Following our call for projects from student associations this fall, the BDE F'rennesie has benefited from our support and that of the Paris Campus teams to organize a Alumni x Student meeting in Paris. On the program:

• Discovery of the Campus Paris premises for students and Alumni
• Informal exchanges and sharing of experiences around a cocktail
• Organization of a SAT for Parisian students and Alumni

Arnaud Sadion (PGE 32), President of the BDE, shares his experience with us.

This project started from a simple observation : we are lucky to have 2 campuses in Rennes SB : one in Rennes and one in Paris, but there is no connection between the students.

As president of the BDE, I considered that we had to create this connection between our two campuses. At the same time, being at the end of my mandate, I had the necessary experience and the desire to propose a new event to the students. While digging into the project with the BDE, we said to ourselves that there is a large number of alumni present in Paris and that this is the ideal event to meet them. 

Organizing an event in Paris is costly: increased logistics costs, reception venues, etc.... To continue to offer an attractive price to students, we decided to seize the opportunity of the call for projects of the Alumni cluster to access a grant. We were also lucky enough to benefit from the logistical and financial support of the Campus Paris teams. Without these grants, this event would never have been possible.

When I think back on this event, I tell myself that we are really lucky to have been able to organize an event like this one, few schools have the chance to offer this type of event, and even none that I know of. We managed to organize a cocktail party on the Paris campus and an evening on a barge for 25 euros all inclusive by selling all of our 200 seats.

It is true that the organization was very complicated. The train strike prevented us from bringing a large number of Rennes students to the Paris campus. Fortunately, the Alumni, the Parisian students and the students on gap year played the game.

Finally, this strike did not prevent us from having a great evening. It is really one of my strongest moments as BDE president. We got a lot of recognition from the students present at this party and I must admit that it was a pleasure. I would particularly like to thank One Life with whom we organized this evening and more precisely Nicolas Ancellin, former BDE president, without whom this event could not have been a success.

This is an event that should be repeated without hesitation! We have also created the position of "Alumni Manager" within the BDE to further promote exchanges between students and alumni.

For the next mandates, I would say that we must enrich this event and communicate effectively. Ideally, every student should be aware of this event. Honestly, there are not many schools that offer events of this magnitude: several hundred participants with the Alumni. It's really great to exchange with them, they are delighted to see what their school is becoming. At the same time, it's also an opportunity to be accompanied in your search for an internship. I was able to meet an Alumni who really helped me in my internship search and I can't thank him enough!

Finally, I think that the ideal would be to organize groups of students with a "referent" Alumni. What would be even more relevant would be to make groups of students by sector of activity with this Alumni who works in this sector so that there is a real interest, like a marketing group, a finance group, an entrepreneur group etc... I can imagine the thing being done quite naturally around a cocktail party on the Paris campus and then switching to a more convivial moment once the cocktail party is over on a barge so that all the participants can exchange and enjoy. "

Thank you Arnaud for this testimony and good luck for the future!