Awards for two Facility Management bachelor thesis’ 

The topic of the ConnectXL conference was the future of Facility Management from a Hospitality and Food perspective. This intersection of specialty domains certainly fits our academy like a glove and confirmed we are taking a relevant perspective with our FM programme.

This event also hosted the annual FMN Student awards for the most pertinent, qualitative and interesting bachelor thesis of the past year, judged by a professional jury and the participants of the conference. For the final nominees BUas was represented by two students. 

We were more than thrilled to behold that Daniëlle van ‘t Westeinde took home the award with her thesis on the rise of Hotel participation in the co-working office industry. Her thesis investigated the main competitive advantage Hotels have over traditional FM, which is having Hospitality in their DNA, and provides recommendations for the FM industry to bridge this gap. 

The cherry on top of the conference was Lisa Kranendonk, who was celebrated as the runner up to Daniëlle. Her thesis calling out the FM Industry to focus on a User Centered Design for creating workspaces was especially praised by the professional jury.

Not only did Daniëlle win the award, but she was also one of the two keynote speakers on the conference. As a graduate intern for Colliers she was asked to deliver this keynote on the topic of her thesis. She did so with confidence and was able to captivate and inspire the audience of over 250 industry professionals. She undoubtedly lived up to the expectations after graduating last June with an astounding 10 for her Bachelor Thesis defense.