New opportunities for familiar faces
The new corporate structure in which we remain partners for live
Partners for live. It is not an empty slogan that we have put on the website in chocolate letters because it sounds so good to the outside world. The contrary. The philosophy and the ambition attached to it are reflected in everything we do. Internally and externally. And after the great growth of recent years, our team is taking new steps to continuously realize our vision. With five new features for familiar faces on the team.
Pandemic or not, we have grown tremendously these past years. In people, in projects and in services. And we are not alone in this. Where an event agency mainly organized 10 years ago, we became a creative and strategic partner in addition to being a controller. This development brought a more diverse group of people with more diverse expertise to our industry. And it turned Obsession into a company with 21 colleagues across 3 departments.
“Obsession has evolved. On every front. The classic structure of an event agency where you have one or two owners who manage and monitor everything is no longer sustainable. You shouldn't want that either', explains Jan. 'At a certain point it no longer makes sense that I supervise the junior project managers. There are others who are better at that. Who are more accessible and who know much better what is going on inside that team.'
Jan is one of five partners for live who will get a new title on his business card, as the new managing director. With Hans Klaver as account director and Marijke de Wit as creative director, he completes the management team. The other roles go to Jaimy van der Meer as operations lead and Amber Fleury as team lead. “They have been with us for 4 and 5 years, and they really deserved this step. They embody our philosophy.'
In order to continue to understand what the market needs – and because creating events are simply too much fun – everyone also continues to work on projects. 'We do not want and must not only be leaders. You have to understand what's going on. And everyone is too eager to keep making beautiful things.'
Jan describes the 'Partners for Live' vision as sustainable growth together by getting the most out of everything. 'If you ask a team to do that for every project, it's reciprocal. Then we do our best to offer them everything they need for this. To give everyone the opportunities they deserve.' Because the ambitions are, des Obsessions, great. 'Among all those great agencies out there, we just want to be the best. Easy. But you can want so much, without the right people it will not be possible. We have been building slowly to this moment. Now we saw the team with the potential to take this step.'
Yet, the new structure for Jan goes much further than just big dreams. 'I think it's great that we can give people that chance. And that's for our whole team. For me the new position for Marijke, with whom I have been working for 16 years, is really special. I've known her as long as my wife! We came in here together, 23 years old, and now she's the creative director. If we can facilitate that and then do what we can with the whole team… well, then we're already the best.'
