Preparation Workshop: nerves, excitement and a lot of fun!

After selecting the participants for the New Business Challenge 2016 it was time for the Preparation Workshop. In Ghana the participants met at the Palm Institute in Accra and in the meantime all Dutch participants came together at the Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland in The Hague.

In Ghana Fleur Hoog Antik, the Acting Managing Director of GNBCC , introduced the programme for the day, the team coaches (Nana Yaa and Rose) and the students were given some packages which included the entire NBC programme, the study trips both to the Netherlands and to Ghana and information from their respective companies.

In the past two weeks, all teams worked on an online team assignment. During the workshop duos presented their teammates and compared their solutions on the business case. Next to this, three alumni from last year’s programme talked about their experiences and the cultural differences they sometimes encountered. The Ghanaian NBC participants gave some interesting presentations on their Dutch teammates based on their initial interactions with them and the information they had gathered from them. They talked about how their daily lives looked like, what they were up to and a little bit of personal information like their family and friends. Four Ghanaian NBC 2015 Alumni; Henry, Paulina, Hasanatu and Martin joined the workshop to share their experiences during NBC 2015. A surprise visit from Maartje, one of the Dutch NBC 2015 Alumni who happened to be in Ghana,  joined in to share her experiences during last year’s NBC.

Of course, there was time for some lunch and after that the role plays started. Funny and unexpected situations from last year were played by the alumni. The preparation workshop was not about sitting and listening to others but the participants on this year’s programme were immediately actively involved in the role plays. Also in Ghana alumni were present. After lunch, Francis from Netherlands Alumni Association of Ghana (NAAG) gave a brief presentation on life in the Netherlands as a Ghanaian and gave the students some advice and tips for their study trip. Some students were very excited about the trip, others were also anxious probably thinking about their first time travel and how their intercultural collaborations will go with the Dutch.

The day in the Hague ended with a fun surprise: eating some Dutch herring at the RVO building! Also in Ghana there were snacks and a lot of selfies to end the inspiring day.