The introduction week of the TU Eindhoven has just come to an end. For Noesis, this has been the first big opportunity to present ourselves to a large audience and put Noesis on the map. At the end of the week, it is safe to say that we left a great first impression on countless students! Both the campus market on Wednesday and the workshops on Friday were big successes. Lots of people enjoyed the vibes and the chess, and more than a hundred people signed up for our interest list!
Campus market

Wednesday afternoon, from 14:00 until 18:30, the intro campus market took place at the university. All the grass fields of the university were completely filled with the stands of all student-related associations of Eindhoven.
When I first arrived at our spot to set up the stand, it did not seem like we would be having a successful afternoon: I found our chairman Joost standing somewhat sadly with two small tables with cardboard boxes on it. In contrast, nearly all associations around us had set up a big tent with all kinds of entertainment and fancy promo material for their association around it.
Fortunately, our Noesis intro team arrived soon, to help and set everything up. After some intense puzzling, we managed to build up our (somewhat) giant chess board. Also, we got a few extra tables here and there to set up some more chess boards. People came to our stand continuously to play a game against each other, or against one of us. I took on a lot of challenges, and in some of them I played blindfolded. I managed to stay undefeated for the afternoon (although I did have one draw), but I had to fight very hard for it.
In the mean time, more and more people were visiting us; all of the chess tables were occupied all the time. We kept on bringing in more tables and chess boards, and still all the boards were occupied virtually all of the time. Furthermore, our intro team, wearing our brand-new Noesis shirts, and armed with Noesis beer openers, did a great job at informing people about our club. The interest list, for people who might want to join the association, kept getting longer and longer. What started with two tables and some cardboard boxes ended with a hugely successful afternoon!



Workshops
On Friday, we gave chess workshops for beginners. The idea was that we will teach chess to people who do not know how to play chess yet, after which they can start playing and test their new skills. People who already know how to play chess were also welcome, and they could start playing straight away.
So far the idea. In reality, it turned out that from the 110-120 people that came in total, only 2 of them did not know how to play chess yet. Therefore, we changed the plan to giving an individual explanation to these 2 people, and the rest could start playing straight away.
As expected on the Friday of the introduction week, a lot of students (including me) were exhausted from ‘doorhaaldonderdag’, and energy levels were not very high. However, it was very chill and people had a good time. Our list of interested people also kept growing and growing. Combined with the interested people from the campus market, we gathered email-addresses of more than 100 interested people! A few people even registered for the club straight away.


Finally, a big thank you from the board to Chiel, Lisa, Nicky, Pranav, Prudhvi, Thomas, and Vincent for all their help during the campus market and the workshops! We did a good job of putting Noesis on the map, which would have been impossible without their help. We hope the workshops at the Master kickoff will be equally successful next week!