The highlight of the Event Week was the exciting final in TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht. On Friday 30 November, all second-year Hotel and Event Management students gathered for the last time that week to battle it out for the best concept once again. Team 28 from Tio Rotterdam was victorious. Nina (from the winning team): “Our group worked hard on this challenging assignment. It’s absolutely awesome that we won!”
Assignment for the Golden Giraffe
The assignment into which the students could get stuck into that week was presented on Monday during the Kick-off. The challenge? Develop an innovative concept to take the Golden Giraffe award show to the next level, increase participation of brands and companies in their events and increase the total number of visitors. “A great client with a great assignment”, according to Liz from Tio Utrecht. “A challenging assignment. Our group had plenty of ideas.”
33 convincing elevator pitches
The aspiring event managers presented their concept by means of a short, self-made video and a pitch. They had just one minute to convince the jury. Original ideas and convincing concepts were presented by 33 teams during the round of pitches. The jury was impressed.
Proud lecturer
“The standard of the pitches was extremely high”, according to Tio lecturer George Oomen. “It’s not easy to pitch your concept on stage to a packed hall within one minute. I think the client was pleasantly surprised by the high quality, creativity and results-orientation of the students. I’m very proud of the students!”
Jury: this is the future
The concepts were evaluated by three professionals from the field of study: Maarten Schram (IDEA), Menno Tielemans (TivoliVredenburg) and Robin van Leeuwen (Gouden Giraffe). “This is the future”, Maarten told the ambitious students at the finale. “You are the new generation of event managers. I am impressed by all the ideas I have heard.”
The winning concept
And then it was finally time. You could hear a pin drop in the hall when the jury announced the winner. And the winner is... team 28 from Tio Rotterdam! The team comprised Nina van Bokhorst, Steven Gardenier, Yeshe de Bos, Fleur Bol Raap, Frederique Schwencke, Gaby van Diggele, Piene Karelse, Priscilla Gangaram Panday and Yasmine Jiang. The team won with a distinctive concept that focused not only on the Gouden Giraffe event award show, but also on promising events and the events sector itself. Their original but feasible concept best met the client’s requirements without exceeding the budget.
“Awesome that we won”, Nina from the winning team said enthusiastically. “Our group worked very hard; the assignment was certainly challenging, but our lecturer gave us excellent guidance. I think the jury rated our concept the best because of its simplicity, it is very achievable. I really learned how to work as part of a team this week. That you can still produce wonderful things together even if you do not always agree with one another. It’s absolutely awesome that we won!”
Event Week: from theory to practice
Every year, the Event Week is dominated by the development of a creative concept for a real client. A week full of practical skills, from brainstorming to concept development, and from editing videos to pitching, with theory being translated to practice. Event management students from all five campuses worked together on the assignment like fully fledged event managers for just one week. During the exciting finale, the students battle it out against one another and a professional jury ultimately decides who has produced the best concept.