Today’s a treat because we he have the man behind the interviews- the man himself, Jeroen van Boxtel!

So your usually the guy doing the interviews! Now how does it feel to be interviewed?

Hah! Weird, but I guess it’s about time!

Well let’s start with, how did you find out about jovoto and what made you decide to apply?

After I finished university I knew one thing, I wanted to go to Berlin, I had been here before and I liked the city.. I think, I’m pretty sure I found out about jovoto by just googleing.

What were you doing before?

I was a student in The big city of dreams, Tilburg, Holland. Nah, just kidding. Well I was in Tilburg. I studied Commercial Economics.. but they have a fancy name for it which is International Event, Music & Entertainment Studies. Which really means marketing and communications, with focus on the entertainment and media industry.

That sounds pretty interesting. And where were you before that, where did you grow up?

I’m from a really small village in the south-east of Holland. It’s called Haps. I lived there the first 17 years of my life. It can be such a quiet and beautiful place, but at the same time also incredibly boring.

So I guess I can understand why you wanted to move to a big city. What did you like when you visited Berlin & what do you like about living here?

I like the atmosphere in the city, the people in Berlin. There is more of a creative vibe, I hate that word but yeah, “vibe”. The beauty of Berlin is really the creative atmosphere. In Holland there is a creative scene but it seems over-structured and more money driven. It’s less of this free culture that you find in Berlin.

Besides that, the start-up scene is currently exploding here, so that makes things even more interesting at the moment.

And about jovoto, what do you like about working here? And what’s your job exactly anyway?

Above all the work and all the cool stuff we do, its the team! I think the team really kicks ass. We are a young team but we all work our asses off to move this thing forward. And everyone here gets the oppertunity to grow and take chances. It’s a really open structure and that’s really nice.

And what’s my job? I’m a community manager, and do a lot of stuff with our social media channels. And besides that I spend a serious amount of time in Google Analytics.

So enough about work, what’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not here?

Making music.

What kind or what do you like to make?

I would like to make singer song writer music but I have a terrible voice.. I used to be a drummer in a band, but all of that ended when I moved to Berlin. So yeah, since I also have a passion for electronic music, I’ve been making electronic music for the last couple of years.

And now, one of your questions, what’s the first thing that you’re going to do after this interview?

Rating monitoring!

Well thanks Jeroen, that was a nice little interview!

You know my dingy soft spot for analogies and proverbs. However, this time I am just gonna spit it out: my time here on jovoto is over.

It’s been an exciting, challenging, funny, heartfelt, and mostly highly fulfilling time with you guys, my great team and this cool platform. I grew with jovoto, and first and foremost thanks to all the experiences I encountered during my crazy 2 and a half year ride with all the creatives and the platform. You’ve taught me a lot and I hope I also took the chance to give something back to you.

It is now time for me to take on new challenges. I leave with a bit of a heavy heart though, because actually a great lot of creatives grew very fond to me. I am gonna miss you guys!

I wish you, the community, the greatest, most creative and challenging projects to come, more opportunities to learn, share and earn a fair deal, and the wisdom, strength and humour to embrace truly open and fun creative COLLABORATION. Please don’t forget that jovoto is different to those boring work environments we are all used to. It’s up to you to shape this new space and fill it with your wishes, desires and needs. Like I always said, “Keep it going!”.

Cheers,

Frieda

Oh, and my dear colleagues thought they could take this oppertunity to ask me a couple of fun questions! So here it comes:

What was your favorite contest?

Hmm. There were a lot of really engaging and cool contests. The one’s that psyched me most were the one’s that dealt with sustainability and (social) innovation, like the Betacup. I also liked many of the Open Zone Contests and of course the ones where the community helped “doing good”, like for Greenpeace, the WWF or UNICEF.

What was your most memorable event on the platform?

It was very exciting when we opened jovoto from a “by invitation only” platform to an “everybody can sign up and get active right away” platform. The introduction of the team feature was also very important to me. I always thought it to be one of the most amazing things on jovoto when creatives from different parts of the world collaborate and develop an idea together.

What’s one of your favorite memories from the office?

