The roller coaster ride of organising the LED 2021
The roller coaster ride started in a yet-to-build theme park: after the LED 2020, we were officially installed as the board for the LED 2021. We had our first official meeting as the organization responsible for the LED 2021 on a sunny Monday in the picturesque small town named Muiden, where we met in the office of Sophie’s father, our chair(wo)man. We did not know each other very well yet, but we adapted to each other quite quickly. We had of course one thing in common: our enthusiasm for the LED 2021. This resulted in a 6-hour long meeting with genuinely good ideas, as well as some overenthusiastic ideas. Examples of some ideas we had: “Let’s ask Elon Musk as our opening speaker”, to which someone else would respond with “Nah, Elon Musk is too boring, let’s go for Barack Obama!” To illustrate the theme park reference I made earlier, we were quite seriously planning on making a maze at the entrance of the LED 2021. This maze, in which you would be asked some questions about your ambitions and interests would serve as some kind of ‘Stemwijzer’ to determine which sessions you would attend in the rest of the day. Some might call this idea impossible to realise, but our intentions were very clear: let’s make the LED 2021 an edition to remember. Proud to represent our city Amsterdam and the university, we were determined to organise something so cool that it would blow away the previous edition organised by Rotterdam. With the usually high budget to spend, the possibilities were also there and we had to think outside of the box.
Our small beginnings (and big plans) to the theme park called LED 2021 had to be demolished suddenly
Looking back, thinking outside of the box has been quite the theme throughout the organization of this online edition. In April, it was officially established that some obscure virus was widespread all over the world. It seemed like nobody, including our committee, had really taken this virus seriously. The entertainment and event sectors were shocked by the immense, worldwide lockdowns. Our small beginnings (and big plans) to the theme park called LED 2021 had to be demolished suddenly. Weeks of discussions, gauging expectations and waiting began. What to do? Our event would take place in about 10 months, but suddenly there were so many question marks raised. The questions expanded from “Which opening speaker would we like to see?” and “Which kind of coffee would we like to see?” to “How can we fit so many people in one building while maintaining 1.5 metre of distance between each person?” and “What if the event can take place according to the current measures but might be cancelled under future measures?”
Some of us were of course very disappointed to abandon the idea of a physical event and start organizing something completely new from scratch with next to none reference material
In May and June we also realised that this year’s organization would require a lot of time from us, more than we thought it would have when committing to this committee. We started making up different scenarios, also accounting for the workload for us. These scenarios ranged from cancelling the LED 2021 to organizing the physical version of the event, with all the associated (financial) risks. We decided in July to continue with the scenario with the least associated risks and a guarantee that the LED 2021 could take place: the online LED 2021. You have to realise that this was a very difficult choice to make. Some of us were of course very disappointed to abandon the idea of a physical event and start organizing something completely new from scratch with next to none reference material. Biggest issue: what if we organise a complete online edition and the virus is under control in December 2020? And what if no one is enthusiastic about an online career event in the first place? However, the consensus in this committee was that we committed to organizing the LED 2021 and that we could not stand the idea of abandoning, and thus cancelling, the event completely.
And thus we continued with an online theme park: we were now officially in RollerCoaster Tycoon. The first obvious problem that we encountered was the time pressure. As we had discussed our options very carefully and spent a lot of time to make everyone agree with the new online concept, we had to act quickly to realise this concept. First of all we had to communicate this new concept with all potential participants. It was difficult to establish prices for our concept to sell to companies. How much would this online event be worth for companies? What did not help us in this issue was the fact that companies were very reticent in committing to career events as they did not have a good overview themselves of the financial consequences of the so-called corona crisis. With little information, we finally established prizes and started selling our packages to companies. As econometricians, I think we have set optimal and realistic prizes as this resulted in over 50 participating companies!
It is an event in itself to pack more than 800 LED-boxes
Next up was ‘selling’ our concept to the students. Would students be enthusiastic for an online career event? We really could not know. Thinking outside of the box ultimately led (haha, LED 😉) to thinking inside the LED-box. The usual concept of the LED where you can have free drinks and snacks throughout the day is something that attracts participants. We implemented this concept by assembling the LED-box. We have created this box ourselves completely: from the box itself to the drinks and snacks in it, the goodies in it and the communication and delivery. I recommend to read the article in the ‘Ecotribune’ about the LED-box to discover more about the process behind assembling this box. A tip of the veil: it is an event in itself to pack more than 800 (600 students and >200 company representatives) boxes. Now it was our task to clearly communicate this idea of the free LED-box and of course the rest of the event to all potential participants. This was no easy task, as physical promotion was next to impossible this year. I have been involved with this task the most and I hope you have all seen and appreciate the social media posts, the website, the information booklet delivered at your home and the announcements that I have asked some teachers to post!
For my functions within the committee, the date of November the 25th 2020 has been etched into my memory. The date on which we would finally know if all our hard work would have been in vain or not. The date on which I would notice if I had done my job well as Marketing Officer. The date which I am talking about is of course the date of the registrations. I can only imagine the hundreds of students that have refreshed the Eventbrite page thousands of times altogether. Relieved to see all the registrations coming in, we had a little party. The excitement was growing, the theme park was taking shape and we finally fully realised that we were organizing an event for hundreds of enthusiastic participants.
As can be expected with a roller coaster that rides for the first time, technical difficulties were experienced at the start of the ride but these were resolved quickly and the roller coaster exhibited a lot of positive, happy faces at the end of the ride.
The final months from December to February were filled with finalizing and realizing the ideas that we all had thought out in advance. On February the 4th 2021 our online theme park was finalized, ready to open and to be used by all participants. As can be expected with a roller coaster that rides for the first time, technical difficulties were experienced at the start of the ride but these were resolved quickly and the roller coaster exhibited a lot of positive, happy faces at the end of the ride.
I hope that I have been able to give you a better view on the organization of the LED 2021, the difficult decisions and the considerations that have been made. An unusual year in which we as an organization have learned a lot, adapted to changing circumstances constantly, but above all have organised this edition with pleasure. I am proud of our organization because we have organised an enormous online event from scratch and we have fought back after many setbacks. On behalf of the committee, I would like to thank you for all the kind and positive messages and experiences that we received (and are still receiving) after the LED 2021!
