Alumni Day 3 April 2019

Date: Wednesday 3 Apr 2019, 12:00 - Friday 3 May 2019, 20:00
Type: Alumni
Location: Campus Woudestein

On Wednesday, 3 April 2019, the annual Erasmus School of Economics Alumni Day took place. The day started off with the EFR Business Week’s yearly organized opening congress the ‘World of Business’, which was held at Campus Woudestein. After the opening congress the Alumni Day continued at restaurant Zalmhuis with the Alumni Drink & Dinner.

World of Business and Alumni Dinner at Restaurant Zalmhuis

This year’s theme of the EFR Business Week was ‘#TheNewWorld’. On this day multiple speakers shed a light on an environment in which technology, artificial intelligence, blockchain, sustainability and big data are the key to success.

Opening and panel discussion

The congress was opened by Anne Hettinga (CEO Arriva Netherlands) and was followed by a panel discussion between Prince Constantijn (special Envoy of StartupDelta), Marjan van Loon (President Director of Shell Nederland), Michiel Muller (Co-founder Picnic) and Bram Jonker (Senior Innovation and Technology Manager at Deloitte).The speakers agreed that even though technology will only become more important and ubiquitous in the future, we should not fear this development but embrace its accessible and intuitive aspects. Moreover, education does not stop after graduation: alumni need to keep on developing themselves even after university.

Breakout sessions

After the opening session, alumni had the chance to exchange ideas in the interactive breakout sessions with Bas Verhart (founder of DFFRNT Media), Stefania Giodini (initator 510.global at Netherlands Red Cross), Kirsten Schuijt (CEO WWF-Netherlands), Rieneke van Noort (Captain of Delft Hyperloop team), Clemens Oestreich (Captain Infinity and Initiator EarthToday) and Jeff Carr (CFO of Ahold Delhaize).

The interactive breakout sessions were followed by the Innovation Playground & Food Market, where guests could enter the world of a Formula One Driver for a few minutes, overcome their fear of heights at the climbing wall or make their own smoothie with the help of a ‘smoothie bike’, a bicycle powered blender.

Conclusion

The congress was closed by Tineke Bakker – van der Veen (Managing Director of Boeing Benelux & Nordics) and Neelie Kroes (Former European Commissioner for the Digital Age), who emphasized the importance of taking risks and learning how to cope with them.

The day was concluded with more than 140 Erasmus School of Economics alumni who gathered for a cheerful and animated dinner in restaurant Zalmhuis.

We would like to thank all the alumni who visited this inspiring and joyful day!