smartweek 2021: Work Smarter, Not Harder

From 14th to 16th September, our annual company-wide smartweek training event returned for its 2021 edition. In addition to our annual Strategy Days and external training programmes, smartweek is another component of our training and development initiatives. At smartweek, colleagues become trainers and share their expertise in a space dedicated to internal knowledge exchange. This year, everything revolved around the theme of work smarter, not harder. 

Here is an overview of what transpired.

A peer-to-peer learning space

The main goal of smartweek is to leverage our internal knowledge and train colleagues on business-related topics such as finance, developments in the programmatic ecosystem, header bidding, and more. We also strive to educate colleagues on interdisciplinary topics such as leadership skills, presentation techniques, problem-solving, learning strategies, and more. 

In the 2021 edition, smartclippers offered a total of 24 different digital workshops and presentations for their colleagues. Prior to smartweek, all employees had the chance to vote for their most desired course topics, which allowed us to tailor the course programme precisely to our colleagues’ personal and professional development needs. 

“Every smartweek, I learn many new tips and tricks that I can benefit from in my daily work. The sessions are always helpful and it’s amazing to see how much work and effort all trainers put into the preparation of their sessions.”

Moritz Böning, Senior Project Manager

In-house expertise for every topic

The selected courses represented the wide range of topics that our colleagues are interested in, and demonstrated our broad in-house expertise. For example, our colleagues had the chance to gain insights into ”How we’re developing new commercial products” and the “Latest trends in programmatic” presented by the EU Demand Management Team including Pieter van den Bergh (Executive Director Europe | Demand), David Broich (Senior Commercial Product Manager), and Florian-David Werner (Senior Manager Inventory Quality). 

“Hints & tips to shine in a presentation” by Mariana Berezin (Senior Manager Platform Consulting & Training), and “Slide deck masterclass: Life’s a pitch, make it count” with Shira Leffel (Executive Director Europe | Marketing), and Lisa-Theresia Rischke (Senior Sales Marketing Manager Europe), shared advice for public speaking opportunities and the creation of pitch decks while Anne Lusczyk (Head of Platform Consulting & Training), and Aurelie Bombrun (Manager Platform Consulting & Training) offered an interactive workshop on “The Future of Learning at smartclip”.  

In other sessions, we were able to deep dive into “New ways of reporting” with Thomas Servatius (Co-CEO and MD Platform & Technology, get the latest tips on “Digital Leadership” from Christian Osterhues (Executive Director Europe | Human Resources), or learn about “Inventive Problem Solving” from Gloria Eichler (Head of Platform Engineering). 

“smartweek is an excellent opportunity to get in touch with topics outside of the personal day-to-day work and learn new things from my colleagues. It has become even better in 2021, now that course participants can play an active role in deciding on the course agenda by voting for their favourite topics.”

Cristina Sanchez Gonzalez, Key Account Manager, smartclip Europe 

It’s not smartweek without a workout

Apart from deep-dives into the various personal and professional development topics, we organised breakout sessions for time to catch up with our colleagues from around Europe — and to get active. 

As tradition goes, the second day of smartweek was kicked off with a tailor-made workout session hosted by our in-house CrossFit expert, Alexander Krause (Director New Cooperations). He was kindly supported by Sebastian Busse (Director Addressable TV) and Mirjam Blockhaus (Intern Human Resource), who helped Alexander demonstrate various exercises.

We would have loved to bring the whole company together in our headquarters for an in-person event. However, due to ongoing protection measures against COVID-19, the event took place virtually. 

Nevertheless — and once again — it was great to see how smartweek can enable valuable collaboration. Although the training sessions are designed to pass on knowledge to colleagues, smartweek is not solely about the consumption of course contents. Sonja Schuster, Head of Training and Development at smartclip Europe, summarises: “In addition to learning from our peers, smartweek is about meeting up with our colleagues and creating a space for identifying and tapping into various kinds of expertise within our organisation as well as fostering dialogue. The dedication and enthusiasm that our colleagues — both trainers and participants — bring to smartweek each time is inspiring, and we’re already looking forward to smartweek 2022.”