Carolien Gehrels knows her way around in Amsterdam, having lived here since 1992 . She became an alderperson for the municipality of Amsterdam in 2006 and her current responsibilities are a mouthful, ranging from Economic Affairs, Art and Culture, Local Media, Participation, Monuments, Infrastructure and Water to Business, Competition and Purchasing. As a communications expert, she set up successful city marketing campaigns for Amsterdam, the well-known iamsterdam-campaign.
Carolien grew to share her vision on cities, emphasizing the role networks play in a city. Starting with a personal note on a trip to Rome after a break-up, she recalled her experience of being impressed by its cultural heritage, whilst also being immersed by the city’s buzz. History and contemporary came together for success. It made her realize that “if you want to maintain your sense of wonder, and your curiosity, you should not be led astray by distractions”, such as newspaper headlines, or politics. Instead, take a look at the city through the eyes of its citizens.
Amsterdam has a rich history as a merchant city, a central node in a large network – a characteristic the city likes to maintain, and cherish. This role of Amsterdam as a marketplace represents the perfect balance between the individual and the collective. But, how can we foster that? When do markets function best? When reliable information is at everyone’s disposal, and a sense of trust prevails. Thus, horizontal structures of information exchange, forming a strong linkage structure, is what made Amsterdam propel in the 17th century, and this exchange culture is still nurtured today.
One example Carolien mentioned is the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX), which started as a small shared infrastructure between (academic) organizations to exchange traffic in 1994, and is currently, the largest internet traffic facilitator in the world, whereby the goals of faster and cheaper internet connections are realized through shared responsibility. Looking for this common ground forms the basis of successful alliances, and that’s the blood running through the veins of Amsterdam. When connecting the dots, collective value is created.
She finished her talk with a quote from Plato describing Rome, where he touches upon the essence of Amsterdam: “this city is what it is, because its citizens are what they are”. Thank you, Rome.
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