Persbericht Stadspark Groningen krijgt grootste eendags-golfbaan van Europa

Persbericht

Groningen, 15 juni 2009

Stadspark Groningen krijgt grootste eendags-golfbaan van Europa

Op zondag 21 juni wordt het Groninger Stadspark voor één dag omgetoverd tot een 18 holes golfbaan. Het park is die dag het strijdtoneel voor de eerste aflevering van het Rabobank Stadspark Open, een charity toernooi voor bedrijven die het Stadspark een warm hart toedragen. De baan (PAR 65) is ontworpen door golfbaanarchitect Michiel van der Vaart en heeft een lengte van 2154 meter. Daarmee is het de grootste en meest prestigieuze eendags-golfbaan in Europa. De opbrengsten van de dag komen ten goede aan het Stadspark.

De baan is ontworpen door een van Neerlands beste golfbaanarchitecten Michiel van der Vaart van Jol Golf Design (Santpoort, Maarssen). Met de inbreng van Van der Vaart en de ruimte in het Stadspark, wordt de baan de grootste en meeste prestigieuze eendagsgolfbaan van Europa. Van der Vaart stelt: "De baan heeft de meest uitdagende wateroversteek van het Noorden en een schitterende PAR 3 met een green die wel vijf meter lager ligt dan de afslag."

De organisatie verwacht veel publiek. Vooral de wateroversteek nabij het paviljoen, is een mooie plek om de deelnemers aan te moedigen. "Honderd meter water voor je en een aan weers-zijden door enorme bomen bewaakte green, biedt vooral bij de hogere handicappers veel kijkplezier," glimlacht Ritzo ten Cate (voorzitter stichting Stadspark Open). Iedereen die zelf een balletje wil slaan, kan terecht op de driving range, die voor de gelegenheid is aangelegd op de drafbaan. De pro's van B&S Golf Academy verzorgen de gehele dag introductielessen.

Het deelnemersveld telt 46 spelers. Onder hen zijn enkele lage handicappers, waaronder noordelijk talent Leon Broenink (hcp 1.8). "We moedigen het publiek van harte aan om met deze toppers door de baan te gaan, want zij laten zien dat golf erg spectaculair is. Hoe dan ook is een scherp baanrecord met dit spelersveld gegarandeerd," stelt Ten Cate.

Het initiatief wordt warm omarmd door het Groninger bedrijfsleven. Zo werd het ontwerp van de baan bijvoorbeeld aangeboden door Geveke Ontwikkeling en Jol Golfdesign en zijn DSW Stadspark en Van Bergen drie dagen in touw om greens en fairways in shape te krijgen. En ook de prijzenkast is goed gevuld. Met bijvoorbeeld een Porsche 911 voor een hole-in-one, een Audi A3 Cabrio voor een neary en twee speelplekken op het Top of Holland golftoernooi, is het de moeite waard om extra je best te doen.

Het geld dat met de dag bijeen wordt gebracht, wordt geïnvesteerd in het Stadspark. De Groningers konden hun suggesties voor het Stadspark indienen en vanaf donderdag 18 juni kunnen ze hun stem uitbrengen. De opbrengsten worden geïnvesteerd in de doelen, waar het meest op gestemd is.

Meer informatie over het Rabobank Stadspark Open is te vinden op de site stadsparkopen.nl.

Niet voor publicatie:

Voor meer informatie kunt u contact opnemen met Ritzo ten Cate (voorzitter stichting Stadspark Open): 06 519 10 598, ritzo@deondernemers.nl.

Dit persbericht is hier als PDF te downloaden.

In de 'perskamer' op de site vindt u een overzicht van eerdere persberichten, eerdere media aandacht en overig beeldmateriaal. Foto's tot dusver door de organisatie gemaakt vindt u hier en zijn vrij te downloaden. Voor persfoto's kunt u contact opnemen met Jan Willem van Vliet.

Wilt u voorafgaand aan het toernooi aandacht besteden aan de aanleg van de baan? Op vrijdag 19 juni wordt de baan voor het laatst gemaaid. Er wordt gewerkt aan de baan van acht uur 's ochtends tot vier uur 's middags. U bent van harte welkom om langs te komen. Neem van te voren contact op met Ritzo ten Cate.

