During Create Tomorrow, students work in teams on cases from companies and institutions for a day, with the prize for the winning team being €4000. Lieke Dom, the chairperson of the Create Tomorrow committee, expects the event will attract about 1000 participants. ‘Not only from the UT. We also want to stronger encourage students from other universities to join.’
Exactly a month from now, the eighth edition of the ‘world’s largest student think tank’ will take place on the Ganzenveld. This time, the event will be different, says Dom. ‘We chose to work on a new vision and a new concept. I want to emphasize that all previous editions were a big success. But in collaboration with our new partner Novel-T, we came to the conclusion that the event could live up to its potential much more.’
The main differences this year will be that participants work on cases that fit within four themes linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. ‘Working on a brighter future is very important to students nowadays. By offering themes that matter, we can be more relevant to our participants. Plus, we also wanted the cases to be more thematically coherent,’ says Dom.
The themes
- Good Health & Well-being
- Sustainable Cities and Communities
- Industries, Innovation and Infrastructure
- Affordable and Clean Energy
According to Dom, another improvement lies in the follow-up after the event. ‘As a participating company, you get a tidal wave of good ideas during our event. That’s where our collaboration with Novel-T comes in: after Create Tomorrow is done, Novel-T offers two different programs for the companies with the winning cases to develop the ideas.’
The concept will be different this year, but other elements will remain. ‘Host of the day will be Dutch radio and tv presenter Roelof Hemmen,’ says Dom. ‘There will also be other interesting keynote speakers, enough moments to relax and the event is fully catered. Anything goes, really. All in all, it’s a really fun and inspiring day.’
Every year from now on
For the first time, Create Tomorrow will fully be in English. And instead of it being a biennial event, this committee wants to make it a yearly event. ‘To make the event more well-known,’ says Dom. ‘Otherwise, you would miss reaching out to a yearly batch of students. By making it a yearly event, we also make it easier for companies to keep bringing in cases.’
