Creating Powerful Global Connections Through Quest
Arcadis Quest has given me the opportunity to discover our business’ deep heritage, and more.
As someone who manages the Arcadis’ global social media channels and works under the Global Marketing & Communications Team, I feel very fortunate that I am able to engage with many people across different regions. But it’s not everyday that I get to see them face-to-face, being one who is currently based in GEC Philippines. In an office where there are more engineers and not one social media colleague in sight, not a lot of people know much about my role. So this year, I got ecstatic when I was approved to go on a Quest to the place where Arcadis started its roots: Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Here, I was able to meet my colleagues and engage in different brainstorming activities to create powerful online collaborations using a wide variety of online networking platforms.
Arcadis Social Media is divided into global and regional social channels. While I currently manage, collaborate, and feed worthy content to be shared on the global channels (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Vimeo etc.) while keeping in line with the Arcadis branding as well as creating social media guides and reports, all other regions also work with their own set of selected social media accounts, managed by my fellow marketing colleagues within those regions. All these accounts are meant to drive change and growth in the business using digital space.
With the Europe North M&C Team at Amersfoort office
During my Quest exchange, I met with my Global M&C colleagues Dorry Reuling and Karen Jens. Dorry also introduced me to a number of people working at Arcadis NV/HQ. I also met my region host, Elske de Jong at the Arcadis office in Amersfoort and discussed our social media approach coming from both global and regional perspectives. From there, we were able to see the differences in our roles and align our upcoming collaborative efforts with our current digital media strategy.
Elske also introduced me to Manuela van der Wielen of Lovinklaan Foundation and Tim Preger who is currently Arcadis’ North Europe Press Officer. Tim and I had a very interesting discussion about the business, our roles on social media and the heritage of Arcadis while walking on the streets of a 700 year-old historical city, which was located just a few minutes away from our office in Amersfoort. Quest also became a reason for me to personally connect with Bert Smolders and Iris Bijlsma, two people who continue to dedicate their expertise and time to the Shelter Program initiative, a noted partnership between Arcadis and UN Habitat. During that time, we came up with ways of further strengthening the digital presence of the Shelter Program using the global social channels. I was also very fortunate to have come to Amsterdam to witness a company milestone: seeing the new Arcadis logo being installed on top of the Symphony Offices Building where Arcadis HQ is located.
Elske and I also did an ‘Arcadis Projects Day’, where we were able see what Arcadis did for different places located within the city center in Amsterdam such as: renovation, crossing and megaprojects at/near the Central Station, parking at Museumplein, entrance of the Van Gogh Museum, the Public Library, the Double Tree by Hilton Amsterdam, and the renovation of the Rijksmuseum, a project which was successfully led by Global Design’s own Andre de Roo, whom some of you will know.. Seeing the actual projects gave me an entirely new level of appreciation that I wouldn’t be able to experience if I had only seen them on my mobile or laptop. Arcadis has provided accessibility and infrastructure, enriched knowledge and innovation, created urban developments, and improved the city’s tourism and deep culture not just in Amsterdam, not just in The Netherlands, but in the entire world. It proved to me how important these facts needs to be shared through the global website and social channels even more. I imagined instantly how it would be a privilege to see more of our projects in the other regions as well!
The weekend during my trip was about exploring and taking a lot of photos which I look forward to use on the Arcadis global Instagram account. I also had the chance to attend an Arcadis-sponsored event — a concert finale organized by Prinses Christina Concours, part of the royal family in The Netherlands, who supports kids who would like to pursue their passion through music. This was held at Scheveningen, Den Haag (The Hague). I thank Tim, Elske and Diana De Kruis for inviting me to such a memorable musical spectacle.
The last few days of my Quest included working in the Arcadis office in Arnhem, and meeting Stephanie Van Herpen, who is the Head of Europe North M&C Team. A quick trip to Elske’s home, meeting and having dinner with her family was the perfect ending to my work in Arnhem.
And just when I thought my Quest was over, I went back to the Arcadis NV office for a spontaneous meet-up with Global Head of Marketing and Communications Paula Murphy and Global Internal Communications Manager Fiona Tanner, who both came to Amsterdam from the London office to meet and shoot a video with Peter Oosterveer, our new CEO.
It was also a perfect way to finally catch up and have dinner with Fiona, where we shared our thoughts on creating better ways to use and promote the Arcadis Go App; and Julie Nguyen, my previous line manager, the new Global Client Development Lead for Arcadis Digital and one of the pioneers behind the Deep Orange Program. As part of our collaborative activities, we also look forward to creating a social media plan for Deep Orange soon!
My Quest is by far one of the most unforgettable experiences that I will forever cherish. I thank Arcadis, the Lovinklaan Foundation for giving me a chance to share my knowledge on digital media and visit as many places as I could fit in during my stay in The Netherlands. I am very happy to have met all the people I’ve mentioned and appreciate the time and conversations that I was able to have with them.
The Quest program made me even more proud of being an Arcadian and I highly recommend using the Quest opportunity as a way to be more inspired and generate more ideas to continuously improve the quality of life.