It is always difficult to get across in a less robotic way when communicating online. As we discussed in the marketing office I have recently started working at, the best marketing technique really is to show yourself, knock on people’s door, give them a call, follow up. There’s what’s called ‘closing relationships’, which in short means keeping in touch and in good terms with costumers. But how do you create better opportunities to create a healthy business relationship? My best guess is personalizing your communication.

Two examples spring to my mind. When I sent my application for the St Gallen Symposium I thought it was such a huge competition there was no way it could be as friendly an environment as it was described. I was dead wrong: My letter saying I was invited to the actual Symposium was fully personalized and so was every single item that was sent or given to me thereafter. Talking with fellow attendees that was definitely a major ‘wow’ factor and I really think the organizers did a superb job. Every letter appeared signed, your name appeared handwritten, your documents had your photo ID and name on it and your personal conference information was type which means that they made and printed a different file for each participant (and there were hundreds!) Students who were part of the organizing committee or helping explained how they spent a fair amount of energy and time on this process and all I can say is that they definitely did not waste their time.

My next example comes from my website development experience. When I was 15, I used to own a Harry Potter website and it grew rather well, actually too well for my pocket money at the time. I’m now feeling very silly because had I not been against publishing ads on my site and known more about SEO I would have been able to keep it running. One thing that certainly contributed to it doing well though, and despite my lack of knowledge in advertising at the time, was that I personalized it a maximum. It certainly takes extra effort but if you subscribe to a website you want to only have to use one log in for the whole site however big it is and enjoy every feature for yourself. Your contribution is important and must be recognized. I should probably make a whole separate topic on website building, marketing and personalization because that is definitely something that deserves its own blog. I have learned a great amount about that from managing sites that required managing a team and networking. I will ponder over it and will publish it later on. Actually, since I am working on a new Harry Potter site project now that I can finance it better, I will probably wait until I launch it in October and publish a report on my strategy for that website, which should allow me to have more insight into that project.

In general personalizing your online communication comes down to using the person’s name, recalling elements of your conversation and showing genuine interest. I simply have to think of how I would like to be treated and it should come naturally. I would suggest to think of that in any case but I would have to add “show yourself”! If the best marketing strategy is to show yourself in real life and knock on doors, then surely you want to get as close to it as you can get. The only way to do that is to pull in some of your personality when you communicate online.

My trick of the day is to add your own handwriting to your online documents. I study paleography as part of my MA in Medieval History, which is quite an art and something I am far from able to master as of now: reading and analyzing ancient handwriting. Your handwriting is an extension of your personal style, and every time my Professor looks at scripts I hear him, with good reason, talk about the scribe himself in relation to the script. It’s actually fascinating to think of the psychology behind the way you write. Your handwriting is used to tell something on paper but it tells a lot about you also. To a certain extent, showing it to your interlocutor makes you seem more trustworthy. For example, whenever I send an online application for a job, I always add a digital signature to my cover letter. So far I’ve had a reply to every cv I have sent through, and even in cases when I did not land the job for various reasons (I think I’ve been too ambitious in my choice of jobs to apply for…), I am always told how my presentation was “great” and my personality and passion (I only apply for a job if I’m genuinely interested) came through in the application which is “refreshing and interesting” because people want to see that you care.

Of course, not everyone has a digital tablet and can write on their computer – although really if you want one it’s a fantastic investment, I should also take time to discuss ways to use one without only focusing on creative outlets and digital art. It is also too time consuming and rather inefficient to write and scan letters. So instead I suggest you make your own typing font. I thought about that when I was making my Harry Potter site. I would send personalized digital letters to subscribers. You could do it the hard way like I used to but why would you when you can have it done for a minimal price. My best link is Yourfonts.com, which provides a template and offers to do this for you for only $9.95, which you only need to pay if you find yourself happy with what you get. To me that is a puny investment you would make back in minutes.

On another note, reading through reviews and testing it I thought their idea was fantastic because making your own font is tedious and my geeky website creator mind had only ever thought of website creation uses, but truly, you could do so much more. For example, if you are far away from your family and it is more convenient to send an email, you could instead type your message in a word document with your handwriting font and simply send it as an attachment (though it would be best to save it as a PDF file when you have finished writing it so the formatting stays perfect). Of course it isn’t exactly the same… but it’s so much better than the regular email.

