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Jan Kuppens
Facility & IT manager @ OBV / Co-Owner at co_ppel
Professional Background
Jan Kuppens is a distinguished professional with a rich background in management, audiovisual production, and the arts. Over the years, Jan has amassed a wealth of experience that showcases a unique blend of technical expertise and managerial acumen. Currently serving as the Co-Owner at co_ppel, Jan has proven to be an innovative and strategic thinker, contributing significantly to the organization's success. His role reflects his passion for creating compelling audiovisual content and a strong understanding of the artistic landscape.
Before co-founding co_ppel, Jan had a remarkable career at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, where he held various positions including Facility & IT Manager and Deputy Technical Director. During his tenure at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Jan was instrumental in managing complex technical operations and facilitating seamless performances. His technical skills and management expertise allowed him to thrive in a fast-paced environment where creativity and precision are paramount.
Jan’s path to success began in the realm of theater, where he honed his skills as a Production Manager at both NTGent and ZTHollandia. These roles provided him with not only hands-on experience in production management but also an in-depth understanding of the artistic processes involved in staging performances. His ability to coordinate and execute technical elements of productions has made him a sought-after professional in the industry.
In addition to his managerial roles in the arts, Jan served as the Business Manager at Theatermakershuis de Queeste, overseeing business operations and driving strategies that enhanced the organization’s reach and impact within the performing arts community. His experience as an Account Manager at Van Geuns further solidifies his expertise in client relations and business development, showcasing his versatility across various sectors.
What set Jan apart in his field is his rich educational background, having studied economic science, HR management, and audiovisual production, which adds a multifaceted approach to his work. His formal education, combined with practical experience in the arts, positions him uniquely as a leader in the performing arts community.
Education and Achievements
Jan Kuppens's educational journey is as diverse as his professional career. His foundational studies began at Sint Jozefscollege, where he focused on Economic Science. This early exposure to economics laid the groundwork for his analytical thinking and understanding of business operations, which would serve him well in his subsequent roles.
Jan further pursued a specialization in Human Resources Management at Ehsal Management School. This academic endeavor granted him insights into managing human capital effectively, which is essential in both artistic and corporate environments. His HR studies equipped him with the knowledge to foster a collaborative work culture and manage diverse teams successfully.
Transitioning into the field of audiovisual production, Jan enrolled at RITS - Erasmushogeschool Brussel, where he pursued a Bachelor in Audiovisual Production. This program fueled his creativity and technical skills, allowing him to engage deeply with the various aspects of production, from conceptualization to execution.
Additionally, Jan enhanced his managerial expertise by completing a Middle Management Program in General Management at Vlerick Leuven-Gent Management School. This program enriched his understanding of strategic management, leadership, and organizational dynamics, preparing him for high-responsibility roles within the performing arts sector.
In pursuit of continuing education, Jan also studied History at Universiteit Gent, although he did not attain a degree in this field. Nevertheless, the knowledge gained from this academic experience contributes to his overall breadth of understanding in cultural contexts and enhances his appreciation for narrative structures in performance arts.
Throughout his various roles, Jan has achieved significant milestones that have positively influenced the organizations he has worked with. His commitment to fostering creative excellence and promoting artistic integrity has made him a valuable asset within the industry.
Achievements
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Co-Ownership of co_ppel: As Co-Owner of co_ppel, Jan has been a driving force in creating innovative audiovisual projects that resonate with audiences and elevate the standard of content produced.
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Leadership at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen: Jan's profound impact as a Facility & IT Manager and Deputy Technical Director at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen showcases his ability to blend technical know-how with effective management strategies, ensuring high-quality productions.
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Advancements in Production Management: His roles at NTGent and ZTHollandia highlight Jan’s extensive experience and leadership in the realm of production management, where he successfully managed complex productions and drove project execution.
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Business Development: As Business Manager at Theatermakershuis de Queeste, Jan implemented strategies that bolstered relationships within the community, demonstrating his adeptness in navigating the artistic and business landscapes.
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Client Relations: In his earlier roles, including Account Manager at Van Geuns, Jan developed strong client relations, enhancing organizational visibility and fostering partnerships that propelled business growth.
Overall, Jan Kuppens combines his extensive education and varied career experience to make significant contributions to the arts and audiovisual production industries. His journey is a testament to versatility and passion for creativity, making him a prominent figure in his field.
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
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Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
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