The first online Forum

30 november 2020

On the 28th of October, the Forum of 2020 took place. Usually, this event would have been in April. However, as 2020 was a strange year in many areas, also the Forum had to adjust to the new setting. Luc Zeinstra describes his experience of being a committee member in COVID-19 times and Martijn van Heusden describes how he experienced the online event.

Luc’s perspective:
The Forum committee started back in September 2019, working towards organising a formal event in the well-known Tinbergen Institute in April 2020. Tristan de Keyzer, Loek van Montfort, Estée van der Vlies, Vera van der Linden and I were chosen to make this day unforgettable, but then COVID-19 began to spoil the party. We had to move the event to October 2020 and we had to make the choice to change it to an online event. Unfortunately, some of the already agreed companies did not want to attend the online event, so we had to find new ones. It was pretty hard to find those, because most companies are affected by the pandemic and are hesitating to spend money on these types of events. However, we did manage to find these companies so the event could still be held.

We chose to go through and after all, we can say that it was a good choice.

On October 28, around 50 Bachelor– and Master students joined the first meeting of the day and enjoyed listening to Peter Kapitein about the healthcare system in times of COVID-19.

After this inspiring story, we split up the groups and let the student choose between two companies, namely PwC and Aon. After the presentation of the company, we introduced another speaker: Roby de Jong. She told a story about risk analysis on small-scale farms.

Then the last part of the day began, students could again choose between two companies, this time between Flow Traders and Milliman.

When we heard that the event would take place online, we doubted to go through with Forum, or that we would cancel the event.

There were no difficulties with the internet, everything was on time and the most important part, the presentations were outstanding. We received a lot of positive compliments.

In the past year, I learned a lot of things in the Forum committee. I was introduced to how to approach companies in a formal way, I had to make schedules and of course hold onto it. For myself, the most important thing was that I learnt how to work in a team.

Martijn’s perspective:
Like many events, this year’s Forum was very different from what we’re used to. Although completely online, an event like this makes for a welcome break from all the online lectures and exams. Where online lectures are mostly not at all interactive, this is definitely possible for a formal event, even though this is of course a lot harder if the event is completely online.

What is the online equivalent to walking up to somebody who just gave a presentation and asking them a question, or even just thanking them?

After the opening speaker Peter Kapitein, I attended the presentations by Aon and Milliman. I think that even after months of working and studying at home, we do not feel particularly used to this new format yet. The company presentations at the Forum ran very smoothly, but it is still difficult to completely imitate networking over a coffee or a beer in an online environment. Something to think about:

Great about this edition of the Forum is that it remembers us of Kraket’s spirit and mindset. Last year when I was on the board, we sadly had to postpone the Forum in the hope of organising it physically. This certainly would not have been possible without the committee’s enthusiasm and flexibility. It shows that rather than just cancelling the event, we are able to adapt and not throw in the towel altogether. From my point of view, which may of course be a little biased as a former board member, Kraket is handling the COVID-19 situation quite well in the sense that committees are eager to look for an alternative solution instead of cancelling immediately. It is easy to take this for granted, since an online event may not be what you expected to organise when you signed up for a committee.

Anyways, this year’s Forum was definitely successful and shows that transforming such an event to an online environment is completely possible. By the time you read this, the Caseday will also have taken place as an online event. Also, the LED (National Econometrician’s Day) is already on the horizon. I’m curious to see how these events will work out in their new and unusual format. The SECTOR will keep you posted!