CV for TED NYC position: Event Coordinator

Career Test

You would most enjoy a career that allows you to meet new people. You would also be happiest in a career that allows you to be free and flexible, and allows you to be extremely creative. Some careers that would be perfect for you are: 

·       Stockbroker

·       Secretary

·       Receptionist

·       Director

·       Recruitment Consultant

·       Politician

·       Marketing

·       Human Resources Manager

·       Religious Minister

·       Teacher

·       Lawyer

·       Advertising

·       Consultant

·       Financial Adviser

·       Financial Planner

·       GP

·       Physical Therapy

·       Occupational Therapy

·       Public Relations

·       Estate Agent

·       Travel Agent

·       Restauranteur/Hotel Manager

·       Events Organiser

You are a great leader. You genuinely enjoy being around other people. Your relationships with others are very important to you. You love talking and meeting new people. You are very enthusiastic about work and about all that you do and have in your life. You love being the focus of attention. You enjoy a fast pace. You are very socially oriented. Therefore, you are much happier being with others than you are alone. You crave interaction with others.

You are very spontaneous and often act before you think. You are always quick to answer when you are asked a question, even if you aren't sure of the answer. It is easier for you to improvise as you go along. You enjoy thinking out loud, and are most creative when brainstorming with friends or colleagues. You enjoy being involved in many activities. 

You are very easy to read, and often wear your heart on your sleeve. You are never afraid to tell people what you think. You are very empathetic and genuine. You can sometimes be seen as over-emotional or too involved by others. But that is only because you tend to get so involved in the things you do that they become personal. You want to be adored, loved and appreciated. You like to please others and to make sure people are happy. 

You trust your gut instincts. You are easily inspired and trust that inspiration. You are very innovative. You analyse things by looking at the big picture. You are concerned about how what you do affects others. You worry about your actions and the future. You tend to use a lot of metaphors and are very descriptive and colourful in your choice of language.

You are very creative, and get bored easily if you don't get to express yourself. You like to learn new things. You don't like the same old routine. You like to leave your options open.

Finding a career that is right for you isn't always an easy thing. However, if you secure a job that is suited to your personality type you will enjoy going to work, feel great about yourself, feel appreciated and look forward to what's ahead. 

FEEDBACK

Dear,

I think that deep down you want to engage and entertain people. In that sense you are more of an actor. This 'acting' can be seen as eg. art performance, dance, stage, circus, theatre, film etc. So you are a medium, a medium that participates actively (!) in transferring a message (assignments), adding something personal to these messages. This personal, in your case (I think) is  always on the lighter and brighter side (not like mine!:-)) > in all honesty i think that you are life itself, without morality which is so refreshing, you are a source of energy. Maybe energy is the key concept of what and who you are. I guess that's the reason why the sun shines less bright when you are not around.

Love

Peter de Boer

(owner at http://www.onna-onna.nl and http://peterdeboer.nl)

CSM Final Synopsis

How can biography story telling be used for brand development?

The use of women’s biographies, aged 25-35, creates stories that potential customers can relate to and associate with brand image.

The starting point of this project came from my personal biography and how dancing in this setting helped me to overcome personal challenges. I have attempted to re-create the tools I used in this process and apply them to a wider audience.

My first artefact was a short biographical movie. Feedback was positive and emotional but without clear direction. On reflection I realised I needed to portray the biographies of others to convey a clearer message.

To experiment with this I worked in collaboration with a professional photographer, capturing the stories of people from small towns in Holland (from successful business people to transvestites in a club) who had transformed their lives in some way, and seeing how the contrasts in their life stories could be portrayed and inspire others. Feedback suggested that a static 2d image expressed a situation but did not convey the transformative elements of a story and did not enable people to engage closely enough with that story.

 (Campaign artefact "Travel Back Home" Model: Lesley Korpos)

I decided next to explore the story of a brand or an institution and using my previous learning’s to examine how that story can be expressed or personified through multiple dimensions.

I researched contrasting perceptions of different branches of The Supper Club (one in Amsterdam and one in London) by asking people to create imaginary biographies of the club as a person.

               (S.C LONDON)

             (S.C AMSTERDAM)
In Amsterdam the biographies described by the respondents were aligned to the brand values of the club, but in London responses were confused and did not convey a coherent story.  I approached the Creative Director with my findings and agreed to try an experiment to see how the club values could be expressed to their customers through a biographical experience. We started from a fictional character and aimed to create an environment which would immerse customers in the character’s life, re-designing the whole Supper Club as a girl’s room and communicating the brand values through her personal objects, diary and visual narratives. We did not succeed in implementing this, however as the gatekeepers withdrew their support at the last moment.

However, I found another collaborator who was trying to establish a new business but needed to create a strong identity to promote and develop it in a highly competitive market. She wanted to create a dance studio for women only with the prime objective of building their selfconfidence.  We identified the demographic and researched people’s concerns and responses to key features of the concept.

During this research[1] several key points were taken into consideration: 

·       Teenage insecurities;

·       Who did they become by overcoming obstacles?

·       The safest environment every woman feels secure in?

·       Favourite objects they had or wished they had in their teenage room.

