In early October, Media Plaza of Jaarbeurs filled up with just under 700 would-be entrepreneurs. It was the kick-off of the new (entrepreneurial) year of Jong Ondernemen. A day where buckets of inspiration, knowledge and atmosphere were shared. Jonas de Groot, director of the foundation, talks about the event and how it came about.
Jong Ondernemen is a foundation that develops entrepreneurship programmes for education. The foundation is the platform for entrepreneurship at school and helps young people discover their talents. Jonas: 'The labour market is changing. This means that different skills are required than before. For example, flexibility, creativity and problem-solving. These are the 21st century skills. We pay attention to these skills by offering programmes for primary school, secondary school, mbo, hbo and wo. One of our programmes is Junior Company, in which upper secondary pupils set up and run their own company during an entire school year. The same also happens at secondary school and college with Student Company.'
The kick-off of these programmes took place at Media Plaza. The 'Start-up Festival' was all about inspiring budding entrepreneurs. Jonas: 'The day started with a power session, where we did a haka together under the guidance of Hakaman to warm up for the day. Exciting, but how special to perform something like that with hundreds of people at the same time? Then came the speakers. Ron Simpson, Eva Eikhout and Roger Olivieira talked about their experiences of entrepreneurship. The speakers had full attention, the stage is very hip and fancy - it is in the middle of the room. And the chairs are around this. That meant a lot of walking around and looking into the audience, and that made the dynamic super interactive and challenging.
It's great to see how enthusiastic everyone was. I myself spoke to a lot of participants this day, and I heard only good stories.'
According to Jonas, this was due to a combination of factors. For instance, the speakers were fantastic and they provided a lot of inspiration and motivation. At the end of the day, the DJ played cool records and there were drinks at the bar: "We had one goal in mind: that young people go out inspired. To a large extent, we are responsible; after all, we make the programme. But the facilitating part is at least as important here. Jaarbeurs knows how to organise this fantastically well. The service during the preparation and on the day itself, the lunch, drinks, the decoration and the location. Media Plaza is a cool location. For example, we had all white chairs, good lighting - it really was an event. That certainly adds to the inspiration.'
Young Entrepreneurship is a foundation and so one has to look critically at where the budget goes. Jonas: 'We have to watch the pennies. Also in the choice of venue. We took a lot of aspects into account. Accessibility, for instance: the venue had to be easily accessible by public transport, but also by coaches. On the other hand, you only spend your money once, so you also want a guarantee that it will turn out well. We knew that at Jaarbeurs. We have been working together for some time and we know that they don't turn their hand to events like this at Jaarbeurs.
What the future holds, Jonas does not yet know. But that he is delighted with the cooperation is clear. Jonas: 'We can read and write with Jaarbeurs and our permanent contact Corry. She is strict about deadlines and numbers, but professionally strict. Everything we agree on is right. It's a matter of blind trust. That makes a difference, you have to do so much less yourself as an organiser as a result.'
'Everything we agree on is right. It's a matter of blind trust'
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