Make Indonesian cities work through collaboration

Alumni from various batches and backgrounds gathered during the gathering event. Picture by: Oxalis Suwaryono.

Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the institution, IHS-EUR Alumni Network Indonesia organized an alumni gathering on November 10, 2018 in Jakarta. This gathering event was attended by twenty (20) alumni from various batches, professions, and backgrounds. In addition to that, several special guests were also present in the event: Desislava Yordanova from the IHS Marketing and Communications department, Oxalis Suwaryono from the Holland Alumni Network Indonesia, and Wiwi Tjiook from the Municipality of Rotterdam.

The gathering aimed to create a platform to connect, share knowledge, and create a collaboration among alumni, who are now working in various sectors. Complex urban issues happening in Indonesia, cannot be solved merely by local governments. Collaboration among multidisciplinary actors is crucial to be able to give different perspectives on issues and find a creative yet out-of-the-box solutions. Indonesia, among other South East Asian countries, has a big number of IHS-EUR alumni. This gives an opportunity to develop collaborations toward the implementation of sustainable urban development in Indonesia.

Alumni gatherings should be fun! In order to elevate the fun level of the event, there were two games for all alumni, which were the speed dating and a quiz. In the speed date game, alumni were divided into small groups randomly and they had a “date” with all group members to get to know each other. At the end of the game, a representative from each group (which was also picked randomly) told everything that he/she knows about his/her date. Sounds fun, right? Another peak of the event was the quiz, which was brought by Desislava Yordanova. Six out of twenty alumni were declared as winners of the quiz and they received souvenirs especially brought from the Netherlands!

Besides catching up with each other’s personal and professional lives, the event also wants to promote the value of sustainability which was promoted through a book swap activity. Alumni were asked to bring their old or unused books to be swapped with other books that were brought by other guests. Swapping is proven beneficial to change the consumptive behaviors-where ‘sharing your possessions for others’ becomes the core value. At the end, the event brought meaningful stories, connections, unforgettable memories, and memorable value.

About the author:

Yulia Meysa was born twenty five years ago in Jakarta, Indonesia. She is an architect and urbanist, who has been in the field of urban development for three years. She also recently graduated from Urban Management and Development at IHS Erasmus University Rotterdam. She wrote this article as part of her observation during her thesis in Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo, in mid 2017. She currently lives in Jakarta, Indonesia.