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Alumni: ‘It was so good to be 'digitally' back in Wageningen’
During the Wageningen Experience Day, we welcomed our alumni to a specially built 'digital' campus. It took some time to get used to at first, but soon it felt like you were actually walking around the campus. A day with substance, wonder and above all a nice get together!
Very nicely done and I have even made new contacts!
Welcomed at a digital campus
Wageningen Experience Day is the new name of the Alumni Open Day. Wageningen University & Research (WUR) organises this day especially for its alumni, with an inspiring programme.
This year, unlike other years, it was digital due to the uncertainties surrounding the corona measures. To still capture the campus feeling, we digitally recreated the campus. Around 1100 alumni registered to join live or watch the content later this month.
The Wageningen Experience Day shows that a digital campus works in situations where real-life is not an option. We would like to use this platform for other events in the future, in a world where physical and virtual events will be combined.
Talking about the major challenges of our time
The theme of the day was 'Finding Answers Together'. The world is facing major problems and with this theme WUR wants to emphasize that we can only find the solutions together. We must look beyond the borders of disciplines, organisations and countries. About 350 visitors were brought up to speed about these challenges, WUR's role in them and what the alumni can contribute.
For example, Liesje Mommer talked about the decline of biodiversity and Joukje Siebenga spoke about the research to prevent pandemics (such as COVID). Afterwards, the participants could discuss this live with the experts.
But also meeting each other again and networking
In addition to the interesting discussions that took place, the highlight of the day for many was getting back in touch with former fellow students. For this there were special reunions for several years, and you could meet other students at random based on the starting year of your studies. In addition, all kinds of organisations presented themselves to the alumni.
I had no idea there was a Wageningen women's network, and now I do
The very first campus poem
The day was concluded by Spoken Word Artist Ellen van der Kolk. Besides being a WUR student, she is also the city poet of Wageningen and wrote a poem especially for this day and the campus.
Listen to how she performs it:
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Did you miss it? You can still drop by sometime in October!
Couldn't be there on 2 October, but are you curious to know what the digital campus looks like and what WUR is working on? No problem at all. The campus with the videos and stories (except for the live parts) are still available for you the entire month of October.
Register and we will send you a personal link!