Don’t play the game, change the game!
On Thursday November 22, the first edition of the Young Energy Professionals (YEP) event place took place in Utrecht. The theme of the day was: ‘Game Changers’. More than 100 young professionals from different (energy) companies, such as Essent Energie, Eneco, Energy Delta Institute, TNO, Gasunie, Enexis, DNVGL, NAM and GasTerra attended the event, exchanging knowledge and experiences.
The president of YEP – Pieter Smith of Gasunie – opened the first edition and provided an insight into YEP, the growing number of business memberships and the association’s targets. Bert Stuij of the Energy Delta Institute then told more about open innovation and energy transition. At the moment, the development of new technologies plays an important role. He emphasized his message with the motto ‘The global crisis creates a burning platform’.
Casper Bodewitz then spoke about gaming and game changing, stating how games can change the virtual world. He pointed out some energy games, including Gasolution, Save the World and the Energy Transition Game. Main conclusion: a game is only successful when it contains an interactive game element.
To energize the audience, Marius Engelbrecht of Voice Expression got everyone singing and dancing. After lunch, Nienke Bloem explained why it is so important to focus on the customer. As a customer centricity guru, she talked about why it is important to give the company a face and get close to your target group. Mark Vletter of Telecom Company Voys explained why you should not look at ego systems, but at eco systems when determining your strategy. His message was, amongst other things, not to be a manager, but an inspirational leader, to make use of the knowledge in a company and to create a fresh and cheerful atmosphere.
After the coffee break, the 4 workshops started, such as those offered by Essent and Eneco which offered participants the opportunity to think along about a new marketing strategy. Finally, Maurits Groen, the Number 1 in the Trouw Sustainability Top 100 and founder of the ‘WakaWaka’ lamp, told an inspirational story about the fair competitiveness of renewable energy.
Pieter Smith captured this event in one sentence, summarizing that young energy professionals can make the difference:
Don’t just play the game, change the game!