The first version of the GDBC Thesis award Digital Business was a great success and especially raised the need for more and follow-ups. 

It was indeed the first GDBC award, but it was a follow-up of the existing Aart Bosman prize that had been awarded to young researchers in the field of Information Systems for some time. The GDBC, in collaboration with the Ubbo Emmius Fund of the University of Gronngen, has revived the initiative and renamed it into the more suitable Digital Business award.

Fifteen papers had been assessed in advance by the jury (consisting of Rolinde Weide of the province of Groningen, on behalf of Samenwerking Noord, Antje Meindersma, founder of Alledaags and on behalf of the NOO, Viktoriya Degeler of the Bernoulli Institute of the Faculty of Science and Engineering, David Langey, Faculty of Economics and Business and replaced during the award ceremony by his FEB-collegue Thijs Broekhuizen and Tammo Bijmolt, director of the GDBC).

Three young talents, Leonard Delank, Norbert Lagerweij and Niels Meima, were selected to present their thesis topics and outcomes last Tuesday, June 29 in the Van Swinderenhuys. More than twenty guests were able to attend the event offline, in accordance with the Covid-regulations still in force. In addition, it was streamed online, where more than fifty people watched.

The young German Delank kicked off after the opening by Bas Baalmans, project leader at GDBC and this afternoon the host of the event. Delank studied International Business & Management with a great passion for digital media and marketing. His research was about the so-called loot boxes: a purchasing system within video games (like FIFA) that generates extra income as well as extra fun in the gaming part. Norbert Lagwerweij, also from the Faculty of Economics and Business and during his study an employee of Storm Digital. Lagerweij entertained the interested public with his research into how switching devices influences the purchasing behavior of the online consumer. Niels Meima, student of the Faculty of Science and Engineering in AI and Computer Science was the last one with an explanation of his research in the optimization of data-oriented workflows. A relatively technical story that Niels presented well in a non-technical presentation for a broad and certainly not all technical audience.

The latter was one of the reasons that the jury decided to award Niels with the first prize of 2000 euros. Tammo Bijmolt and Antje Meindersma took care of that part and, as Antje explained, after hearing the three presentations, all of them are of a high academic level and so diverse in subject that the jury  looked more to presentation skills, applicability, innovation and recognition. Niels was excellent in all that, with Leopold as the second and Norbert as the third. Both students went home with a check of 1000 and 500 euros.

Special guest this afternoon was Arjen Boekhold, game changer by profession who (while the jury members were discussing about the results and outcomes) entertained the audience online and offline by sharing his experiences, thoughts and ideas about digitalisation in relation to sustainability, based on his experiences at Tony's Chocolonely.

Afterwards a lot of compliments about the meeting. About the fact that it was hybrid in combination with the online stream and how education & research came into contact with companies and organizations in the north of The Netherlands. Exactly what the GDBC was founded for. On to a new edition in 2022 with even more balance between online and offline and hopefully again more multidisciplinary towards other faculties.

You can take a look at the Thesis Award event here.