefully thought out. From food to the decorations, we made sure that we deliver high standards, professionalism and elegance.
As a start, we chose Parc as a location, which is an elegant venue in the city center of Breda. The venue fit perfectly with our concept. Furthermore, we made sure that the guests were welcomed properly, with a champagne fountain. The concept was based on the people wearing masks, so therefore we also assured that the option of them buying masks at the entrance in possible as well. Moving on to the decorations, they were carefully chosen in order to fit the theme: winter. Consequently, all these aspects applied at Parc resulted in an elegant yet simplistic venue, with a casual yet fancy atmosphere.
Empathy map
Customer journey map
In order to promote the event and therefore to increase the sale, we organized stands at the different academies, where people can get more information about the event and buy tickets for it. I also did a stand at the Academy for Leisure, which lasted around four hours, where I sold tickets and promoted the event.
After a long time of preparations, the day of our event finally came. I arrived at Parc few hours before the event was supposed to start in order to help out with the preparations. All the people who offered to help out during the event, where put in a schedule and had different responsibilities. My responsibility was to take care of the welcome drinks, which included arranging everything with the employees from Parc, preparing the champagne, welcoming guest and making sure that everyone is welcomed properly. So that is exactly what I did. My shift ended at midnight when the ticket sale stopped as well and that means that I worked there for 4 hours, in which I successfully have done my job.
Conclusion
Reflecting on this event and my whole contribution within ESN, I can honestly state that being part of this international community brings me so much joy. Through it, I got the chance to meet new people, to get more experience and responsibility in the event industry and to contribute to creating meaningful experiences for an international audience. Furthermore, ESN provided me the opportunity to put in practice the theory that I learned from school. I created an empathy map and a customer journey map for a real case, two things which impacted the overall development of the festival in a positive way.
TEDxBUas
Facilitating a creative session
Together with other motivated students we formed a project team and we decided upon organizing TedxBUas at the Academy for Leisure in 2019. This story will describe the creative sessions which were the concrete starting point of the project because they resulted in a unique concept. Although this experience lasted more than 16 hours, I regard it of great significance because it not only highlights my contribution to the industry but also it shows how I represent Breda University of Applied Sciences.
How it all began?
Ivelina, our project leader, approached Gaelle and me and asked us whether Tedx has been held before at the Academy for Leisure. Gaelle and I said to her that as far as we know, it has not been done before. So, the three of us glimpsed at each other and in the blink of the moment, said enthusiastically: “let’s do it”. This moment represents our initial desire to make this project happen and was followed by two weeks in which we completed the team.
Our team
Hereby I present you our core team:
Ivelina- Project Manager
Gaelle- Marketing Manager
Niki- Volunteer and Productions Manger
Lianne- Curator
Creative sessions
Creative thinking is a skill that anyone can learn because it entails breaking the known patters and creating new ones. New patterns are established when the brain is making new connections and when looking at a problem from different angles. Creative exercises make your brain more adaptable and flexible, because you recognize the patterns and tendencies in your thinking and succeed in breaking free from them (Byttebier, 2015).
Firstly, we had a more of a simple creative session, which took the structure of a mind map. On a blank page we wrote everything that came to our mind when thinking of Tedx. From values, to core business characteristics, we listed everything down. This session gave us a more concrete idea about the event that we are going to organize and represented a starting point for our concept. We concluded that what Ted events do is it contributing to society and helping communities grow by sharing ideas which have the power to generate a change in the world.
Having this in mind we did a creative exercise which helped us think from multiple perspectives and provided us with new patterns of creative thinking. Green post-its were dedicated to issues which the world faced throughout the ages or problems which impact today’s society. Blue post-its were destined to inventions, people or actions which generated a positive change on a small or large scope. Each of us had to deliver 3 blue and 3 green post its.
Not only did this exercise help us to identify some of the topics that we would like to be discussed at our event, but it also provided us with a new insight. It made us think that if all the issues were to be solved through positive inventions, a perfect world would be achieved. This creative session led us to the innovative idea of theming our event with the concept of “Utopia”. Tedx is about innovative ideas which generate change. The event does not imply that a perfect would or should will be achieved, but it opens a door to discussions, debates and interesting ideas. What is perfect? Can innovation lead to Utopia or will Dystopia be created? These are some question that our event will raise.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this creative exercise provides the starting point of a great event. It helped me understand the importance of creative thinking, of teamwork and it provided me with a unique insight into the process of concept creation. After having organized the event we will be able to say that we contributed to the industry and had an impact into the growth of Breda University of Applied Sciences.
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