Project MARCH reflects on En Serio’s PR support in the Netherlands

Students put their studies on hold for a year to join Project MARCH and build a new exoskeleton. Since 2019, En Serio has dedicated their time and PR and content marketing expertise to this non-profit TU Delft Dream Team on a pro bono basis.

The start of MARCH VII

Each MARCH team extensively documents design choices, their progress on the exoskeleton. This information is handed over to the next team at the end of the academic year. This way, new teams start with a solid foundation to base the design of their own, improved exoskeleton on.

Every MARCH team has a department that focuses on Partnerships & Public Relations. We spoke to Carlijn van Osch, Public Relations Coordinator of MARCH VII and Eric Dragt, founder and director of tech PR-agency En Serio, about their cooperation in academic year 2021-2022.

Learning beyond the academic curriculum

Carlijn studies medicine at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and decided that she was not ready for the next step after finishing her bachelor’s degree. “I really wanted to learn new things outside my degree and take a break from medicine for a while. My residency could definitely wait another year.  I heard about Project MARCH through a friend’s flatmate and was immediately highly interested. I decided to apply straight away.”

Because Carlijn does not have a technical background, she was only considered for PR and partnership roles and the management positions. She found the latter less appealing, as they are still quite technical given the nature of the project. “In the end, I decided on PR and, fortunately, was accepted.”

Carlijn knew very little about communication and had no experience in dealing with the press. That is why En Serio’s help proved so valuable to her. “I threw myself wholeheartedly into the challenge and learnt so much from it. My year at MARCH really flew by and has given me so much! I learned how to work effectively in a multidisciplinary team. And in my role specifically, also how to write a press release, how to approach the press, how to ensure the project receives as much attention as possible. Just to name a few of the highlights.”

“Being coached by highly experienced PR-consultants meant that our learning curve went through the roof.” – Carlijn, Project MARCH VII

Starting from scratch every year

According to Eric, what makes this TU Delft student team project particularly challenging is that they start with a new team every year and have to build everything up from scratch again. “That is also the case for communication and PR. We have been doing this for several years now, and every year we check whether there is a genuine connection with the team. Otherwise, it is not worth getting involved. Fortunately, all new teams have welcomed our help with open arms. The atmosphere is always dynamic and energetic. The students are motivated to learn new things, and they get the hang of it really fast.”

At the start of each year, En Serio checks in with the new Project MARCH team to see what they would like to learn and what they expect from En Serio. “In the early years, we were mostly hands-on, focused on execution and on-the-job support. For this year that has shifted to a coaching role.” According to Carlijn, the Project MARCH team, who will be working unpaid for a year, should ‘see it primarily as an investment in themselves.’

“What I really appreciated was how smoothly things went with En Serio, that is not the case with every partner. I got a lot of support and was really happy with the coaching from the En Serio team. It is just a nice feeling to know you can brainstorm and rely on the expertise of experienced tech PR consultants.”

“On top of that, En Serio really thinks outside the box. For instance, they helped brainstorm to – at some point in the future – produce of a documentary. And they came up with the idea of organizing World Exoskeleton Day. We thought it would be really cool if Project MARCH could realise that dream,” says Carlijn.

A pleasant collaboration

Eric also looks back on a pleasant collaboration with MARCH VII. “Carlijn and her team were very eager to learn and very independent. There was a real sense of commitment, and the gratitude ran deep. They were clear about what they needed from us, and we learned a lot from the students too. We have many partner agencies and clients in the Netherlands an abroad, as well as journalists in our network. What Project MARCH does each year is interesting to them as well.”

“It is fantastic to work with a highly motivated group of people that pick up on things incredibly quickly. Happy that we can do this every single year.” – Eric, En Serio

Wrapping up and looking back

The students quickly start to miss that sense of togetherness once they move on to their studies after the project. “I started my residency, but most of the others started with their master’s degree. I missed MARCH right away, it really felt a bit like our baby,” says Carlijn.

What Carlijn found the most rewarding thing about the project, was that their exoskeleton made it possible for someone with a spinal cord injury to stand up again, walk around, and look others into the eye. “We share our insights and knowledge that we obtained this year to raise awareness and inspire others. This is how we work toward improving exoskeleton technology and move closer to everyday use. Hopefully, the industry will eventually take the baton from us and ‘our’ exoskeleton will actually make it to the market.”