Last week already wrapped up our last session of the Coopr Academy – once again proof of how time flies! Five weeks ago, we set foot into the Candid office for the first time, not knowing what to expect from the sessions ahead of us or who we would be working for on the PR case. I remember the nervous faces in session one when we were about to find out who the client would be, then excitedly listening to Ivette from Madurodam’s marketing team sharing the challenge with us: “Show people that Madurodam is more than just miniature.” Challenge accepted! So, for the following weeks, the ten participants of the Coopr Academy worked on a case in two teams, both supported by one of Coopr’s PR experts. The team of Group 1 had the pleasure of working with Anouk, while the team of Group 2 was supported by Lotte. The weekly sessions guided us along the way to in the end come up with a complete, well-thought-through PR strategy to solve the challenge set to us by Madurodam. We learned about insights and strategy, corporate communication, brand PR, influencer marketing, and how to best use our creativity for brainstorming and the pitch. Sounds like quite a lot, right? We can with certainty say that the range of practical knowledge we gained within those five short weeks was nothing we could have learned at university within the same time. But what did the teams come up with in the end? Was it enough to convince the critical jury of their creative ideas? And did all the hard work in the end finally pay off?

This week’s session was all about boosting creativity and how to brainstorm in a better and more exciting way. Kicking off at 16h, Shelly and Mischa took the lead. They shared with us their expertise on the subjects, with the right to fun facts like “what does your internet browser says about your creativity?”.

After two sessions with Anouk and Lotte, this week it was time for us to have individual meetings with our groups and either Anouk or Lotte, so we could discuss our ideas after brainstorming, and we could ask any questions. In this week’s plenary session, it was time to switch it up! When we were done with catching up and ready to get serious, Judith and Monique introduced themselves and took over this session to teach us more about corporate communication and media training!