Celebrating an Anniversary with the Tenth Edition of Uncover

This article was written for Uncover magazine – From Global to Ground (10th edition). You can read the full magazine here. 

Authors: Peter Horsten and Simon de Wijs form the editorial board of Uncover. 

Knowledge valorisation
From the outset, Uncover has been intended to provide the entire network of entrepreneurs, governments, education, research, and social organisations with a platform for knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing and knowledge development. A place where new developments, policies, insights, innovations and/or projects could be shared. Uncover provides a direct link between the Academy for Leisure & Events and the entire professional field. It is not only a place to share our own projects and insights, but also to offer a platform to others in our network and to give thought leaders a voice. Stories in Uncover often provided a conclusion to a successful collaboration with the professional field, but just as often they served as a starting point for new collaborations. From the very beginning, a mix of professors, lecturers, students, professionals from the network of companies, governments, and social organisations have acted side by side as authors.

Umbrella themes
It is telling that we devoted the first Uncover to the theme of ‘the value of leisure time’, which immediately highlighted the multifaceted nature of our field. Each year and each edition, the aim is to find an urgent topic that provides focus, while at the same time creating sufficient space to cover the diversity of projects and developments in education, research, and projects at that moment in time. Many of the editions that followed are a continuation or elaboration of the research into how leisure contributes to meaning and to a better, more inclusive and sustainable world. 

Keynote interviews
A very important element of Uncover is the keynote interview. For each chosen theme, an opinion leader from the field is carefully selected and interviewed about developments and challenges in their field of work and the added value of leisure in that context. This resulted in fascinating conversations that surprised us, the audience and sometimes even the interviewees themselves with new ideas to explore further. The interviewees were academic experts in specific fields, such as Joe Pine on the transformation economy, Tony Blackshaw, professor of sociology on leisure as the art of living, and Keith Still on crowd safety. Others were prominent figures such as Hans Mommaas, director at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, and Hugo van de Poel, director at the Mulier Institute research agency. We also drew inspiration from practitioners such as Jeroen de Schuyteneer, director of Events, Festivals, Markets and Forums for the city of Ghent, who spoke about the 175th anniversary of the Ghent Festivities, Kristian Koreman of Buro ZUS (Zones Urbaines Sensibles) on permanent temporality in urban development, and sustainability strategist Milan Meyberg on the inevitable evolution towards a regenerative society.

Scale and scope
Although Uncover has more than doubled in size over the years (from 40 to 92 pages), an equally remarkable milestone is that a total of 317 articles have been published in Uncover over the past ten years (including this issue). These articles were written by more than 300 unique authors. If we were to rank them, there are 13 authors who have contributed more than five articles and four authors with more than ten articles. 12 authors have contributed articles to at least five different issues of Uncover. In addition to the hard copy version of Uncover, which has an average print run of 1,000-1,250 copies, the magazine is also distributed digitally. This is done, on the one hand, via the BUas website and, on the other hand, via our partnership with NRITmedia, where all Uncover articles are published separately but can also be found in a bundle. In addition, authors distribute their own articles in PDF format via social media such as LinkedIn and they use them in education.

Corona times 
During the corona period, everything seemed to stand still for a moment. But the social ‘changes’ resulting from the lockdown, combined with the lack of available leisure activities, made the importance of leisure (time and activities) all the more apparent. ‘Leisure in a bubble' (the umbrella theme for 2021) – reflects a time when we did more in, from and around the home, spent a lot of time behind screens and sought online connection, or if meeting live we kept 1.5 metres away from each other, which was also true for many outdoor leisure activities at the time. Together with crowd management scientist Keith Still and placemaking and events expert Greg Richards, we discussed the impact of COVID-19 on our domains.

Inclusive Leisure (the 2022 edition)
Peter: “For me Edition 6, themed Inclusive Leisure, has been the most influential, both from a content interest perspective and due to the personal urgency at that time. An edition with the biggest print run of over 2,000 copies that found its way everywhere, even to the ministries. The keynote interviews with the first Minister for Disability Affairs, Rick Brink (an inspirator who sadly passed away recently), and National Coordinator against Discrimination and Racism, Rabin Baldewsingh, helped with this. And through the call for a Sterkplaats 2.0 with experts by experience, it is up to today largely guiding my projects and teaching at BUas - at least in its most valuable element. Designing for and with all has become a major focus. This Inclusive Leisure edition also marked the step towards maturity in form and design. Uncover became a 90-page quality magazine with its now highly recognisable cover with flaps.” 

Leisure for a better world (the 2019 edition)
Simon: “In retrospect, Leisure for a better world has been the theme that has most strongly guided the direction we have taken with Uncover since then, with a broad view of the importance of our sector in relation to the SDGs or, as is now often referred to, broad prosperity. The magazine is full of concrete examples from sport, culture, and attractions that focus on societal issues such as waste, climate, cultural bonding, and accessibility. But what has always stayed with me is the keynote interview with Hans Mommaas, in which we saw leisure as a space for experimentation, where systems and the life world meet. Where leisure elements such as creativity, humour, imagination, storytelling, and voluntarism can make a difference. Leisure for a better society is now firmly established as a perspective in the latest educational profile and the theme is at the core of my role as a transition manager, working with front runners in Leisure Tourism Hospitality in Brabant to accelerate sustainability transitions.”

