Siobhan Burger and Jonas Martens aired on Chicks and the City!

Siobhan BurgerPress

Guilty pleasure songs, entrepreneurship, sharing failures and the future of the city of Rotterdam were among others topics of discussion during the interview in which Siobhan Burger and het R’damse Nieuwe collegaue Jonas Martens were asked questions by two Rotterdam chicks during ‘Chicks and the City’ on Radio Rijnmond on May 24th.

Chicks and the City: where girls make radio!

Chicks and the City is a project set up by Natasja Morales in which she creates radio for region Rijnmond in collaboration with ambitious girls (ranging from 15 to 25). The project is developed to give participating girls a voice and to encourage their self-reliance. The girls present, support directing and create radio reports on themes they came up with themselves. Chicks and the City is live every Wednesday from 19.00 till 20.00 on radio station Rijnmond.

R’damse Nieuwe  is committed to the future of entrepreneurial Rotterdam

Initiatives like Chicks in the City in line with what R’damse Nieuwe stands for: creating an inclusive Rotterdam by creating opportunities for young Rotterdammers. R’damse Nieuwe is a community of entrepreneurial youth based in. As a community, they are capable of joining forces of knowledge and competence in order to connect, inspire and advise. Together with partner network Rotterdam Partners, they stimulate and support young entrepreneurship and offer a stage for awesome and innovative ideas in various ways. The goal is to make Rotterdam a city where Rotterdam entrepreneurs want to enjoy both their living and working life.

Jonas Martens is the chair of the board of R’damse Nieuwe and founder of Better Future Factory and Siobhan Burger holds the culture and urban development portfolio of R’damse Nieuwe and is cofounder of Arttenders.  Hence both were invited to come talk about their businesses, R’damse Nieuwe and the city of Rotterdam.

The hosts of the night: Cheyenne and Angel

This episode was presented by Angel and Cheyenne. Angel (15) goes to school at LMC Slinge and is a busy bee who loves dancing, drawing and playing football. Cheyenne (18) is studying at Grafisch Lyceum Rotterdam and wants to go into media to become editorial staff. Together with ‘their’ editorial team they prepared the interview.

Events, the R’damse Community and the future of Rotterdam

The chicks prepared some interesting questions for Siobhan and Jonas ranging from the importance of a community such as R’Damse Nieuwe for the economy of Rotterdam, which cool events are on their agenda to how they see the future of Rotterdam.

First up are the events that R’damse Nieuwe is organizing. The girls were curious what type of events we are hosting and why. One of the events R’Damse Nieuwe is cohosting is FuckUp Nights where Rotterdam entrepreneurs share their failures and adventures for others to learn from. For the event Crowd Force Rotterdam, R’damse Nieuwe  selects a few entrepreneurs to get people to think with them about how to tackle particular issues they deal with in finance, marketing etc. It is like a big think-tank for entrepreneurs. The next edition of Crowd Force is going to be in September and will have a focus on culture. R’damse Nieuwe is still looking for creative entrepreneurs to join this event! For more info check their website! (www.rdamsenieuwe.nl)

The chicks also wanted to know how R’damse Nieuwe recruits. Well, they are always looking for connectors! Depending on what theme they are working on, they look for people in their network and beyond. Because the more input, the better. The R’damse Nieuwe Facebook page is very up to date so follow them there!

“Siobhan and Jonas, how do you see the future of Rotterdam?” asked Angel. Jonas takes the idealist approach and is in favor of a sustainable Rotterdam. Siobhan hopes to be walking around comfortably feeling safe in every street, wherever in Rotterdam, with inclusion of applied public art of course 😉

Guilty Musical Pleasures

Siobhan’s and Jonas’ guilty pleasure song is not so secret anymore. Part of the Chicks and the City radio program is airing the guilty pleasure song of the guests of the previous week. A poll was put online to allow the public to judge which guilty pleasure is worse: Siobhan picked Peter Andre with his Mysterious Girl  and Jonas admits he enjoys listening to Katy Perry singing I Kissed A Girl. Decide for yourself! (Update: Peter Andre obviously won the poll)

You can listen to the whole interview HERE

(Note: the interview is in Dutch)