The first week of your new job and immediately organising a New Year's breakfast for more than a thousand employees. It happened to Ruben van den Nieuwenhof, employee Marketing & Communication at Kuijpers. The breakfast had to be a combination of launching the new corporate identity and bringing all employees together. He was given an important requirement for the selection of the location: sustainability. After all, Kuijpers has sustainability high on its agenda; the event location had to match this seamlessly. Jaarbeurs meets that high requirement. Together with colleague Kim Flach and manager Angela Petrillo, Ruben staged a New Year's breakfast full of allure in Jaarbeurs's Beatrix Theatre: 'Everyone was extremely enthusiastic.'
As a technological preservationist, Kuijpers makes environments healthier, greener and smarter. An important spearhead here is sustainability. Kuijpers wants to make the built environment future-proof and healthy at an accelerated pace. Together with its 1,500 employees, they work to pass on a better world to the next generation. In 2021, the family business celebrated its 100th anniversary. Celebration was possible, but corona unfortunately put a line under the plan to get together with all colleagues. Partly for this reason, the company chose to use the launch of its new corporate identity as the perfect opportunity to stage a big get-together now. How? By having breakfast with all employees at Jaarbeurss Beatrix Theatre.
Ruben had just started his new job at Kuijpers and became responsible for selecting the event venue. 'Sustainability is very important to us. Therefore, we wanted to do this at a venue that shares this vision. We selected five venues, but we had an immediate match with Jaarbeurs.' Angela adds: ' Jaarbeurs's sustainable ambition fits so well with how we look at the world. It just fell into place. Besides, when we fed this back to the other venues, they understood our choice. Jaarbeurs is known as a booster in this area.'
'Sustainability is very important to us and we wanted a venue that shares this vision with us. As a result, we had an immediate match with Jaarbeurs.'
It did not stop at 'just' a breakfast for all employees. Kuijpers also organised a complete show full of experiences in the theatre. Chairman of the day Tiemen Smit talked the talk and director Aukje Kuypers gave an inspiring speech. The new house style was launched and international breakdancer Redouan Ait Chitt (Redo), who has multiple physical disabilities, talked about what you can achieve with perseverance. Angela: 'This was another hook to sustainability. After all, passing on a better world to the next generation does not happen automatically, but with perseverance you can achieve a lot. Redo's story was really inspiring in that respect.'
All in all, a fantastic show, with raving colleagues in the room. Ruben: 'Together with Artishock events & marketing, we put a lot of time into the programme. Our people come from all over the Netherlands on an early Monday morning. It really had to be worthwhile. The location helped enormously. Of course because of the theatre setting, but also by Jaarbeurs itself. They thought creatively to make the programme fatter.' Angela adds: 'We regularly organise events and also see how other companies do this. There are venues that don't think with you, for example, basically just rent out a space. The people at Jaarbeurs, on the other hand, are super knowledgeable and really steered us to make the best use of the theatre. Their advisory role and enthusiasm helped us connect the dots.'
The Kuijpers team looks back on the (first) collaboration with Jaarbeurs with satisfaction. Ruben: 'It's the way they communicate and are open for conversation. Thinking along with us and helping us get the most out of the programme. Of course, that doesn't mean that everything goes smoothly, because something unexpected can always happen. But it's how you deal with it. Our buses with staff were half an hour early and arrived at the same time. The foyer was immediately full, which was a bit chaotic. Jaarbeurs sought a solution on the spot and was open to an honest evaluation and a good conversation afterwards.'
If it is up to team Kuijpers, this is the beginning of a great cooperation: 'Admittedly, this breakfast was unique because of its size, we won't be doing that again soon. But Jaarbeurs has more spaces; we used the other meeting facilities the same day for a meeting with new employees, for example.'
Account manager Corry
Want to know more about the Beatrix Theatre or our other conference rooms? Contact me for all possibilities.
jaarbeurs+31(0)30 295 58 81