Wilt u op de dag zelf langs komen om een reportage te maken, dan kunt u zich van te voren melden bij Ritzo ten Cate.

Het programma op zondag 21 juni:
1100 Inloop deelnemers
1130 Welkomstwoord
1200 Start van de wedstrijd (shotgun)
1600 Alle deelnemers zijn binnen: begin borrel, opfrissen en diner.

De baan:

• De baan is ontworpen door Michiel van der Vaart van Jol Golf Design.


• PAR 65, 2154 meter (voor de heren en de dames),


• hole 1: 100 meter over het water met een door grote bomen afgeschermde green,


• hole 10: PAR 4 met grootste hoogteverschil van Noord-Nederland,


• hole 12: PAR 3 met een vijf meter lager liggende green dan de afslag,


• hole 18: longest drive op de drafbaan.

De Grote Groninger Tweetup gaat naar hét Strand!

Vrienden, vriendinnen, Twitteraars van Groningen,

Over drie uurtjes is't zover. Dan treffen we elkaar. Om 1600 uur exact opent Karen Zwart AKA miss Groninc de tap. 't Duurt zolang de zon schijnt en de drank goed valt. Groninc sponsort de tap tot 1700.

We verwachten tussen de 11 en 301 twitteraars. Dat maakte het - zeker gezien het twitterachtig mooie weer - niet gemakkelijk om een plek te kiezen.

Na lang wikken en wegen hebben Karen en ik gekozen voor Strand Euroborg. Je weet wel. Daar waar de strandballen de hemel kleuren en bikini's het zand.

Dus: komt allen! Je vindt ons stadsstrand hier op Google Maps. Er is ook plek voor auto's, brommers, fietsen en bussen. Kun je het ondanks al dit digitale geweld niet vinden? Volg dan gewoon de voetbalvrouwen die op weg zijn naar de Euroborg of wandel vanuit de Mediacentrale richting de stad.

Breng je slippers en zonnebrillen, want het wordt een hete zomer dit jaar. En doe je haar goed, want er zijn mensen van de krant en TV en bovendien hebben Twitteraars de gewoonte kiekjes te schieten met hun mobiele.

Nog geen Twitter-account? Dat regel je hier ;)

Twitteraars van Groningen verenigt u!
@karenzwart - @ritzotencate
Groninc - De Ondernemers BV

The rise and fall of social media

The key success factor of social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace lies in the number of users and their interaction. The more people who are online and interacting, the more valuable a social media site is. No members, no community. And no community, no social media site.

Considering this it seems bright to gain as many users as possible and lower the threshold to create an account to zero. But no, it is not. If it is too easy to create an account, the network will be flooded by fake users and 'bots' who are bothering the members with spam.

Orkut died because of fake profiles. MSN-messenger got non-accepted as a serious network site, because of an overload of kids flooding the network. And many bands are leaving MySpace because of spam.

Lately I discovered an increasing number of fake users at Twitter and less interaction between real users. Why? Because it takes only two minutes to create a new account at Twitter and bother people and there's nothing to withhold you from doing that. So I guess the end of Twitter is near.

So what can be learnt?

• Don't lower the threshold to create an account and make a proper connection between the real life community and the online community. Make the community site as real as can be. Promote people to use their real names and put online real profile pictures. Promote them to connect only with people they know in real life too and let them approve each other as real persons.
  
• Let people pay for their account. You will get more dedicated users.
• Start as an invitation-only network. Start your network as an exclusive service and be sure that your first users are real and dedicated persons.
  
• Add a 'flag' button to alert 'spam-accounts'.
  

LinkedIn is a very good example of how to do it the right way.

Please share your thoughts with me.

Following and unfollowing on Twitter

Twitter is happening at this moment. Twitter is micro-blogging. Which means it is about mindfarts of a maximum of 140 characters. It is like sending a one-to-many SMS to everyone who is 'following' you. Twitter is a new way of online communication.

Twitter speeds up the world. Because everyone can send and receive Tweets (Twitter messages) where ever they are. If there is something to share with the world, they will share it.

Millions of people are using twitter at this moment. Presidents, journalists, housewives, pop-stars. Every one can get an account and start sending and receiving. You can follow the BBC news. Or you can keep up with your friends. You can find it all on Twitter.