There are so many. Just last week Jeroen fell off this plastic ball that’s supposed to strengthen your back. Very funny. Everybody should have a Boxtel! And when we moved in this office Aljoscha attached a swing to one of the ceilings – happy flying times. Aljoscha is also my favorite sequel specialist and pseudo boss. The salad Tuesdays and brunch Fridays are also very memorable. Tim’s red ruck-sack filled with delicacies is a dream come true. Lucky me I call this guy a friend and know where he goes shopping. Seeing Jess develop from the lousiest ping pong player ever into a serious competitor will also always stay in my mind – because I really thought it couldn’t happen. I love her. Hearing Annika rattling through the office and Ben singing along to some random 90ies hits (he gave me a terrible “Ohrwurm” every single day, I will never forgive him) are things I will actually miss. Going for some “fresh air” with Conradin and Ratze and the other guys at 11 am sharp each morning became a routine that’s almost impossible to get rid off. And every day I sat next to lovely Britta her charms just blew my away – and I probably will never have a co-worker again that repeatedly tried to bite me. How could I forget that? All in all, there’s sh.. loads of great memories that I will take with me.

What do you think you’ll miss the most?

The coffee machine.
Hah. And now the cheesy but honest answer: all this beautiful people.

What do you think about Döner Wednesday?

It’s a magic day. The gentle warmth of the bread, the delicate meet juice dripping of the corner of the mouth, the happy smiles and the soft burps afterwards. Döner Wednesday will not be forgotten. In fact, I will still be able to participate in Döner Wednesday. Kotti, here I come!

Who’s your favorite co-worker?

The unicorn.

Happy Friday everyone! We are closing our week the way that we started it – Team Member introductions!  With out further adue I am happy to introduce you to jovoto NYC’s newest member – our intern Dominique.

Hi there! I’m gonna be honest, I am not one for talking about myself so I will give you a brief synopsis I’m Dominique but mostly go by Dom. California native, Los Angeles specifically for all you lurks, and currently residing in New York City. A student, Jazz and Hip-Hop enthusiast, and a pro at cap naps. 



What brought you to NYC?  How long have you been here?
My fascination with NYC came to me out of nowhere during my high school years. The thought of moving to a large city, being completely self-sufficient and entering this creative atmosphere was a huge appeal. A close friend of mine recommended I join her at Parsons and as they say the rest is history. August of this year marked three years living in the city! I can definitely say that it has been experience but I will most likely continue on in the city until it drains me of my funds and soul, whatever happens first. Ha!

Parsons! What is your focus?
I’m finishing up my senior year at Parsons, and it is truly bittersweet. My major is Design and Management which entails a synergy of design and a traditional business curriculum. I have yet to define what exactly my focus is since I have such a wide range of interests but would have to say that I am always interested and trying to educate myself on the design world. 


What brought you to become a jovoto intern? Do you like it so far?
The opportunity presented itself when I participated in a private challenge for Parsons and Grow NYC. To my surprise, I landed a top spot and was offered a internship with Jovoto. I was unfamiliar with Jovoto until the project was set into motion but at Parsons it was always stressed how important it was to work in a collaborative environment. I’m eager to learn more about Jovoto and the incredible community that has been built and is still growing. 

Do you have any creative hobbies?
My best friend and I started a mini internet diary for ourselves about two years ago on Tumblr, Dox and the Greyhound (an ode to our most favorite dog breeds!). It is a way for us to document and share everything we find interesting, weird, funny or appealing to the senses. Occasionally, we post mixes of our favorite jams with accompanying designs. Check them out if you’re like us and always searching for new music to soothe your ears! 

Doxandthegreyhound.tumblr.com

Anything that you would like to let  the community know or tell them?
 Follow me on twitter if you want to see countless pictures of animals @Dominiqueromero

Tell us a little about yourself, where are you from?

Hi there! I’m gonna be honest, I am not one for talking about myself so I will give you a brief synopsis. I’m Dominique but mostly go by Dom. California native, Los Angeles specifically for all you lurks, and currently residing in New York City. A student, Jazz and Hip-Hop enthusiast, and a pro at cap naps.

What brought you to NYC?  How long have you been here?

