On Monday the 27th of October 2014, our Masters International Business Management class, accompanied by seven staff of The University of Westminster departed on a weeklong school excursion from London to Brussels. The early morning was buzzing as everybody met outside the university and loaded onto the buses. We were all looking to grab a seat next to someone we might have exchanged smiles with in one of the lectures over the previous weeks. We were a group of around 86 students, all from different corners of the globe, not really knowing one another on a friendship level yet but about to embark on a journey that would have us return as great friends.
We spent the entire day on Monday travelling via coach; through the Euro Tunnel, passing through France and arriving in Brussels just in time to see a bit of the city before the sun went down. Our group was staying in St. Catherine’s IBIS Hotel which was ideally located close to St. Catherine’s square, a place we spent a fair bit of our time. Sharing two to a room, we had everything we needed catered for, including buffet breakfast every morning.
On Monday night, Richard West our course leader had arranged for the entire group to have dinner in St. Catherine’s Square at a restaurant called Leroy’s. We were treated to a beef Flemish stew served with fries and followed by our first Belgium Waffles.
Slowly, as a group we started to socialize and get to know one another. On Tuesday morning we were taken to Concept Chocolate Factory Shop, a factory in Belgium where it had been arranged for us to learn about how the Belgium’s make their chocolates. We also learnt where and how the cacao is produced, the correct way to eat a praline (never bite into a praline as you don’t know what filling is inside, you are meant to eat the entire praline in one go) and which countries had the highest chocolate consumption in the world.
Our task while we were in Brussels was to create a chocolate concept to market and sell in the United Kingdom. We were given the chance to create our own chocolate concept and as a result have products to show as examples at our presentations later in the week. We all found this outing great fun. Not only were we able to eat all you the chocolate you can, but we got to create our concept in a practical manner which helped many students connect to the project more than if it had just been a hypothetical product that we were presenting.
On Wednesday we visited the Audi A1 Factory in Brussels, this was a great outing to a place many of us would never have experienced had it not been for the IBM tour. We got to see German logistics and planning at their finest as we were taken around the Audi factory. In the first part of the factory where the motor vehicles’ exterior is created, the entire operation is controlled by robots. These robots have been programmed to follow specific directions and complete certain parts of the vehicle before it is passed on through conveyer belts to the next part of the production. The second part of the factory involves a human chain where the car is passed along the conveyer belt and each team do something new to it, be it connecting the wires or putting the car seats into the vehicle. The vehicle takes 96seconds to pass from one part of production to the next which allows Audi to churn out 500 Audi A1 vehicles per day in Brussels.
In the evening we joined as a whole class again and went to the Hard Rock Café in St. Catherine’s for dinner. By now everyone was more relaxed and enjoying each other’s company, happily making friends.
Our European Union visit on Thursday received a mixture of feelings. I for one was very excited to be visiting the EU as I come from Africa and did not know what the European Union laws are all about. We had a very interesting lecture by one of the European Union tour guides who was blown away by the knowledge and questions of one of our fellow students who came well prepared with many questions. I was quite surprised to hear from the guide that the EU makes laws (for the 28 countries that are in it) regarding; roaming when travelling abroad and using your mobiles, Blue Flag beaches in the EU and their standards that must be reached and the most petty of all, the max wattage of a vacuum cleaner that can be used or sold in the EU. I left the European Union with the feeling that they were in place to make laws about trivial effects, but had we not had this opportunity to visit the European Union and have a person guide, I would never have known about this.
The view from the viewing deck of where parliament sits was very impressive. Approaching presentation day, on arrival back at our hotel, we congregated in our chosen groups and continued working throughout the night on our chocolate concept presentations for the following day.
Friday was the best day by far; we got to present our chocolate concepts to a panel of lecturers and our fellow students. This was a great learning opportunity for us all; we got to see the work ethic of our fellow peers, their presentation skills and their creativity. This we found to be very useful going forward for choosing group members for future projects. The entire experience was made better by creating our chocolates personally, working together on our presentations and marketing strategies and then presenting as a team. What better place to experience this than in Brussels, home of great chocolate?
I was asked by Richard how much I would value the trip at and after some consideration, I said £850. This figure I worked out by looking at the number of nights’ accommodation accounted for, the travel costs, the experiences and tours organized and the dinners arranged for during the week. Much to my surprise, my estimated figure was almost double the actual amount spent per person for the week. My opinion is that this trip was worth it whether it was indeed £850 or cheaper. The trip as a whole was plentiful and I am very thankful for the opportunity that was given to us by The University of Westminster and the International Business Management staff.
The best part of the trip was the fact that as students we got to know one another and our lecturers more personally and that we were given the chance to network during our time away. The timing of the trip was well positioned as we now have formed relationships with one another early on in our course. Going forward for the rest of the academic year, as well as into the future when we return to our home countries, we are better friends than we were without this trip. The days when we used to only smile at one another 5 minutes before and 5 minutes after our classes are long gone thanks to the Brussels excursion. Thank you for this complete opportunity!
This blog post is written by Gina Christodoulou
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