How do you keep 300 students interested for an entire week? This challenge was set to my colleague Jasmijn Hattinga Verschure and myself, when I had just started working at Fontys Academy for Creative Industries, back in early 2015. A difficult challenge, certainly – but one that taught the two of us a lot, too.

At the time, each quarter of the academic year, the second year students of IEMES (International Event, Music and Entertainment Studies) followed a programme that included six weeks of lectures, two exam weeks and one ‘extra’ week. This extra week was called the Expertiseweek. It consisted of four days without normal lectures, but with special activities related to a theme. When Jasmijn and I organised the Expertiseweek, the theme was Creativity & Identity.

By organising an Expertiseweek, i.e. one whole week of the curriculum, we got to know most members of the staff at Fontys ACI. We talked to everyone, because we had to know everything. Can we arrange for food and drinks? Talk to the catering department! Can we do the final presentations on the lawn at campus Stappegoor? Talk to the location people! Who has time to act as coach for the student teams? Let’s see if there are freelancers who would like to help. It was truly a great way to get to know the entire institute in a short amount of time.

Speaking of getting to know people – as I will write about in later blogs, one of our mottos at Fontys ACI is: “The world is our classroom.” And for an Expertiseweek, you need experts. So why not invite two wonderful speakers from the UK? Michael McMillan and David Gustave gave fascinating lectures on identity, and provided guidance for our students throughout the week. We also came into contact with a bunch of students who wanted to help us out. And they did so brilliantly! A small team prepared the location for that week to reflect the theme, Creativity & Identity. The makers of IEMES TV, an extracurricular activity for students who want to work in the tv business, helped broadcast three lectures and even made an aftermovie, which can be seen here:

The assignment for the week was in the shape of a competition: design a concept for Festival Mundial, a local festival that celebrates creativity and identity. The final presentations were so good, that Mundial’s chief, Erwin Schellekens, decided to award not one but two student teams with a prize. The effort of the team below even ended up being used as the logo for the Festival Mundial community, We Are Mundial.

I look back on the Expertiseweek as a tremendous challenge, a great learning experience and a wonderful way of meeting so many cool people, each with their own creativity and identity.