What do you do when you can’t organise a ‘proper’ staff party? Make radio! On Thursday 20 May, we presented Radio Unifiesta to provide an afternoon filled with background entertainment for the offices (and home offices) of UAntwerp staff. The show was full of music, original advertisements, quizzes and stories, along with messages from, for and by colleagues.
From 12 noon until 5 p.m., radio DJ Tom De Cock guided us through Radio Unifiesta, a radio show produced by and for University of Antwerp staff. We filled the afternoon with the UAntwerp Top 50 – our favourite tracks as voted for by our staff over the last few weeks. The top 50 is available on Spotify.
But that’s not all. Every two hours, we headed to the campuses to see all the changes that have taken place throughout the past ‘corona year’, and what our people are working on. For example, we passed by the construction site for Vaccinopolis, a centre of innovation with unique infrastructure for vaccinology and infectious diseases.
A new job
We heard from quite a few flexible colleagues who have had to dive into new positions this past year. For example, Veerle Van den Broeck started working for the Health and Safety Department..
Starting a new job during the corona crisis is anything but easy, and certainly not if you are also starting a new job in another country. Gabriele Paris from Italy tells us what his first months at UAntwerpen were like.
For Ngan Tran, the past year was a lot more difficult. Ngan could start her PhD at UAntwerp at the end of 2019, and normally, her husband and son would join her in Belgium after three months. But then came COVID-19, and those three months became seven long, difficult months in which Ngan was separated from her family. Fortunately, they finally made it here and the family is happy together again.
Babies everywhere
We threw a mini-baby shower at the Faculty of Business and Economics, where six colleagues are expecting at the same time.
A real UAntwerp radio news programme
Every hour, Viona Daelemans and Evi Hofmans from the Department of Marketing and Communication read us the Radio Unifiesta News, so that everyone could keep up with the latest news items from our university.
Surprise
We discovered hidden talents and organised great surprises. For example, Jeaninne Veenendaal was surprised by Bart Peeters, who she has appeared on stage with as part of the choir for his Lotto Arena concerts.
Rector enjoys the music
Rector Herman Van Goethem also dropped by the radio studio. Together with Tom De Cock, he presented the end of the UAntwerp Top 50, announced the winner of the advertisement contest and had a warm message for all University of Antwerp staff.
Watch/listen to Radio Unifiesta again
If you missed parts of Radio Unifiesta or would just like to listen to it again in its entirety, it’s all there in the playlist below.
Thanks to Studio Sonart, and all UAntwerp employees who made Radio Unifiesta a success.