The Impactory

The place and community people go to build their business with an impact

Our in-house journalist Katie Nail Katie Nail is following some of the exciting happenings at The Impactory. Meet the newest additions to The Impactory team, Charlène Obrietan and Chloé Masson.

The Impactory is more than an office—it’s a creative shared working environment for like-minded individuals. Everyday the city center office sees a variety of members using the space for developing their business ideas, networking, or enjoying a coffee and chat. Over the next two months anyone using the space will be able to meet Charlène Obrietan and Chloé Masson, The Impactory’s first interns.

Obrietan and Masson are students at the Université de Lorraine at Metz and are studying Foreign Language Applied to Business. All interns are required to do a twelve-week internship, and while many go abroad, both Obrietan and Masson felt that The Impactory would expose them to many different languages.

“There are many members of the Impactory speaking many languages,” Obrietan explained. “It’s very interesting [for us] because we can see different people from different countries, and it helps us to become more open minded.”

Both interns are interested in developing their language skills but also gaining experience that will help them determine their specialty for their master’s degree. Once they graduate they will be able to choose a specific field for their master’s. Both interns agree that the experience they are having at The Impactory is helping them gain understanding into marketing and HR, their main areas of interest.

Marina Thiriet, The Impactory Community Project Manager, organized the Internship and is eager to help them develop their skills.

“The interns bring new energy, fresh eyes on things, and a bit of help for day to day [tasks] or special projects,” Thiriet explained. “They will learn a lot of things at The Impactory and we hope they will get more insight into entrepreneurship and will discover more about our values: creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, and collaboration.”

Wanting to immerse themselves in The Impactory culture both interns are participating in the Human Centered Design workshop currently taking place over the next seven weeks, every Thursday at The Impactory. The interns are learning about how to approach problems in an innovative way. After the second session, the interns discussed how impressed they were with the concept of thinking about a problem from a users perspective in order to come up with a more innovative solution.

Another highlight of their time at The Impactory has been watching Thiriet work on different projects. Obrietan and Masson said they can learn a lot about organization and marketing from her. One project they are excited to see from beginning to end is the Rails Girls, which The Impactory is organizing in conjunction with the Luxmbourgish Government. The event will take place on the 16th and 17th of May and is a code building workshop for women. Both interns agree that helping with a project of this magnitude and importance is a wonderful opportunity for them.

The Impactory is excited to have Obrietan and Masson working with us for the next few months. Their enthusiasm, curiosity, and passion to learn follow the spirit of The Impactory. We are excited to see how their time with us inspires them in the future.