#Visit us in Breda on Thursday 24 April 25! #Participation is free.
SDG ACTION FESTIVAL
Thursday 24 April 2025. Follow the signposts in Breda.
Join students event management to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals
Some 150 students event management from 5 international partner programmes assemble each year in a different European city. Their goal? To make the citizens aware of the sustainable development goals launched by the United Nations. How? Via live communication experiences.
Those students are involved in an event-related study programme at VIVES, University of Applied Sciences, Belgium, at Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland, at Lapland University of Applied Sciences, Finland, at Breda University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands and at Inholland University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands.
Become a conscious citizen and help to improve your city.
Learn about the SDGs, the Sustainable Development Goals launched by the United Nations. Choose and strive for the goal that suits you the most. Fight against poverty and hunger. Fight for good health and wellbeing, quality education, decent work and economic growth, to name only a few of the goals each city should meet by 2030. Our international teams with event management students will show you the way in this year’s chosen city.
Your hosts and host institutions
An Ostyn
VIVES University of Applied Sciences
Lecturer & Coach VIVES Event Management
Initiator and Organizer STRETCH/SDG Action Festival
An Ostyn is a lecturer in corporate communications and Business English. She also coaches communications skills to students conducting a practical project. In doing so, she really focusses on stretching that playful part of the mind and prompting it to extend to the edgy shades of imagination and language. She is the presenter and host at many (VIVES) events and is involved in internationalization at VIVES. From her experience, she has been committed to setting up the STRETCH network and co-ordinating the first version of the international student project, the SDG Action Festival Kortrijk.
Sofie Charles
VIVES University of Applied Sciences
Programme Leader VIVES Event Management
Sofie Charles is a lecturer in Business English, management skills and international HRM. She also coaches students in group dynamics when conducting practical projects. Moreover, she is the programme leader for Events Management at VIVES University.
While teaching and coaching, she always emphasizes the added value of international cooperation and how this is becoming more and more important as the world is becoming increasingly interconnected. She is now joining this International Project for the first time.
Bart Derolez
VIVES University of Applied Sciences
Former Programme Leader Event Management
Initiator and Former Organizer STRETCH/SDG Action Festival
In 2004, Bart Derolez was a pioneer in Flanders, when he created Events Management for VIVES University and he was the programme leader until 1 September 2024. With a core team of lecturers and events industry specialists he managed to shape a dedicated and challenging study programme. Next to his role as a team leader, he taught event-related topics. In addition, he was also involved in practical trainings and projects. It was Bart who, as first one, felt the need to reach out internationally, to set up a network of event studies key players. This resulted in STRETCH and the SDG Action Festival which he launched with An Ostyn in 2020. Bart is now retired but is occassionally still involved in the project as chairman of the jury.
Dorothé Gerritsen
Dorothé Gerritsen has been a lecturer in Event Management, at the Academy for Leisure of Breda University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands, since 1995. In one of the specialist areas open to students, event management, she initiates and supervises research projects in the field of event marketing. She is the co-author of the book ‘The Event as a Strategic Marketing Tool’. She has also been a member of the Education Committee of the Centre of Live Communication, CLC-Vecta. She teaches at different levels and programmes such as the Master Strategic Event Management. She is also the coordinator of the minor Strategic Event Management and the bachelor programme Events for Business.
Ronald Van Olderen
Rowdy van den Nieuwenhuizen
Rowdy van den Nieuwenhuizen is a lecturer and coach at Breda University of Applied Sciences, specialized in Business Events. Currently, he works part time at the academy for Leisure. In addition to his specialization in events for Business, he is involved in the minor Co-creating Events and Designing Experiences and he supervises graduating students.
Outside of academia, Rowdy works as a freelance strategic event manager for Front Row, maintaining engagement with students and clients while primarily focusing on marketing conferences and business fairs.
Rutger Boxhoorn
Rutger is the coordinator and lecturer of the Event Experience module at the Inholland University of Applied Sciences in Rotterdam. An important aspect of this module is interdisciplinary work, so it hosts students from the programmes Creative Business, Tourism Management, Communication, Leisure & Event Management and Business Innovation. Rutger lectures on designing experience and executing events. Besides lecturing, Rutger is a part time event producer. He was Head of Production of the Amsterdam Grachtenfestival till 2023, works for the Zwarte Cross Festival (biggest paid outdoor festival in The Netherlands) and for several smaller clients.
David Winter
Inholland University of Applied Sciences
David Winter is a part-time lecturer in Leisure & Events Management at Inholland University of Applied Sciences, located in Diemen/Amsterdam. Specialized in events, he serves as both lecturer and coach and coordinates the Event Experience track. In addition to his academic role, David continues to bring his expertise to the industry through his own events agency called ‘Fijne Snuiters’. His agency is renowned for organizing B2C and B2B events, each crafted with a strong emphasis on enjoyment and engaging experiences.
Teresa Chen
Lapland University of Applied Sciences
Manager Digital Business Expertise Group | ICT business, art
Marika Saranne
Lapland University of Applied Sciences
Manager Digital Business Expertise Group | ICT business, art
Irina Puisto
Lapland University of Applied Sciences
Manager Digital Business Expertise Group | ICT business, art
Irina Puisto worked as a lecturer in business administration at the Lapland University of Applied Sciences in Tornio since 2022. Before that, she worked for 15 years in the financial sector, which gave her an excellent vantage point to comprehensively understand the national economy. The national economy is close to her heart. She teaches different business subjects: from sustainable development and national economy to marketing and management. She also works as a coach for their XBit Academy group. She has been involved in the social economy project and also in the Digiboost project, which develops the know-how and technology of companies in Lapland. In 2025, she has joined this STRETCH project for the first time.
Kaija Meriläinen
Laurea University of Applied Sciences
Certified Event Designer (CED), Event Design Mastermind By EDCO Global – happy to discuss event design, event establishing & management in different genres (festivals, BtoB, sporting etc). Background in tourism & restaurant business, master degrees both Education & Cultural anthropology. Interested in mixology, kayaking, cycling, community building & lifelong learning.
Heidi Vähänikkilä
Laurea University of Applied Sciences
With a strong background in the field of hospitality, I have been working in different companies for 18+ years before starting to work as a Senior Lecturer. My passion concerns everything in the domains of marketing and communications, hotel business, event management and customer experience all in all. Currently I am working on my PhD research project (on Business Model Innovation in the hospitality field) .
Susana Filipa Gonçalves
The Estoril Higher Institute for Tourism and Hotel Studies (ESHTE)
With a PhD in Tourism, Susana’s professional career has brought her into contact with several realities of events and tourism. Passages through aviation, hospitality, catering, and events management and consultancy were fundamental for her performance as a lecturer at the Estoril Higher Institute for Tourism and Hotel Studies, where she has shared and absorbed knowledge for more than 20 years, in the areas of Events Management and Leisure Studies.
Susana has committed herself to studying and implementing the best teaching and learning practices for the education of event professionals. That is why she decided to step into this project with a group of her events management students.
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