The collated information from over a hundred women in the target audience was analysed by looking at similarities and transformed into one coherent story. We created a fictional biography and built a room decorated with the favourite objects identified in the research to re-create the safe and cosy environment as if it was their teenage bedroom. The reactions were positive and many responded that they could relate closely to the variety of objects and the story behind them.

As a result it helped me understand the importance of engaging with the target community to look for similar experiences and events in their biographies and the ability to transform that into services.  As people start to relate their own experiences and biography that engages them into the process and makes them feel much more part of it.

This entire process has taught how individuals can be engaged in a transformative way and strong emotions evoked through personal biographies.  By fictionalising biographies I learned how to craft and direct those emotions. Applying this to a brand or institution I have learned how to communicate brand values by associating them in a sympathetic story and embodying that story in a multi-dimensional immersive environment.  The story, environment and brand are required to align in order to create the clearest impression. 

Lady Dance (CSM Final Project)

(Logo idea: S.Chebysheva Design: Richard Christopher&Danilo de Rosa)

Hi girls , my name is Lady-Dance.  Welcome to my bed room. This is a place for you to feel at home, without an image to maintain, or make-up to wear, only girls allowed.

My mission:  To engage women from all ages and backgrounds to get together to participate in various classes and activities. Most importantly, they can feel totally at home and enjoy the health benefits of the programs which are tailor to enhance self-confidence while increasing their fitness at the same time. We want to create a girl exclusive atmosphere, so women can open up and not feel self-conscious.

My Vision: I want to inspire my women community to a happy body and mind by creating a soulful experience and allowing them to have their personal space, eventually making them feel beautiful and gain self-confidence.

                                                                           ``Here you can be yourself`` Lady Dance.

Welcome to my room 

Once upon a time, every little girl had her own little bedroom room. The little space where she could morph into whoever she wanted to become.

Back then, that personal space was her little room that she thought was her castle, protecting her from all the bad spirits.

It was also a sanctuary where she could hide and cry in her pillow with her favorite teddy bear during bad times.

That room was the place where all her dreams began to take form. The endless imagination was overflowing with beautiful fantasies and magical desires. 

Here she wanted her prince to come and find her like in the fairy tales.

This room was her comfort zone where her toys and mirrors were her best audience. This audience will always love her performances and applauded at all times, good or bad. She felt that she had a stage presence here and was the centre of attention.

This was a place where she rehearsed like a nightingale with the brush or deodorant in her hand, where she danced gracefully as though she was by herself. This space is where she felt free and secure. In this space there was no room for judgment and she felt ever so confident and secure. As if she was truly the best performer in the world…..

Concept 

Lady Dance challenged herself: “How can I re-create that feeling of security, confidence and attractiveness, like as though no one judged her with their watchful eyes, exactly the same way as in her childhood room?

Many women are extremely busy with work and hardly have any time or motivation to work out!

Some of them visit gyms where they are surrounded by sweaty, aggressive men lifting extremely heavy weights, making women feel uncomfortable around them.

Some post-natal woman who just recently had a baby will prefer to have a safe and friendly environment to go to.

Many of them just simply love dancing. However, they rarely visited dance studios as they don’t want to look silly next to more advanced and competitive dancers.

Whatever the situation is, Lady Dance aims to create a women community and re-designed the dance studio as if it was her own bedroom and offers a variety of dance and health classes for women without previous dance backgrounds in order to boost their self confidence.

Recreating her personal space so she could feel at home is a crucial aspect of making her feel happy and attractive, so she can act herself and dance as if no one was watching in a friendly atmosphere.

This is a strictly women only organization and is a key concept Lady-Dance is trying to achieve.

  (Design idea: Svetlana Chebysheva, Design 3D: Yulia Chebysheva)

How can biography story telling be used for brand development?

 The aim of this project is to assess how biographical story telling derived from a specific target market (women 25-35) can be used to engage potential customers, encourage them to relate to it and so become familiar and associated with the brand and engage in the community and service provided.

During this reserch several key points were taken into consideration: 

·       Teenage insecurities;

·       How did they overcome it?

·       Who did they become afterwards?

·       The safest environment every woman feels secure in?

·       And favourite objects they have had in their teenage bed room.

As a result it helped me understand the importance of engaging with the target community to look for similar experiences and events in their biographies and the ability to transform that into services. 

The brand Lady-Dance was established for women only.  The service provides variety of dance classes to experience the positive effects of dancing by giving them a wide range of different classes to buzz their self confidence. The dance studio design represents the bed room in order to recreate that safe environment that every women can relate too as if she is dancing in her own bed room.

     (Video idea/direction/editing: S.Chebysheva, Misic: Sundiata de Vore)

Who am I now?

How would I describe myself now…its complicated ;) I am complicated; all kinds of words come to my mind when I think about it, both positive and negative.  I am emotional, unstable, bubbly, fun, confident, a little shy, social, caring, spontaneous, complex but joyful, love shopping and dancing, singing in the shower, independent, friendly, happy, free, love to dream, strong, sometimes weak, spiritual, sensitive, creative, passionate, unique, helpful, successful, lovable, vulnerable, active, loving, smart, hardworking, lively, outgoing, crazy, clumsy, feminine, sarcastic, ridiculous, optimistic, impulsive, ambitious…. This list is endless! I am all those things and I am happy!

Yours...