Becoming a Hyperlearner

ZN Consulting is one of the pioneering digital consulting agencies in Brussels, Belgium, founded over 20 years ago by Philip Weiss. Philip had a vision of a digital world and based ZN's services on his concept of “Hyperthinking”, therefore I am currently a “Hyperlearner.” ZN's services include digital: intelligence, identity, development, learning, and activation. These five services fuse to create an all inclusive digital agency in which ZN can: perform market research, form a brand identity, develop digital platforms, teach digital media, and create content for all of their clients.

I am interning with the Accounts Management department, my supervisor being one of the 4 Account Managers at ZN. My supervisor introduced me to her main clients and what she manages for each of these clients during my first weeks. I learned industry terms like “crib sheet” - an excel file that contains months of curated social media posts - and studied the many procedures that ZN has created for the “Hyperlearners” or new employees to reference when they are performing new tasks.

ZN is composed of two other departments, Design and Marketing, that harmoniously work with the Accounts Management department. The Design team receives projects for clients from the Account Management team and thus creates whatever graphics that are needed for the respective client. I recently assisted with the process of communicating and delivering feedback to the Design team, as we were creating a brand identity guideline for a client. A brand identity guideline is a few pages laying out aspects to a brand such as a logo, color palettes, fonts, website design, and what kind of stock pictures to use on social media. The Marketing department is essentially handled by one of the executives at ZN, who is an expert in all things Marketing! She manages the ZN social media pages and is in constant contact with prospective clients to ultimately gain new clients. Given ZN’s location, most of their clients deal with the European Parliament and Commission in some way. This means that our Marketing Director also continuously networks within the “Brussels Bubble” of policymakers and local influencers.

One client that I have been working with for the past month is the United Nations and European Parliaments partnership organization, the Spotlight Initiative. This organization was formed to end violence against all women and girls across the world. A highlight from my internship so far was being invited by my supervisor to attend the launch event for the campaign we had been working on with the Spotlight Initiative. ZN worked to create the #WithHer campaign and planned a launch event with guests like MEPs, Commissioners, and Brussels influencers. The event had speakers such as feminist activists, survivors of gender-based violence, and policy makers. They also debuted the launch video that ZN created for the campaign at the event. After the speakers were done, I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to personally interview French MEP Chrysoula Zacharopoulou and DG of the European Commission Paraskevi Michou to ask them why they are #WithHer.

But not every day is a high-profile event, I often am on my laptop managing social media accounts, managing excel files, editing PowerPoints, etc. I now am officially working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I look forward to further assisting ZN - even if it is all the way from South Carolina.