My fascination with NYC came to me out of nowhere during my high school years. The thought of moving to a large city, being completely self-sufficient and entering this creative atmosphere was a huge appeal. A close friend of mine recommended I join her at Parsons and as they say the rest is history. August of this year marked three years living in the city! I can definitely say that it has been experience but I will most likely continue on in the city until it drains me of my funds and soul, whatever happens first. Ha!

Parsons?! What is your focus?

I’m finishing up my senior year at Parsons, and it is truly bittersweet. My major is Design and Management which entails a synergy of design and a traditional business curriculum. I have yet to define what exactly my focus is since I have such a wide range of interests but would have to say that I am always interested and trying to educate myself on the design world.

What brought you to become a jovoto intern? Do you like it so far?

The opportunity presented itself when I participated in a private challenge for Parsons and Grow NYC. To my surprise, I landed a top spot and was offered a internship with Jovoto. I was unfamiliar with Jovoto until the project was set into motion but at Parsons it was always stressed how important it was to work in a collaborative environment. I’m eager to learn more about Jovoto and the incredible community that has been built and is still growing.

Do you have any creative hobbies?

My best friend and I started a mini internet diary for ourselves about two years ago on Tumblr, Dox and the Greyhound (an ode to our most favorite dog breeds!). It is a way for us to document and share everything we find interesting, weird, funny or appealing to the senses. Occasionally, we post mixes of our favorite jams with accompanying designs. Check them out if you’re like us and always searching for new music to soothe your ears! 

Doxandthegreyhound.tumblr.com

Anything that you would like to let  the community know or tell them?

Follow me on twitter if you want to see countless pictures of animals @Dominiqueromero

So tell us Sebastian, how’d you end up working at jovoto?

After finishing my basic military service I was searching for a job and I came across the jovoto platform. Initially I was looking for a job as a graphic designer but originally I studied sales. When I found out about the job as a sales manager I thought, “Why not combine those 2 things?” And so I did and applied for the job with a video. (I did my best to find the video, but I couldn’t find it anymore) After I visited the jovoto office I immediately had a good feeling about it, so when they gave me the chance I of course joined jovoto.

So what did you do before?

So directly before jovoto, I did my basic military service. Before that I studied to become an IT-Systems trader in a company. I did a lot of different things for them in the beginning including planning, sales and customer support. During that time a need for some graphic design services developed. Because of that need, I had the chance to use my hobby in a professional way. I finished my education around that time and had the chance to stay and work. As the need grew for more graphic design services, I built up a team around me. I ran our small media department for exactly 1 year before the basic military service knocked at my door.

So what is exactly your job at jovoto?

I’m a sales manager. Basically my main task is to make sure that you, the community, have contests and clients to work with.  Part of that is representing jovoto at trade fairs or contacting new clients. On the other hand I also help out with writing offers.

What do you enjoy most in working for jovoto?

It’s just a great place to work. The people are open and friendly, there’s a ping-pong table and you have flexible working hours. Besides that I can learn a lot here and I also have the opportunity to grow within my job.

Are you creative yourself?

My hobby’s still graphic design and photography but due to work and living in Berlin, lately I don’t have a lot of time to sit down and really create something new.

Can you show us something?

What do you do in your spare time?

I really like going out and hanging out in one of the many parks in Berlin, it’s great to relax there alone or with friends. I’m pretty lucky because I live directly at one of those parks in Berlin. Besides that I also like to party at one of the many parties in Berlin.

What’s your favorite club in Berlin?

If I have to name one I would say Ritter Butzke. But I don’t really have one favorite, in general I just really like the small underground parties in Berlin. I try to avoid the big commercials clubs a bit.

What’s  the first thing your are gonna do now?

Selling contests!

Here is some news for you all.  The great news – the jovoto NYC office along with our new office mates Mutopo have successfully moved in to our new space! HUZZAH! The not so great news – we still have a long way to go before we are fully settled in to this great space.

The office is looking great though – the concrete floors have been refinished, we now have a little kitchenette and the two conference rooms have enough space for us all.

The jovoto team as well as Mutopo have unpacked all of their boxes for the most part. There are still a section of desks that we have to bring in, spruce up the conference rooms with some furniture, and hang up some of the great works that we have collected from the jovoto community. Oh! There is still one more company getting ready to move in with us as well – they are coming in at the beginning of October.

