We caught up with
Maarten De Ruyck, a postgrad student who came to Event Academy from studying marketing management at University. He became fascinated with how brands stay fresh after a degree placement on launching new brands and a project involving a shop opening event. He also found himself irresistibly drawn to the events side of the marketing world.
“My ambition is high: I want to work with big, well known brands”
He has big ambitions: firstly he was keen to travel and study in London rather than stay in his homeland of Belgium. As he told us, 6 months studying and working in the UK is a great boost to his CV and his professional network. He wants to work with big brands and has loved the chance to work on live pitches and projects through Event Academy with brands like EE, well respected events agency WRG and London based charities like Teenage Cancer Trust.
“Really be yourself and go for it! If you are engaged the people around you will be engaged.”
Maarten’s Event Academy placement is with international agency Clarion events, and he’s been working on the recent ‘Partnering with Africa Networking Evening’ event as part of The Energy Exchange. Imagine being part of an event with senior oil & gas representatives, as well as government executives. The remit is to create innovative events to spark the right conversations that really do make a difference at government level and among industry leaders. What a difference to be making with your work!
“The lecturers are really professional and engaged and bring a real positive energy to their lectures and to the students”
From doing the course Maarten has learned all about different types of events, how to organise them step by step and find his way in the events industry. By working on live pitches and projects in small teams with other students he learned the value of bringing his own creativity and personality to create an emotional connection with an audience. This is what he loves about experiential events.
He also received great feedback both from students and lecturers while working on the group projects. He’s using this to present himself with gravitas at interviews or meetings. Through doing the course he can approach any experiential marketing situation with confidence now that he’s tested what works and knows his industry.
If you want to find out more about our
courses and how we can help you sparkle your way to big brands, exciting events, creative briefs and being in the thick of the action have a look at
our courses, or check our
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