The Synergy Conference 2019

March 11th, 2019

Chiel Tijdink

On the 26th of February the yearly Synergy Conference took place. As you could have read in the last article it was a great success. In this article you can read about the experiences of companies, participants and the committee.

Companies

There were multiple companies present at the conference. I was curious about their experiences. The chief of the day Cindy van Son said: “For me it was a busy day, with many impressions. I enjoyed it a lot and I think there was a nice ambiance. Moreover, I met a lot of new interesting people, so I had only positive experiences! Furthermore I liked the role of being the chief of the day!” The second speaker of the day, Duncan Buisman, also had a very positive experience: “It was an honour for me to speak at the conference and I liked it seeing that all the students were listening with full attention.” During the conference there were several workshops. One of these workshops was held by Rowan (Coop): “In my workshop I heard many interesting ideas and we will take all these ideas in account for the coming weeks. Besides this, I was surprised by the good organisation of the day, and Fort Lent was a very nice location.” Jan Verbeeten of Heldro IJs was also very positive: “I think everything was very professional, my compliments to the committee! I liked the enthusiasm of the groups in my workshop. For me it was a very nice day!” Throughout the day, the atmosphere was great and relaxed as Marleen of YoungCapital mentioned to us: “We were received with enthusiasm and I liked the relaxed ambiance the whole day. Everyone had input in our workshop and I enjoyed facilitating a workshop at the conference.”  Also our host Jordy enjoyed the day: “I liked the day, everything came together and even the weather was great. It was nice that we could use the rooftop bar in February. I think it was one of the best conferences held in Fort Lent!”

Participants

There were around 100 participants at the conference. I asked some of them about their opinion. One of the participants said: “I think it was a very interesting day and I liked that the day was focused on content instead of how good a company is.” Another participant said: “I liked the speakers a lot; it was nice for me to see the contrast between an experienced entrepreneur and a young entrepreneur.” As mentioned before, the content of the day was appreciated too: “I think it was an interesting day and I learned a lot about several aspects; moreover, the organisation was very good.” I also heard some good stories about the workshops: “I went to the workshop of YoungCapital and it was nice to learn about different generations and the way you reach them.” The goal of the conference is to combine theory and practice: “I liked to see how companies are dealing with theoretical issues in practice.”

Committee

The committee exists of seven people and they worked together for almost a year to organize the conference. I talked to some of them about their experiences as committee member and their experiences at the conference. A member of the committee said: “We worked hard toward this day and it is nice to see that all the effort pays off. I also liked to see that all the companies were enthusiastic and that the students delivered some surprising input during the day!” Another committee member said: “The process was long, but I learned a lot. During the day of the conference, we were very busy, and we had no rest, so at the end of the day we were tired but satisfied. For me, it was a beautiful day!” The day of the conference went very well: “Because we planned everything good, I didn’t feel any stress during the day. Everything went well. I liked the network drink because I got the chance to speak with some people of companies and to ask them some questions I had about their workshops.”