As a member of three different communication teams, Annelies de Bakker loves helping researchers to tell their own stories.
Annelies de Bakker: "We started by opening doors, asking people what they were doing and why, looking for stories." (Photo: Heather Montague)
“When I first started about three years ago, my colleagues and I walked through our faculty and saw all this amazing research and experiments going on. Smashing glass bricks, testing houses for earthquakes, building floating homes… and we were the ones who would get to talk about it. But very soon we realised that our researchers find it a challenge to talk about their research in a way that is understandable and attractive for people outside of their own peer group. We needed to help them share the bigger picture. We needed storytelling.
So, we started by opening doors, asking people what they were doing and why, looking for stories. Find a cool opening, something that touches people and then use that to tell the story. After almost a year the first researcher came to us asking for a story instead of a press release, and that was the big turn around for us. We created something that people started asking for. Three years down the road we have almost a 100 beautiful Stories of Science, in text and pictures, but also in images, in film. And we keep looking for new ways to tell our researchers’ stories.
‘They have great stories to share’
At the same time, I was also working for the TU Delft | Global Initiative, where researchers from all different faculties make amazing technologies for low-resource settings, related to things like health, water and architecture. They have a big impact on the lives of people who don’t have a lot. I made Global Stories for them too. And very recently I started to do the same for all that is going on between TU Delft and the city of Delft. I sort of became this person working on stories in all different ways, finding new ways to tell stories, helping people to tell their own stories.
Then they were looking for someone at TEDxDelft for the speaker’s team, someone who really focuses on the story line. So, I joined the volunteer team that selects the speakers for the event and got to talk to all of these interesting people inside and outside of TU Delft. We selected seven great people who are going to give talks on the 6th of June. They have great stories to share. Death, money, clean energy, coincidence – all the important things in life will come to the stage. The organisation has a great vibe. It’s all about getting people on stage to share inspiring or stimulating ideas, to get people to talk about them, think about them, to trigger conversations. Even the program offstage and the great food experience will trigger people to start talking.
I really love helping researchers to tell their stories. They are amazing and inspiring people who are so dedicated and focussed on this one thing and they put all of their time and effort into it. It’s not just 40 hours a week, it’s every day, all day. For me, it is the most rewarding thing in the world to get to help them tell their story.”
Want to be featured in Humans of TU Delft? Or do you know someone with a good story to tell? Send us an e-mail at humansoftudelft@gmail.com
Heather Montague / Freelance writer
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