Have fun!

Last Thursday 3rd June, after my first day at my new temp job in telemarketing and finally finding a new apartment for August with my partner, I had to dash to London King’s Cross and catch a Eurostar train to Brussels in order to get to Maastricht, where my parents have been living for the past 3 years. I have days like that when my success relies on everything working as it should and me being really on the ball: in other words, there’s really a bit of luck in success, always. I prefer taking the chance and I find it usually works.

The reason I am posting about this trip is because this is my last trip to Maastricht before my parents move to Paris and I have come to learn that this is far from your usual city. My father is in the French navy, currently working for NATO (located in Brunssum, nearby). One thing that struck me about this city, which is southernmost in the Netherlands and the capital of the province of Limburg, is that there is always some huge event going on. Other than being a city of historical richness attracting a lot of tourism, the many shops and cafes everywhere, the beautiful setting and the current fervor of its football supporters, I find that this city is the liveliest I have ever been to.

The history of this town has its controversies: Maastricht is possibly the oldest city in the Netherlands. It has a wealth of old buildings especially from the Middle Ages, such as its fantastic 13th c. city gates called the Hell gates. The St Servaas Church and St Jan’s Cathedral are simply beautiful and though I decided to see what a mass is like there I admit I ran away after 30 minutes when I realized that the pace of the mass was a lot slower than the average and also more dramatic. To my embarrassment I had a close encounter with the fabulous and huge doors of the Church, which, once shut, are much harder to reopen than you can imagine.

Nowadays, on a hill on the outskirts lives a very rich and very loved man locally, Andr? Rieu, who plays in the beautiful Vrijthof, the town center and whose music I can hear from my parents’ house. I am not a fan of his but it certainly is nice to hear his music everywhere in town, you can hear what I heard if you look up Rieu/Maastricht on Youtube. As I write right now, out of nowhere tambourine resounds from that same place and I have no idea why. The house is really 2 minutes away from the Vrijthof so we can hear everything. During the famous carnival days in February/March everyone goes past the house in costumes and it becomes very difficult to live your daily life. Some inhabitants prefer to take time away from the city when it happens. They go on most of the night and throughout the day.

Other events such as the New year celebrations particularly are also unmissable: I was celebrating the New Year here two years ago and it was incredibly fun although also incredibly dangerous: I have never seen or heard so many firework displays anywhere, not even under the Eiffel Tower (somehow Maastricht struck me more!!). Everyone in town brings their own in huge quantities and as the weather was good that day, it went on all night. Walking through the town felt like walking through a war zone, some even take pleasure in randomly throwing the fireworks at you. It was all really beautiful but I admit I was scared.

I have been to the Winterland each year though and the amount of preparation and effort put into it is phenomenal. The city changes quite a lot and offers an impressive array of activities for all ages, cuisine of varying quality and games and shows and anything you could ask for. Another great outing is to go check the markets, but you might be surprised to see people swallowing raw fish whole so early in the morning…

Although the Maastricht calendar is confusing to its visitors, finding out what events are going on is actually achievable: Most events are advertised around the Vrijtof and are also available online at Crossroads, in English. The budding university which offers courses in English is also a great source of events and activities around the city and while it is full of older inhabitants enjoying their retirement, there is also a fair share of youth looking for parties.

Strangely though, what I will most remember is that I have also had the luck to be granted access to the NATO bases where, until recently, families of those working for NATO were allowed to use facilities and indulged in some duty free shopping of all sorts. I think I really just liked being able to do it and especially driving through the bases. The diversity of people working there is striking of course but one thing I always noticed was how no language really seems to survive this hostile multi cultural and expatriate environment. English is not English anymore and appears in barely recognizable forms, heavily impregnated with the user’s own dialect. It makes for very funny situations when, to everyone’s embarrassment perhaps, say, a French person might end up telling an Englishman that he speaks English very badly (surprisingly I didn’t do it). One thing is for sure, I would not rely on either my French or my English being understood there and I have been actively discouraged from learning Dutch by a Dutch friend because ‘I can never say it right’, which seems the common opinion. To enjoy this beautiful city and the kindness of its inhabitants you have to just let all that is alien to you rain on you, jump in and admire the sights with as little prejudice as possible. You also need to be keen to party…too bad I only ever visited when my batteries were flat. Also, by the standard of Netherlands visitors I’m no fun because I am against any form of smoking. I hope to have shown that there is much else to do in Maastricht.

