In the hot seat: Judith Freijser

After her pre-university education Judith Freijser wanted to do something with communication, languages and foreign cultures. “I went to several open door days, such as the ones of communication studies, general literature, hotel school, but it was only at the NHTV open day that everything fell into place,” the alumna explains.

Accordingly, in September 1993 she started her leisure studies at NHTV, which is one of the former names of Breda University of Applied Sciences. She liked her course of study and Breda even better. “I had just turned 18, a brand-new world opened up to me. I was living together with six other girls in a house at the Ginnekenweg, joined the student union Phileas Fogg and Dispuut Piu(s), soon made a lot of friends and discovered the Breda nightlife. No worries, in the meantime my school results were more than sufficient,” she eases our minds.

Work and leisure

Judith still keeps close contact with her friends from those days. And, just like many other BUas alumni, regularly she crosses paths with them in the professional field: “We ask each other for advice and we share the names of trustworthy suppliers or new colleagues. Two of my former jobs were even suggested by NHTV people.”

She graduated in 1998 at the Broadcasting Museum in Hilversum which back then was preparing to merge with various archives into the present Museum for Image and Sound. “The cultural sector still appeals to me. After jobs at an events agency, an advertising agency and a regional tourism agency, I ended up at the Maritime Museum Rotterdam as marketing and communications advisor.”

Judith still works here with lots of pleasure and enthusiasm on corporate communication and campaigns around expositions and events. “I am involved in the development of communication strategies, purchase of media, generation of free publicity, production of commercials, assessment of public surveys, and the list goes on.”

Penoza

The fun in this job is that I am involved from policy to execution. Furthermore, it stays exiting because it also enables me to work on completely different projects. For example, back in October we opened the expo ‘Dealing with Drugs’. No-one less than Chris Westendorp, script writer of the famous Dutch crime series Penoza, wrote the script for this interactive experience. At the same time, I am working for entirely different target groups on the fifth edition of our successful play-and-learn exposition ‘Professor Plons’ and a unique one-time exhibition which brings special pieces of art from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen together with ours.

Proud

But the ‘Offshore Experience’, which is our biggest project ever, gives me the greatest sense of pride. Visitors fancy themselves on board of a working platform at sea or 3 km underneath it. This interactive exposition of almost €5 million was realised with the help of over 50 sponsors from the maritime sector and 26 different funds. Energy production at sea normally isn’t very appealling to the broader audience. So, a big challenge in exhibition design and marketing strategy lay ahead of us. Imagine how great it feels to me to see that the experience has become such an enormous success amongst regular visitors, schools and business partners!”

Back to school

These days, Judith can regularly be found in the classroom again, however, this time in a different role: “Besides my job at the museum I recently started teaching at the Hogeschool Rotterdam one morning every week. So, with a backpack full of experience I am actually back at where it all started,” she concludes with a smile.