Everyone is so excited and happy to be here. There is so much great light and everything is so open. We will share everything when everyone is moved in, unpacked and settled in.

The garden unique area and the contest results

The results of the garden goes balcony contest were exhibited in the premium furniture area celled, “garden unique”. The aim of the garden unique area is to present design-oriented and modern concepts for the garden and balcony which fulfil the requirements of the luxury segment.

The ideas of the top 10 community winners were shown as huge posters

Most of the submissions and the discussions around the ideas are documented in the idea books, which were also exhibited.

The highlights were of course the prototypes of our three jury prize winners:

Sight by Tim_Kerp

Shade by anonimusarh

go wild in the urban jungle! by furnituresig and yuton

In the “unique hour” the jury prize winners were officially awarded:

jovoto in the garden unique area

Next to the contest area where we had our small jovoto stall. At lot of very interested people visited our stall and had a look at your submissions, we had a lot very inspiring talks with furniture manufactures, designers and architects. But of course also with potential clients. In the picture you can see, Sebastian preparing his next talk.

I’m curious how the things will develop further, we will keep you updated!

People in beta is a celebration of startup culture and this pioneer spirit unique to Berlin. Many of the hot new startups like Gidsy, Amen and Readmill will tell you about their ideas and how they started.

Awesome Foundation Award

The morning will begin with the award ceremony of the awesome foundation: Every other month, a group of trustees (inlcuding jovoto’s Bastian and Nadine) gives out a brown paper bag with 1000,- Euro in cash in it for an awesome project idea. No strings attached! If you have an awesome project you have always wanted to do, please apply here. (Specify Berlin as your chapter)

Betapitch

The day’s highlight is betapitch. Startups do a speed presentation of their business idea to a jury of experienced investors and successful startuppers. The winners get a desk at betahaus for free for a couple of months. It’s a perfect chance to kickstart your idea and make the jump from sideproject to fulltime effort. You can still apply so do it now!

Werewolf Gamez

To relax, you’re invited to visit the jovoto office… it will be kind of dark, kind of spooky… and there will be werewolves on the loose! We read so much about this game the cool kids in Silicon Valley and New York have rediscovered, that we think Berlin needs a refresher course, too. The game is called “Werevolves” and is basically a psychology game of deceit, manipulation and collaboration (hey, something jovotans should be sort of familiar with!). Each player gets assigned a role (citizen, werewolf and some special roles) and then its about figuring out “whodunnit”.

Betajam and Party

Finally, there’s of course going to be a party with beer and music and live bands! Guess what: we have some talented musicians among our team members. Aljoscha and Jaschar will each have their 20minutes of fame (or more) on stage!

This year, our participation is more peripheral, but Bastian and Nadine did make some contributions to SMW11 as part of the advisory board, and of course we ran the lovely “Art: Made by the Crowd” project leading up to the SMW. So, what exactly is going to happen?

Schedule Highlights

Social Media Week is a decentralized event, taking place simultaneously in several cities and with lots of small venues and activities. Topics include social media and politics, crowd-fundig and collaborative consumption, social media analytics and strategy. Check out the full schedule here. All events are free of charge, but may require registration up front!

First off, we recommend (of course!) to stop by the art installation “Praktikum Lab” which is the result of jovoto’s and startnext’s crowd-art experiment.  The installation will be on every day from Monday to Friday at Aufbau Haus, but on Monday, at 7pm, Maya and Yasmina (representing the artists behing the concept), Nadine and Anna (startnext) will introduce the concept and the crowd-generated aspect behind it, at the exhibition venue. Hope to see some of you there!

On Tuesday at about 6pm at Festsaal Kreuzberg , there’s a panel about Community Management. Nadine will attempt her best at telling the audience what it’s like to be a community manager, about the different roles of community management we have established at jovoto and about what the future might bring for community management as an emerging job profile. Also on the Panel are Soundcloud’s David Noel, Nokia’s Surya Santhi and Florian Zühlke of TLGG.

On Thursday at 8pm, Bastian and Nadine are presenting a short intro about the story of the Human Rights Logo at Mashable Salon in Berlin’s Soho House.