Conference connections
In both 2023 and 2025, Uncover was closely involved in two major conferences. In 2023, the conference took place before the publication of the magazine, and Uncover made an important contribution to the design and programme of the Future of Leisure Congress in Breda at BUas. The future was explored through the themes of sustainability, inclusivity, placemaking, and technology, and both the conference programme and the magazine were organised around these themes. Keynote speakers at the conference were featured in a keynote interview in the magazine. The umbrella theme of that year was, of course, Future of Leisure. In 2025, the order was reversed. Uncover magazine (themed Meaningful Leisure Experiences) was the welcome gift at the international World Leisure Conference in Breda in August 2025. Over the years, these kinds of connections have proven to be an effective and connecting method for asking authors to be workshop leaders and/or speakers and vice versa ask speakers and workshop leaders to contribute an article.

Valuing internationalisation
Amidst the political storm surrounding internationalisation, we have compiled an edition in which we discuss the positive experiences and learning outcomes of intercultural encounters. Jorrit Snijder, chair of the BUas board of directors, is convinced that such experiences enable young people to surpass themselves and explains why our institution has stayed the course on this issue. We also asked Lem van Eupen, then director of Nuffic – the Dutch association for internationalisation in education – to explain why they are committed to ensuring that everyone at every level of education has access to enriching international experiences. A valuable edition that certainly fits in with BUas' current strategic course, which has Europe, including KreativEU, as an important direction and scope. It is also a valuable edition when you see that dozens of authors, from students to alumni, from lecturers to researchers, from entrepreneurs to experts, share their personal stories about the value of intercultural contexts and internationalisation.

Language developments
Uncover itself has also become more international over the past decade. This began with a shift from the first few editions, which were almost entirely in Dutch, to an increasingly hybrid version featuring both Dutch and English articles side by side, followed by the release of both a Dutch and an English edition in 2022. And from 2023 onwards, we have published exclusively in English. Over time, stories have appeared from every continent in the world (except Antarctica). Authors from Canada to Hungary, Brazil to China, South Africa to New Zealand have published in Uncover. And in this current anniversary issue, we will again zoom in and out – from the super-local to the farthest corners of the world. Over the past years, we have also maintained a close collaboration with the World Leisure Organisation and its Centres of Excellence around the world. In this year's anniversary edition, they are well represented alongside international networks such as ATLAS, and KreativEU. 

Network approach
From the very beginning, Uncover served as the physical record of all activities organised by the network organisation COLIN (Creative Organisations Linked In Networks) together with BUas students for the cultural and creative industries in North Brabant. In that respect, connecting networks has been part of Uncover's DNA since its inception. COLIN was a BUas outpost with branches in Breda, Tilburg, and Oisterwijk, which we ran together with students and colleagues. Even when Uncover became the in-house magazine of the Academy for Leisure and Events in 2017, it continued to maintain its network approach. With colleagues from various specialisations, it was easy to establish contacts with main cultural partners such as Brabant C, KunstLoc, Van Gogh Brabant, Cubiss and Erfgoed Brabant, but also with organisations such as the Club van Elf and IAAPA in the attractions and theme parks sector, CELTH in the field of research, and STRETCH in the events sector, to name but a few examples. In addition, Uncover also often found its way to alumni. Many (emerging) social innovators, theme park, cultural or event managers became pioneers in our field somewhere in their careers after graduating and were happy to share their experiences with others through Uncover.

Content expansion
As mentioned earlier, Uncover originally focused on the cultural and creative industries. With the establishment of (let's call it) Uncover 2.0, which is now celebrating its tenth anniversary, Uncover became widely positioned in the leisure sector as the annual magazine of the Academy for Leisure and Events (ALE) at BUas. Each year, articles were published on (special) projects relating to themes from the various educational programmes and research groups within ALE. Over the past three years, we have seen a further shift, with more and more areas of BUas finding their way onto our platform. Academies for Tourism, Hotel & Facility, Built Environment & Logistics, and AI, Games & Media, just about all professorships, but also things like Innovation Square, BUas Clubs, The Hyve, Global Engagement Office, Urban Living Lab Breda, and the community garden, have now been represented. We hope to continue this expansion in the coming years to build and showcase a BUas-wide heritage.

Time to celebrate
We are very proud of Uncover's development and the position it has achieved over the years. That is why we will be taking some time this autumn (2026) to reflect on Uncover's legacy. As part of BUas' sixtieth anniversary celebrations, a number of exciting events will be organised focusing on the network of education, business, and government, during which we will be promoting Uncover. One of the ways we will be doing this is through an exhibition developed in collaboration with the BUas Library. The exhibition will include the series of magazine covers designed by Studio CEL. Incidentally, the theme of the sixtieth anniversary celebration is “60 years of pioneering beyond borders”. That can't be a coincidence. 

Looking ahead
In the autumn, we also want to look ahead quickly to the next decade for Uncover, starting in 2027. We’ll do this together with our partners within BUas and the external network, carefully built and maintained. We already have a tentative wish list with initial umbrella themes, including “AI & Technology”, “Ethics” and “Heritage”. However, this is not yet finalised, as we continue to search for urgent topics together with our partners. For example, it is equally appealing to address the current turbulence by reframing it positively within our domains as “Dynamics” or “Turning Point”.