Kick-off Week

As an introduction to the study the first week of school was a kick-off week. This week consisted of several activities to make the students aware of the content of the education. During this week I learned a lot about innovation and professionalism already.

The first day started up with being divided in groups. I was in group 1. We were then assigned 2 companies to go to the next day. These companies were A-lab and Nemo. After that we had to come up with questions to ask to the person who we were going to see at A-lab. The questions had to be professional and educational at the same time. Also we had to come up with a gift to give to the speaker. For Nemo we were given an assignment. We had to find a sector of which we want to know more about. After that we had to answer three questions, which were the following:

After that we had a keynote speaker called Paul Ensley who now works as a Program manager and communication specialist after working for more than over a decade for a bank. What I thought was really interesting about this speaker was that he shared a lot of personal experience with the group. The main thing which really got my attention was that no matter how much he had failed with a project he always stayed positive. For me this was really one of the main things that really spoke to me because whenever he got broke or bankrupt he would always look for new things to get out of that position. Also what I really liked was his vision; he wanted to achieve something without thinking about money although his company is now worth 50 million. I actually want to be like that in life later on to achieve something you really want without only being money focused. The money will come after you have achieved the thing he said.

After the keynote speaker we were divided in groups. Every group was given a colour to focus on. Our colour was black. When divided in groups, every group had to find at least 20 objects connected to the given colour. After every group had searched for objects we were given an assignment with the objects; we had to create something that gives a warm welcome when entering the park near the school. Me and my group came up with a lot of ideas and in the end created a welcoming gate with stating how clean and beautiful the park is. This was the first real assignment given for my new education and I thought it was already really difficult. I learned from this how to be extremely creative and not only to think outside the box but also to think without the box because of the lack of connected items to the assignment.

The second day we had to visit the two companies. In the morning we were given a presentation about the company A-lab. I learned a lot about their innovative way of their company’s content. They came up with an entire new concept which I had never heard of; they rent office spaces with all new technologies available. After that we were given a tour within the company. What I noticed was how relaxing the work sphere is which was really amazing to me because of the seriousness and professionalism of the company. After that we went to Nemo. It has been years since I went to Nemo and I was really amazed how innovative they were. I noticed that it is however a kid playground and this was one of the best and most innovative ways to teach kids by creating a fun way to do so. After searching for a sector I had found a way to work on my assignment. I decided to choose the sector Smart Technology. In this sector there was one item that really spoke to me. There was this dress that shows the colour in light on what the person, who is wearing it, feels like. I never have seen a technique like this before and therefore I chose this as my innovative technique. There are already clothes that can react to a persons’ body temperature but there were never clothes that reacts to a persons’ emotions. In society this can be used as well I think. This new technique can help in my opinion a lot of psychiatrics to define the emotions of a patient. I have actually learned a lot from visiting Nemo. A lot of techniques were shown in the museum and yet not many are used in today’s society. Because of the assignment given I have learned to look at almost everything in a way this can be used as an innovation in society and was therefore very helpful to me to think in a more innovative way.

When we came back to from our visits, every individual had to write down an irritation or an amusement of his. After everybody had thought of one, we had to put it up on the wall. Everybody then had to write their name under the ones they agreed with. The ones with the most name under them were selected by the teachers. Out of those we had to select one which we most agreed with. I chose for the problem the irritations of ads on YouTube. We then had to discuss and come up with points with stated why we chose this problem. This really made me think of how to express yourself and come with ideas to strengthen your opinion.

At the end of the day we had to make a collage out of all things we experienced and discovered. The end result is shown in the image below.

Day three started with a fast reading course. This course consisted of three hours of training the speed in which you read in. I started up with reading 270 words per minute. At the end of the course I could read 420 words per minute. I was really amazed by the results. I learned a lot from this actually and think that this will help me to learn faster and more effective in the future.

After the course we had another keynote speaker. This was Harry te Riele. He had a clear vision to look at society and change it. He did this with his company by trading in services. His presentation was full of stats and figures, but what caught my attention the most was his vision of not trading in money but in services and also providing services and making money actually not important. Also with this keynote speaker I learned how to run a company without money being you main interest.

At the end of the day we had to work further on the deep dive project. We had to give a presentation on our process. This presentation provided us with a large amount of feedback from the audience and teacher which given us more information to finalize our project. After the presentation time was given to put our findings into finalizing the project. This has taught me to brainstorm very effectively and to select the findings effectively.

Day four was almost all about working on the deep dive. We began the day with working on it and ended the day with working on it. We actually finished our project on this day as well. What I learned the most about this project was to define problems and mostly focus on how to come up with solutions for the problem. The image below will show our finalisation of the project.

In between the finishing of the project we had a third keynote speaker. Her presentation was mostly about product innovation in the textile and fashion industry. What I learned most from the speaker was the simplicity of product innovation. We were shown a lot of images with innovation of clothing and there was clearly explained how easy it is how innovate with, for instance use a different kind of textile.

The last day we had to set up a market. At this market we had to present our final product. It was really interesting to do this. I learned how to fully present a project on what we worked so hard on and to actually sell it to the audience. Also I have read all the other problems from the other groups and is was very interesting to see what their end result was.