On Thursday 22th of April, the Brightlands Business club organized a ‘live’ event at the Brunssum Golf Course within the bounds of the Covid-19 rules that were applicable at the time.
Taking into account the 1,5 meter seating arrangements, the reception with real ‘vlaai’ and coffee and seeing everyone again live and in the flesh was a very welcome return to normal.
We were treated to two very inspiring and personal presentations, starting with Francoise de Goeij from Femly. She told a very moving story how her motivation to set up Femly originated; her late husband contracted dementia at a young age. She found out the hard way how little support there was for direct relatives who find themselves in such a situation and the feeling of helplessness to lead a normal life. In the Netherlands, almost 5,5 million people are in some way active as a “caretaker”, they do not always have the support they need or deserve. Femly helps people with dementia and also the elderly in general to keep leading a normal and quality life and stay in touch with their family, relatives and friends. We heard some very personal examples on the difficulties of being together with dementia patients and how seemingly simple tasks or questions such as ‘what day of the week is it?’ can become impossible challenges and cause frustrations. We had a live demonstration of Femly; it is a very intuitive remote control & TV-screen powered by a small standard computer (Raspberry) displaying easily accessible and understandable information for patients with dementia or memory problems. Relatives or friends can get in touch easily through the Femly app, which allows them to connect directly to the specific Femly screen and have a live videochat, or write a message on the on-screen message board. One of the challenges in the early stages of development was that WiFi networks were not always predictable and had limited bandwidth (especially in elderly people’s homes). Femly then added native embedded 4G connection capabilities to secure excellent connection quality. The Covid crisis and the lockdown of homes for the elderly turned out to be an opportunity; it showed that Femly also is vital for the quality of life of that group. Although many care providing organizations are enthusiastic about the Femly concept, we learned about the practical difficulties these organizations have in obtaining funding to purchase Femly units (even if they are very reasonably priced). In the subsequent discussion, business club members came up with new connections & introductions and ideas to overcome these problems together.
Next up was Roy Jacobs from Sitestas, a family business now being led by the third-generation (Roy) who is thinking out of the box to come up with ways to use ‘healthy fast food’ to supply superior nutrition to people, based mostly on the cucumbers that are grown in the family business. Some interesting observations from this presentation turned out to be that in Germany, consumers are much more open to healthy food alternatives and supermarkets give them a prominent position in their line-up. In the Netherlands, the ‘big supermarkets’ usually resort to ‘power play’ against smaller suppliers and price squeezes. Interestingly, the so-called discount supermarkets (originating from Germany, coincidentally or not) seem to be the most approachable and interested in providing these healthy alternatives. One of the objectives of Sitestas is to make sure that all participants in the value chain get their fair share of the sales price. Unfortunately, it was not possible for the BBC members that were present to try out the different flavors of Sitestas but next time we hope to have that organized. If there are business club members who would like to order a batch and/or participate in tasting trials, just drop a line to Roy or one of the board members.
After these presentations, we had the golf course resort to ourselves (well, more or less). Those who had a golf certificate went to play 9 holes on one of the courses, while the bulk of the members participated in the golf fun clinic. Other members enjoyed a walk in the countryside of the Brunssumer heide. Everyone felt a newfound sense of freedom, enjoying the outdoors and the fresh air for a few hours, thanks to the great weather and surroundings.
All these sporty activities created a healthy appetite. We enjoyed a tasteful 3- course buffet meal on the terrace of the golfclub. Importantly, this setting allowed business club members to once again hold valuable discussions one on one, or in small groups, all of course respecting the 1,5 meter rule.
In conclusion; everyone had missed the interaction and to enjoy each other’s company with a nice drink and a bite after inspiring talks. We cannot wait for the next event.