Finally, during the three years my parents lived there, as I said, what marked me was how very lively and busy Maastricht always seems to be. I made it my personal quest to find a time when it is empty, and one day last winter, the 1st January when everyone is exhausted and nothing is open, rather early I finally found all streets I went to empty, allowing me the most exclusive excursion into town almost anyone can experience there. No more of all those extremely tempting shops, cafes and terraces and events around, just for an hour or so. I took this opportunity to appreciate its beauty even more and to take a few pictures:

First of all Wow, what a fantastic week I have had in St Gallen, attending both the pre-conference programme, then the conference itself and finally the after-the-conference celebrations. All of it was enriching on a personal and professional level and has definitely been a worthy challenge in my life. I had the opportunity to meet a huge variety of people from many places around the world, all of whom were very interesting and remarkably enterprising people.

To me above all, for once, I was not the only one who had traveled a lot and did not especially feel like I belong somewhere in particular in this world – I met others who are citizens of the world. I am French by birth and Canadian through my mother but I have moved to different places all my life and although even my closest family sometimes does not understand it, I have a different view on nationality and I have a rather nomadic lifestyle. I often think it would be great someday if this notion that one human being can detach him or herself from a specific national identity and adopt a wider one (edit: although I am not saying that I am not French or not Canadian) existed when it is not only about living on Earth but also on other planets – should it happen someday, who knows there might also be another way of doing things-. You might then hear someone like me say that they are a universal or cosmic citizen, doesn’t that sounds particularly nice in terms of adventure potential? Nowadays universal and cosmic are words that tend to avoid defining a sense of limitations. But surely someday – if we don’t destroy the human existence prematurely- we will need bigger words to explain what other unknown but expected challenges lie beyond our next geographical milieu and then cosmic and universal (although I believe the word universal has already become a slightly more limited word) will be in usage in the same limited way than worldly now is. Who and what will create this change? But enough on this divergence.

Many things made this an exceptional experience so I will discuss them in parts:

1) The participants themselves: The event was organized by a huge panel of students from St Gallen University and their work, organization and execution was breath-taking. It clearly defies any assumption that students cannot possibly be put in charge of world-class events and do as well if not better than most others. The organizers were all very friendly and I think they can really be proud of themselves. The helpers were also all very interesting people doing an excellent job and I had great discussions with some of them. There were 100 students including me selected for the essays they submitted for the Wings of Excellence Awards, with 3 winners of the competition who had the great opportunity to present their work in front of the audience of the symposium on the last day. There were also another 100 people, usually also students, who were selected by the organizers as knowledge pool for the symposium. Finally there were hundreds more of important business men and women, politicians, journalists, researchers and academics from all over the world some of whom were speakers at the Symposium. Everyone was someone who is actively trying to do something out of the ordinary and challenging. Their backgrounds were extremely diverse and I enjoyed talking to each person I was able to talk with. The networking opportunities alone were incredible and I look forward to hearing what the people I met will accomplish and tap into the possibilities to create more opportunities together.

2) The location: St Gallen itself was beautiful. The university was great too. As a medieval history student, I was thrilled to go to such a richly historical place. The Abbey library contains hundreds of fabulous manuscripts. I was recently researching music and sound in medieval magic and discovered, for example, that the first form of musical notes in Europe, called neumes, were partly developed in St Gallen by the monks and can be found in 9th century manuscripts there. All manuscripts can be found online [LINK], but it was really awesome to experience being there.

3) 100 years of Swiss Aviation: This year was not only an anniversary Symposium, 40 years, but also an anniversary for the Swiss aviation, celebrating its 100th year. For this occasion, both days of the Symposium we had the privilege to see a flight show by the Patrouille Suisse and on Thursday evening I attended the anniversary dinner. All of it was truly fantastic.

