The career conference 2009 – Lustrum edition

There was a time that initiatives conceived and carried out in a harmonious fashion by alumni, students of both UCSA and ASIC and College Hall were a rarity. However, in this lustrum year we are seeing lots of these. The yearly career conference was a forerunner in this respect. Originally conjured up by UCAA (our alumni association) as a vehicle serving two purposes, i.e. getting alumni back to campus to strengthen both mutual bonds and those with students, and providing them with opportunities to meet interesting parties from industry, banks, headhunting organisations, NGO’s and the like, it has now become adopted by UCU as a happening that a much wider audience is looking forward to.

This year, the career conference committee, henceforward called CCC, consisted of the following members: From Career Co: Bob Koppes, chair and Pim Paulusma, secretary; from the UCSA board: Ivar van Hasselt and Stefan Hut; from UCAA: Mark Ruitenbeek, treasurer and Agnes Venema; from LawCo: Lot Wagemakers; from College Hall: Bas Defize.

Preparations for the event started in October 2008. In a series of already infamous evening meetings (if only for the salami-smell the next morning) in the conference room of College Hall, known as the Pizza meetings because of the consumption of impressive quantities of these Italian goodies, flushed away with a terrible but free Lambrusco, the Lustrum edition slowly but surely took shape. The theme for this edition would be “Globalisation: going global” (we just love these alliterations)

October turned out to be quite late for arranging an event in the beginning of February. Prestigious speakers require timely invitations, and where in previous editions ambitions were skyhigh (Princess Maxima, Al Gore and Neelie Smit-Kroes to name but a few) this time we looked for somewhat lesser Gods (where the term “somewhat” needs to be taken with a coarse grain of salt!). In spite of our tailor-made invitations, the quest proved very difficult again. However, by the time we became desperate, Bob came up with a great suggestion. Making use of his Limburg-nework, he was able to arrange Henk Benjamins, a former CEO of Frans Maas, one of the largest transport firms in Europe.

Another issue that required some creativity was how to ascertain that we had participants that were sufficiently interesting to the great majority of the students. Not too much business, at least one NGO, what about the humanities department?, and the science students?, aren’t UCU students supposed to be interested in everything? No, not when in comes to their career! Anyway, names of candidate organisations came and went, and the program gradually took on some shape. However, the Christmas break really proved to be a huge barrier. Weeks before and weeks after, it seemed people were either preparing for the holidays, or enjoying a quick vacation to recover from them, in both cases with the same result: they were unreachable. Three weeks before the actual event we only had four confirmed workshops..... Nevertheless, despair or giving up was not in our dictionary. Some frantic calling, e-mailing, pleading and cursing helped a lot. By January 23 we had rounded-up the program with only one round-table speaker missing due to a last minute call from the government. Our invited (and confirmed) economist had to urgently give advise to the leaders in The Hague in times of crisis. Oh well....

From that moment on the rest of things went smoothly. Everyone in the team knew what to do, and the only matter of concern was the audience. Were we able to attract sufficient people? Edition 2008 had drawn 150 people, were we capable of matching that high number? At exactly that time, Murphy’s law was playing tricks on us by arranging that Solis-accounts no longer worked or e-mail traffic was altogether impossible. Nevertheless, the PR campaign payed off, not in the least through the terrific poster that Thijs van Himbergen (yes, alumnus himself) designed. Over 120 people subscribed to the event.

Thanks to quite a number of volunteers (thank you!), and the brilliant idea of Ivar to equip our team with walkie-talkies, which made us look like bouncers from hell, but that proved extremely efficient (we knew that from the Lustrum opening event), the event turned out to be a great success. A lustrum notebook (see picture, by now already a collector’s item), great food from Dining Hall during and after the workshops, and free drinks in the bar during the afterparty provided the cream on the cake. The first questionnaires that are being returned as we speak are without exception very positive.

We can’t wait for next time! Keep your eyes open for the next edition and if you feel like joining the team: let us know!

On behalf of the entire CCC:

Bas Defize

On Friday February 6, 2009, at 16.00 hours, UCSA, UCAA and the career development office are organising the lustrum edition of the annual career conference, which will be centered around the theme: "globalization, going global".  We will have a host of interesting firms and speakers in two rounds of workshops, round table discussions and a networking lounge, followed by a Lustrum-worthy buffet. Triodos bank, McKinsey, Sotheby's, Philips, Ministry of Foreign affairs (Diplomatenklasje) are just a few of the organisations that have already agreed to come. The conference will be opened in a Keynote address by Henk Benjamins, a.o. former chairman of the board of Frans Maas, a leading European transport firm. There will be venues for majors in each of our departments!

The career conference is open to students and alumni. A definitive program will be posted by the end of January. At that time the sign-up procedure will also be announced. For questions you can contact the career development officer, Bas Defize.