On Friday, at last, we’ll enjoy ourselves at a small team BBQ (it also happens to be jovoto’s fourth Birthday!) and at the SMW closing party, at which our dear Jeroen van Boxtel will DJ.

As I said last week jovoto joined the design thinking community for their first community event “better beta“. Design thinking is a method for facilitating human centered innovation and good ideas inside a company (or any project).

She’s a winner:  You_did

As you may recall, we created the better beta logo here at jovoto – an attempt by the organizers of the event to have a community-created conference from the very beginning. To my delight, You_did, (or Judith) who came out with the winning design, could make it to the conference and helped me out during the presentation of the “making of” the better beta logo.

A flash from the past: “Siehaus” and key learnings

The next day was quite busy since I was scheduled to take part as an ‘expert’ in two sessions on “crowdsourcing / virtual collaboration”, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The workshops were structured and moderated by Ahmet Acar who’s a design thinking pro. The aim was to find parallels between the competitive/collaborative ideation process on jovoto and the design thinking process. Can design thinking be transferred into an online environment?

Another nice surprise: One of the participants of the afternoon session turned out to be a jovoto community member whom we haven’t seen in a while,Siehaus, who joined us for Frankfurt Book Fair’s Flying Sparks contest last year. We had a great chat and she told me about a citizen science project that she is currently involved with. It has to do with Berlin’s bird population… and perhaps we will encounter this particular project in an open zone in a few months…

Well, I’m going to have to reflect what I took home from the workshops and discuss it with the rest of the team. But of the top of my head, I guess one of the key learnings was: Design thinkers tend to view the ideation part of a process as “the tip of the iceberg” – most of their work lies in the research, consultation, and reformulation of the challenge brief/question itself.

So tell us Britta, how’d you end up working at jovoto?

I actually got to know more about jovoto because I met Frieda and Tim on a sailing trip, and became friends with them. While i was friends with them my boyfriend did some freelance jobs for jovoto, so by then i knew already quite some stuff about the company. While i was writing my master thesis i really wanted to have a  job so i could get out of the struggle of writing a master thesis. Very soon I found that job at jovoto. When finishing my master thesis i also stopped working for jovoto for some time, after i got my masters degree I applied again and got the job.

So what did you do before jovoto?

I studied media management at the Bauhaus university in Weimar. I really loved living living there, it’s such a nice small city. I wrote my master thesis for Deutsche Bahn so when I started writing it I moved to Berlin

So what is exactly your job?

I work in 2 departments, I work 50% for community management and 50 % for creative strategy. As a community manager I do a lot of contest guiding and I’m helping out with the blog. Besides that I’m the assistant of our creative strategist Conradin. Therefore I work with him and the clients on the creative tasks, do feedback talks and write contest analyses to make it easier for them to evaluate the results of their contests.

Awesome, what do you enjoy most in working for jovoto?

A few things, but first and foremost the team. I really enjoy working with this team, there’s always a great atmosphere in the office. Ah, and of course the Friday brunches are awesome. (we always have brunch altogether on Fridays) Besides that i really the fact that within my job I always work on different projects & tasks for a wide variety of different clients.

Are you creative yourself?

Yes, I introduced döner Wednesday in the jovoto office.

Yes, we all thank you for that. But for people who are not familiar with this ancient tradition, what is it exactly?

Well there is this awesome döner kebab place at kottbusser, so because we always fight over what we want to have for lunch I introduced döner Wednesdays to have less fights. Although i have to say that we are pretty flexible, every now and then it’s döner Thursday or döner Monday.

That’s already super creative, but besides that, are you creative in other ways?

Hmm, I played the guitar for some time but my sisters told me that i could only play the guitar when she is not at home.

How do you spend your spare time?

I spend most of my spare time with friends, doing sports, going to bars or hang around in one of the many parks in Berlin.

Where can we find you on the weekends?

You can find me at gipfeltreffen in gorlitzer strasse or having long brunches with friends. Last week i was in kiki blofeld and that was also awesome. It’s a bit like a playground at the beach with nice music.

What’s the first thing you are gonna do when this interview ends?

Look for a new appartment in neukolln.

Good luck!