4) I challenged myself: One of my mottos is that if you feel fear, you must figure out why and face the object of that fear as soon as you know it. Well I had never experienced anything like this before, my business experience is limited because I am only just starting, I had never spoken in front of such a wide audience nor had I ever received such form of acknowledgment of belonging to a group of people, deserving to be there. I know this sounds strange, but I am actually more used to going against expectations, and although I was the only medieval historian and was often asked ‘so why are you interested in this symposium?’ (answer: ‘I have many interests and projects’) or even the always difficult to answer ‘where are you from?’ (to which I tend to reply, ‘I move a lot’), I felt very welcome. The symposium overall was a strange yet amazing mix of challenging and stimulating situations in a very formal context and a very inclusive type of -exclusive- event however confusing that may sound. For example: I asked a question at one of the plenary sessions. I was afraid of doing it, I rarely ask questions in public in general, I have the curiosity to think of a great many but I usually wait for more private conversations. It was great to try it. It sounds a small step but if you think about the audience there which was exceptionally big and filled with very important people, then how easy it is to ask a silly question and regret it, I’m glad I tried and I am happy with what I asked although I wish I had spelled it out more eloquently and clearly because I might have received better answers.

There is so much more to think of and as I start assimilating it all I shall post more but I believe these were the main things. I must thank the ISC team for the great opportunity, the students I became friends with there for making this an even more incredible experience, and my host who really welcomed me and helped me. I plan to do a Phd at some point later and accumulate experiences and projects in the meantime and I have this nagging feeling that it is a shame I will not be a student next year to participate again. I will try to become knowledgeable enough to come back in another category otherwise!

You can find all info on the symposium, photos and videos etc at the following link: http://www.stgallen-symposium.org/

Photography by David Tett

Last Tuesday, 23rd March was the final of the Lion’s Den Competition at King’s College London. My team, Good Food, was a finalist in the Big Idea category and won. I’m the one with the blue top on the photo above. This competition was running over 6 months and finalized with each team pitching their idea in front of a panel of investors who had read their 3 years business plan.

I learned about this opportunity through internal email and because it was open to anyone I decided to attempt it. In the beginning I came to the seminars that were given to us by various successful business people from London who support the competition. By the end of the first ten weeks we had to form teams and present a business idea we felt confident we could go forward with and were then teamed up with a business mentor interested in our idea who is an alumni of the university.

The official announcement of the results of the competition can be found here. This blog only reflects my personal experience and thoughts on my experience of this competition.

There were not as many competitors as I had anticipated when I went to the first meeting. Most people were on their own to begin with or if they had a partner already they were most likely looking for an extra person. Many already had an idea in mind and were secretive about it but it really was all about team playing, so you could not go through on your own.

The lectures were very helpful in general and they told us exactly what was expected for the competition. Although I could not go to the launch meeting I went to every single seminar through the competition, making a point of never missing any of it. I truly think that by sticking with things through good and bad is how you make the most of it at the end. That is what true determination is about. Showing up every single day, bright and early gives me confidence.

By the tenth week we were to hand in a team proposal. I had met many interesting people but I had not yet managed to settle with a team. There were a few other people in my situation: we each had an idea we felt strongly about but we were on our own. We decided to team up and discuss our individual ideas in order to go for the one we thought had the most potential together. There were 5 of us to start with and no need to say we each fought quite hard for our ideas. In the end we went for Good Food, Lilia’s idea, because we realized it was the one we could all relate to and that our individual skills could most contribute to. Mine was too online based and geeky for the other team members. Sometimes you have to see when your idea is not the best in context and work with other people to create what is best. I’m really glad we teamed up.

The idea is to provide top quality meals to independent schools in affluent areas of London. With some of the margin made we would run a food and taste education program to allow for a better integration of healthier food in the schools we cater. This is important as healthier food has been rejected by some families and children when Jamie Oliver attempted to introduce better food to UK schools. We argued that by targeting our market more precisely and offering food and taste education we would integrate our services much better. Such programs are already in use in some UK schools and Lilia who has worked for Slow Food for more than 10 years has hands on experience of it and knows just how efficient it is. We were extremely careful in planning the business because there are so many touchy points to tackle when dealing with schools. We have a very social approach to the whole idea as well which does not usually make for a winning recipe in a business competition, but we seem to have confidently demonstrated otherwise. Such a business needs to align its branding with that of its clients and thus have a charitable status. We thought of creating the Robin Food Foundation in order to help underprivileged children who cannot afford school meals. You get the gist of it. We wrote a whole business plan, I could easily go on!

It didn’t take much time before the team became smaller. Soon there were only 3 of us left: Lilia, Ade and me, who would stay until the end. This was anything but easy. We did it all on top of our studies, jobs and other activities and because we did not know each other before the competition it is a wonder how we worked so productively together for so long and until the very end. Of course not everything went well, it’s never like that, but I’m impressed at how professional we all were. None of us had any such experience in business prior to this. It really makes me think that I can do anything I truly set my mind to.

