De Amerikaanse koffieketen Starbucks koos de meest prestigieuze ruimte van het Centraal Station om zijn nieuw koffiehuis in te richten. Heidi Gelders heeft hier een fotoreportage gemaakt.
Meer beelden kan je vinden op flickr.
fotoshoot gipsvlucht
Met twee ‘gipsvluchten’ repatrieert reisbijstandsorganisatie Europ Assistance zaterdag 54 wintersporters die tijdens hun vakantie geblesseerd raakten. Ik was aanwezig als fotografe in opdracht van Concentra. Dank u Concentra!
Meer fotomateriaal treft u aan op flickr.
principles of networking for the wall street journal
Het spijt me maar deze tekst is enkel in het Engels.
Online: Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal Europe Future Leadership Institute invites thought leaders, experts and decission makers to write about leadership techniques, research and resources. The below article is about the principles of networking by Heidi Gelders, from the Belgian marketing association VEPEC.
The power of networking. Being active in networking can get you doing your job with pleasure, it gets more potential out of you and it gives you valuable information more quickly than for example reading. As a professional, concerning communication, Vepec is the perfect networking environment. There are many advantages when you choose for active networking. Here are some of them:
1. Despite the World Wide Web and our digital way of living, people are more than ever in need of contact with other people in person. The pure, real life networking is the strongest tool about when it comes to expanding your contacts in business. Networking is meeting people that you can help and that can help you. It is a good and easy way of exchanging capabilities. It is indeed one of the strongest marketing tools. Certainly Communication specialists should know the force of networking.
2. Networking is all about being pure and authentic. This is how I do my networking. I mean that when I talk to somebody I am really interested in his/her work. When you are faking this, the person you are talking to will notice it and it will not work. There has to be a mutual respect for each other.
3. Thanks to good networking events you stay up to date. Vepec is a good marketing tool concerning all about advertising. You hear other people talking about your field of interest. They give you new inspiring ideas that you can use in your business. On the other hand they are all ears for your way of working. Just by talking about your business and that you hear yourself talking is a great way of learning about yourself.
4. Thanks to your participation in networking you get a feedback of how strong you stand as a person and as a businessman or -woman. The feedback you receive on an evening of networking can help you in fine-tuning your image. This is also a very handy trick for marketing specialists that come to a Vepec event.
5. When you invite your current clients to join you at networking events, they are your “live” reference. They can do the talking in your place. One happy client of me was talking with a manager of a large company. That manager asked: “Who created all your advertisements?” He said: “She is standing next to you”. A week later I had a meeting with that manager and a fortnight later I was working for him. All this thanks to my happy client I invited to the networking event of Vepec. This client also learned a few marketing tricks that same evening.
6. Thanks to the new people you meet on an evening of networking you can get introduced to other new interesting prospects. Every time I go networking, I pledge that I will talk to 3 new people that I don’t know yet. This way I challenge myself to expand my network. On a Vepec event this can be interesting because you can meet advertising agencies, large accounts, photographers and all kind of communication specialists.
7. Also, thanks to networking you can reach far more people than you could reach on your very own. Thanks to networking you meet people that use their network that can help you grow your business.
8. The chance that you get a new client on one evening is small but it is possible. I had it once. I turned my back just to get a drink of the waitress and yes, the man that I ended up talking to has been one of my large accounts about advertsing and photography during several years.
9. Networking generates a feeling of belonging to a peer group. You are part of it. Perhaps this is one of the greatest advantages of networking. Everyone wants to bond with interesting people. Just being a part of it all might be the strongest emotion of networking. And I must say Vepec is a innovative group.
10. And last but not least. It is fun to do!
