Create Tomorrow is a popular student event organized every two years by the Student Union. During each edition, about 1250 participants from various Dutch universities spend one day working on cases provided by several different companies, such as Thales, Bolletje, University of Twente or the municipality of Enschede.
Many Dutch universities, one winner
‘The event is intended for students of all Dutch universities, including Saxion, and everybody is free to sign up via our website. They can sign up with a team, which consists of about 6 to 8 people, or they can sign up individually and be sorted into a random team,’ explains Nicole Russchen from the Create Tomorrow organization team. People from all study backgrounds can participate in the think tank. There are always various cases the student teams can choose from, and therefore don’t have to worry about not finding any topic that would suit them.
‘The teams have the whole day to work on cases, which are defined by the involved companies, and there are experienced consultants helping the students throughout the entire process,’ continues Russchen. ‘There are roughly nine groups working on each case and a winner is selected for each case. These groups have to pitch their idea on the stage and then one overall winner is chosen. This winning team receives € 4000.’
Bilingual event
The assignments for this year’s event are not announced yet, but two years ago students got to work on, for example, case titled ‘Drone Attacks’ for the company Thales, which tasked the participants with thinking of how to prevent deployment of any drones in and above the city of The Hague. ‘We are currently still looking for companies to sponsor the cases, but companies that participated last years were very enthusiastic about taking part again, because they really enjoyed the atmosphere of the event,’ adds Mechiel van Manen from the organizing committee.
Although Create Tomorrow is meant for students of Dutch universities, internationals are more than welcome to join. The entire think tank will be held in English as well as Dutch. For more information you can follow the Create Tomorrow Facebook page.