But who should you be following? There's so much information! If you are not selective you will have a dayjob to read it or probably you will get mad.

So here's my way to handle it.

I am following:

1. My friends and colleagues.
2. People who are inspiring.
3. People who are interesting (mainly businesswise).
4. People who I am interacting a lot with.

That results in a stream of 93 people right now. The next week it might be 100 or it might be 60. I am refreshing regularly. My cloud of people who I am following is changing permanently.

Another tip: I am using the 'group function' of Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is a cool tool to use Twitter. You can define groups within your total stream of people you are following. Doing this you can define a sort of 'sub-channels' which enables you to finetune tune your information stream. I created a group just for my 'friends', so I am sure I won't miss a thing.

Please share how you are using Twitter. Which people are you following? How do you manage your following-stream? How do you cope with the information overload?

How to earn money - the artist way

Most artists dream of a life as an autonomous artist. Their dream is to express themselves by creating paintings, sculptures or songs and get paid for it - somehow. Unfortunately for them there is only a very small percentage of artists who manage to effect that romantic dream. Most of them end up as a part time / hobby artist and spend most of their time on a dull job. At our masterclass for the Dutch Kunstenaars & Co Foundation we discovered that it might help to divide your career and earnings into three or four parts and develop it in a way that suits you. And I discovered that this division and development strategy is valuable for 'ordinary' entrepreneurs / professionals (like us) too.

The work and earnings of an artist can be divided into three (or actually four) parts:

1. Work as an autonomous artist. You express yourself by creating. l'Art pour l'art. It is fully supplier driven. You expect people to love it and musea or private collectors to buy it.
   
2. Work as a creative professional for a client (or a boss). You use your talents to solve problems. You deliver a service. Examples are: working as a web designer, using your roots as an actor in designing 'dramatic business events' or playing music on wedding parties. The extreme forms of this part are named as 'prostitution'.
   
3. Work as an employee just for the money. Examples: in a supermarket or as a postman or so. Working just for the money, without using your talents.
   
4. By getting money from somewhere else (subsidiairies or whatever).

Many artists try to start their career, after graduation, as an autonomous artist. After a while many of them realize that they are not earning any money and they fall back on getting a dull job at the super market (3) and getting money from somewhere else (4). For one reason or another only a minor part of them discovers the opportunity of working as a creative professional.

In my point of view an artist should invest in the first two forms: work as an autonomous artist and as a creative professional. And if you don't manage earn enough for a living, please check whether you can get a WWIK subsidiairy. Many artists can. It is a two year 'development programme' for artists who take themselves serious. Look over here or contact our friends at Kunstenaars & Co.

Why should you combine the two?

• Working as a creative professional is good for the cash flow. Usually - especially when you start - it's more easy to hire yourself to a customer and deliver a service than to sell a painting to a museum or a collector. Probably you can hire yourself at a fee of € 50,- an hour.
  
• Working as a creative professional is good for practice. Despite you are not working on your autonomous art, you are still working within or close to your profession. It enables you to practice. Learning by earning. According to Malcolm Gladwell you need just 10.000 hours to become very good in something. Just spend 10000 dedicated hours on it and you will be at the top. So whatever you do. Try to avoid working as a postman or as a cashier..
  
• Working as an autonomous artist will increase your skills. Autonomous work needs lots of studying. And you can use that in your role as a professional.
  
• Working as an autonomous artist will put you on the map. People will get to know you. You can build up a network. It might be a good idea to give away your art pieces or lend it to admirers. You can see it as a very exclusive form of 'advertising' and building up you network.
• Working as an autonomous artist will higher your fee. Companies like hiring a 'real artist'. By creating 'real art' you can prove your talents to them.
  

So:

1. Start working as a creative professional for three or four days a week and earn money. Spend your 'free time' on autonomous art. There are still three or four days left.
2. When you start earning enough you can probably higher your fee and you can start working less days delivering a service.
   
3. Within 10 years (or so) you will probably be able to work fulltime as an autonomous artist and you will be able to choose.
   

As I mentioned above, the division in four forms of earning is also appropriate for ordinary professionals. And that includes us. We hire ourselves as marketing strategists to large companies. And we work as autonomous artists on projects like our book Innovatief Ondernemen (Pearson 2006), Djungo or Lopend Vuur. We like both parts of our work and they amplify each other.