Writing the business plan was the hardest thing. It really pushed us to become more realistic about our ideas and find better ways to make them work rather than letting them go. I feel this was really a strong point in what we did: we never gave up on anything, we kept going, perfecting it until it was the best we could make it. Thanks to this, had we lost I would still be happy with it because it feels like we did everything to the best of our current ability. We were very eager to learn and it showed. We made a point of taking in everything we were asked and facing every problem we were exposed to so we wouldn’t leave anything to chance. It was nerve wracking sometimes when faced with something we had not thought of at all we spent all our energy solving the problem. I soon figured out that however difficult it seems there is always a solution, it’s only about how much you want to find it and how creatively you are willing to think about it. If you are reluctant to face problems then you won’t do your best.

Doing the pitch was when our team was most tested. When writing the plan, we didn’t have to be together as much. If one team member couldn’t do what they were supposed to another would always end up doing it and it would work because we just really wanted it to. For the pitch, we all wanted to speak and we had to really trust that we would each do our part 100%. It’s great to see that we did it.

There isn’t a side of team work, creative thinking, will, dedication etc that has not been tested in this competition. It was just how I hoped it would be because you don’t want to go through it all having put all your might into it and then leave with the feeling that you did it easily… at least I don’t want that. Many competitors gave up through the process which is a bit of a shame but ultimately to our advantage. I feel that sometimes you gain something simply from not giving up on things and that winning is just an incredible bonus I feel extremely happy to receive.

I would like to thank my team mates for working on this with me and making this happen. I am really glad we teamed up.

I must say the competition organizer, Harriet Robinson, was excellent and that from the beginning to the end she provided the competitors with the best opportunities, the best support and tools to make it happen. Learning from her and her networks, such as Janet Howd who provided us with excellent voice coaching for example, was a great opportunity in itself. If you are a KCL student considering to enter the competition in the following years, you shouldn’t need to think twice about it.

I must also thank Obi Abuchi, our mentor who is a KCL alumni for his incredible support and expertise. If you are looking for great consulting in talent development, training and coaching, you definitely want to check his website: Motivatem. His latest book is also coming out in June.

I will also have to thank my family, friends and my wonderful boyfriend for their incredible support through this adventure. You make things happen by your own will and determination but it is amazing to see how much the help you receive from close ones gets you that extra mile farther when you tire.

As my first post on this brand new blog I have decided to discuss one of my latest projects. I study at King’s College London. It’s a brilliant university where I have been offered many great opportunities. Last term I received an intriguing email about the St Gallen Wings of Excellence awards, inviting students to participate and decided that the opportunity was too great to miss. I sent my contribution and recently received news that my paper was selected as one of the 100 best contributions. I simply cannot wait to go to the Symposium.

The topic of the 40th Symposium is ‘Entrepreneurs – Agents of Change’. Any post graduate student in the world is invited to send in their contribution and out of all the contributions they receive a panel of judges selects the best 100. The lucky ones are then invited to the Symposium, free of any charge, which takes place in St Gallen, Switzerland, in May. In addition, the best 3 pieces out of those 100 selected contributions receive the award and a prize money. This is the best opportunity as a student to participate in discussions about the world around yourself, politics, business and any major current topic that you may be interested in. Many leaders of today from all around the globe participate in this event each year and it is a real privilege to be invited.

My contribution is titled ‘Entrepreneurs – Craftsmen of a more sustainable global economy’. In this work I felt it was important to discuss the future challenges entrepreneurs are going to face and I suggest news tracks to look for opportunities. I am not certain whether or not I am allowed to publish it here for now so I will not. Should I be able to publish it here I will edit.

I am interested in hearing from anyone who is also going to the Symposium this May or if you have gone to past symposiums.

Now I’m off to make myself a nice new business card and print many copies of it! Actually, I was planning on opening this blog anyway but later. This and a few other opportunities I am lucky to get at the moment have made me speed up the process of building the blog: I want to use it partly as a way to promote my cv and work and do some business networking. I am interested in any opportunity that presents itself. Giving a business card with the address of this blog on it seems to me the most efficient and interesting way to do this!