Afbeelding
“My favourite experience with Design-Based Education was the pressure cooker challenge I took part in in 2019. The assignment was to develop a large-scale event for Eelde Airport in Groningen – and we had just 8 hours to complete it. The event was to be a launch event held on a Friday for travel agencies from all over the Netherlands to showcase the new airport. I was in a team of 12, which was not ideal and made the challenge harder. Brainstorming and developing a concept when you’ve got input from twelve different people is complicated and it was impossible to adapt everyone’s ideas – no matter how much we wanted to at first.
During the pressure cooker challenge, we had to follow the five stages of DBE, namely empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test. So firstly we had to empathize with the client by finding out what their needs were, in this case Eelde Airport and what their aim was for the event. This was actually the easiest part. The next stage, thinking up and creating a large-scale event for travel agencies was much harder.
Time consuming preparation
It took us 5 hours just to create a feasible event because we had to discard the first ideas we’d had. Trying to include everyone’s ideas meant the event lacked originality, and our first few concepts were focused more on socialising than on showcasing the airport. The process immediately highlighted one of the things I love most about DBE, namely that it’s like having a gentle push in the right direction without it hurting your creativity or self-esteem.
Once we’d got our basic concept on paper, it was time to calculate the costs of the event. There was no fixed budget but we wanted to focus on people, planet, and profit, so we decided to create a virtual reality event. This meant the event would not only be accessible for everyone but also more sustainable for the planet and less costly as there was no need to arrange accommodation or catering. Instead, all the travel agencies would receive a care package with snacks, a pamphlet, the VR goggles, and mini-games that would be played during the VR show.
Creative rewards
At the end of the challenge, we had to present our outcomes. Everyone was a little nervous about presenting so I ended up taking the lead and holding the pitch for our idea. To be honest, it was not the best presentation. However, our idea won. It was obviously convincing enough for the jury and the airport representative. It was the best feeling ever!
I started the challenge with a certain level of anxiety, during the event I internally gave up but, at the end, I felt like a champion. We received a cool trophy and some goodies from the airport. Without DBE, we wouldn’t have been able to exceed our creative limit.
