Once upon a time (read 4.30 AM), group of media students packed their their bags and took off to Amsterdam. Not often do you have this kind of chance to get on a sponsored excursion to media agencies and Universities to mingle with inspiring professionals. Indeed, one huge benefit of the European education system is that the social distance between companies and students is small giving the chance to combine your academic background to real life experience and examples.
Visiting our industry partners', Sanoma and OMD, branch offices not only gave insights what the following year is going to be online publishing and consulting wise, but also showed how different the target groups are despite common challenges. For example, the Dutch prefer Twitter in oppose to Facebook in everyday socializing. The slow rise of Facebook can be explained by their own local competitor, Hyves, whereas in Finland the Facebook skyrocketed. Also, the Dutch are more active mobile users in comparison to Finns. This, how people use smartphones in their everyday life, is something I personally have to dig in to.
For our media service idea, the trip was perfect kick-off. We had exiting brainstorming session in Medialab which clarified our team's focus and gave good frame of reference to reflect on. Also, the PROJEKTENMARKT fair held by Utrecht School of Arts was interesting game benchmarking wise. Especially the Jelly Reef was fun! The initial project cases were given from the business industry upon which the students started to build up their ideas. The amount of teams was overwhelming :)
Amsterdam is beautiful and fun city! In addition to strolling the streets and markets we crashed the restaurant scene with full army. Mussels, oysters, chips with mayo, cheese, cheese and cheese! However, ultimately it's the people that make or break the experience: the speakers and presenters, teachers and co-students. Thanks all!
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