Any comments? Tips? Please let me know.

As I promised over in my earlier blogpost I will share more my points of insight from our masterclass during the next few days.

Please, put yourself on the Map

Almost everyone owns a cell phone with internet connection nowadays. And more and more people are starting to use it - for e-mail, browsing, dedicated tools or whatever.

Google Maps is one of my personal favourites. I use it to navigate when my car is not with me. And I try to find cafés, cash dispensers and other services. I try, but usually I don't succeed.

Many internet-minded or large companies have put themselves on the Google Map. But those are not the services which I am looking for when I am walking on the streets. Try to find the nearest cash dispenser, or mailbox of café and it's likely you won't succeed.

So, dear café, cash dispenser and mailbox owners, please, put your services on the Google Map. It's pretty easy. Just arrange it over here .

And all others: please spread the word ;)
And to all internet minded students / internet strategy companies: I believe there's an intesting market for you. € 50,- should be a reasonable price.

Google Latitude brings social networking offline

A few weeks ago Google launched Google Latitude, her brand new friend locator application for cell phones and iGoogle. According to Google it is the next step in social networking. It connects online and offline networking. With Latitude you are able to know exactly where your friends are and what they are up to. If they are somewhere around, Google will find them. Just by the signal of their cell phones or by tracking the IP address and the location of the computers they are working on.

So now you can do things like see if your spouse is stuck in traffic on the way home from work, notice that a buddy is in town for the weekend, or take comfort in knowing that a loved one's flight landed safely, despite bad weather.

Nice, isn't it?

Many critics called Latitude a step too far because of privacy reasons. But fortunately Google has taken this into account and made Latitude just as private as you want. Like with all social tools (like twitter, facebook and flickr ) you are in charge. First you can decide which friends can track your location. Second you can choose on which level they can spot you. On street or city level? And third you can turn it on and off whenever you like. So don't be afraid. Choose and use it. It's cool and I believe it's useful. For more information and tips on protecting your privacy level check out this.

• You can track your kids. Just give 'em a small cell phone in their pockets lunch boxes and you will know where to pick them up after school. Big dad or mom is watching them.
• You can track your parents or grandparents. Just be sure that their battery is charged and you know what they're up to. And you can just drop by where ever they are.
  
• You can meet friends easily for a beer. Or you can help each other to get back home after you have drunk too much.
  
• You can meet network contacts offline easily. Share your location on 'city level' and you know when you're in the same city. Probably you can meet for a lunch or a cup of coffee?

So. Go for it. It's great!

I hope and expect that Google will add new features to it in near future. Like Auto-geo-tagging of your photo's, a journal / trackbook for tracking your own history or a 'friend-alert' pop-up app. And, dear developers at Google, a connection with Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn would be great...

Want to add meet offline? Invite me at ritzotencate@gmail.com and probably I will share my location with you at city-level.

Learning form the new kid in class

In the old days artists used to have a sort of status exceptionelle in society. They created their art pieces and they were rewarded with money, fame, shelter and drugs in return. Rich people paid them for their art or just for their presence. Governments cared for them by paying their 'salary' while expecting little in return.

But recently the whole situation has changed - at least in the Netherlands. The internet, low-cost-flying, the presence of art in public and private areas made people kind and an increasing level of interest in art made the people kind of spoiled. They got used to the finest art in the world. And now they expect art from their local artists too.

As a result an artist nowadays has to think about her added value, just like ordinary people. And due to lack of employability and stubborness, becoming an entrepreneur is for most of them the only way to go.

The Dutch foundation Kunstenaars & Co is helping artists to survive. They provide a two year programme for artists who want to practice their art for a living - seriously. The programme includes access to masterclasses, coaching and a monthly 'development' fee. The foundation asked us to develop one of their crash courses.

Developing the course I discovered a huge similarity between entrepreneurial artists and 'ordinary entrepreneurs'. I discovered some new perspectives on entrepreneurship. And it actually helped me to rethink the way we are running our own business somehow. So for me it was like learning from the new kid in entrepreneurial class.

In the next few days I will share the main insights with you. Ofcourse you can take a glimpse at the reader. It's in Dutch only - sorry.