A Great Event - NANC Annual General Event
09 Dec 2009
The NANC Annual General Event (AGE) has been initialized as the biggest and the most important event organized throughout the year. The purpose is to get all alumni together to recall the cheerful memorable times they have had in the Netherlands, and to create more attention from them in playing a role of ‘image ambassador’ in their fields of profession.
The network aims to serve as a platform to provide the means and opportunities for its members and partners to improve their communication and empowerment and to promote their social and professional interests, and thereby ultimately improve Sino-Dutch relations.
The first NANC AGE was organized in 2007 ‘Cocktail Party’ in Shanghai; last year NANC organized the second annual general event on the theme ‘Alumni of the year awards’ in Beijing and received more than 200 alumni and members.
This year the same tradition was followed as well. The third NANC AGE was organized on Dec 5th 2009 in Shanghai also with a big success! One of the highlights for AGE 2009 was to ‘Celebrate of the arrival of Sinterklaas in China’ and to share the memories of Sinterklaas in Holland, and more importantly to provide a good networking opportunity and joyful evening.
More than 100 alumni, members and contacts from Shanghai Consulate General were present; Mr. Jacques van Vliet, Director Nuffic Neso China, and Mr. Eric Verwaal, Consul General Shanghai were also present and welcomed all attendees. Sinterklaas came all the way to Shanghai with his trusty helpers ‘Zwarte Pieten’, he asked some questions like ‘Do you know where I am originally from? What will happen if you are naughty?’ and brought all the gifts to the well-behaved ones; and he also sent us a short message after the event that he enjoyed that evening very much!
After a dinner buffet, participants were asked to team up to share their individual Sinterklaas experiences and stories with each other around the table, and to capture their stories on a large poster paper; each team leader (Zwarte Piet) captured a visionary interpretation of their stories to the audiences, and two best teams were congratulated and each received with a bottle of wine!
Last but not least, two luckiest alumni were chosen for the lucky draw, each received a Shanghai-Amsterdam return ticket by giving a correct answer of the lucky quizzes. Mr. Michael LIU, KLM Corporate Sales Managers handed over the letters to the winners on the stage!
Furthermore, alumni based in Nanjing, a city located in Jiangsu Province which is not far from Shanghai, also traveled to Shanghai to attend this event. A journalist from Xinhua News Agency, who is also an alumnus of VU University Amsterdam, interviewed the Sinterklaas, Mr. Jacques van Vliet and Selano Li( NANC alumni officer) during the event.
The whole event lasted about 4 hours and all participants had a memorable and joyful evening. More photos can be found on NANC website under News & Updates: Photo Gallery.