Theme: Moonshot, crazy ideas that change the world

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

Place du Vingt Aout 7
Liège, Liège (fr), 4000
Belgium

Christine Zimmermann-Loessl

Studying political science, sinology and philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilan Universität in Munich, was the starting point for my interest in Asia. Working in different Asian countries as a teacher, consultant and in trading companies gave me experience and deeper insight in the culture and people. When I returned to Germany I benefited from this as a project manager for risk analysis and crisis management. Networking came always easy to me, so I founded the Asia Network Information Center. After returning to Germany I needed to focus on family matters till I started again with consulting. Inspired by my sons interests in Vertical Farming I got involved in this fascinating topic, which seemed to offer solutions for so many problems and my decision was clear to get involved and support it with all my experience and my networks – we founded the Association for Vertical Farming to introduce and push the implementation of Vertical Farming around the world.

Claire Nouvian

Claire Nouvian is director and founder of the nonprofit conservation organization BLOOM, based in Paris and Hong Kong. Her research and activities focus on deep-sea fisheries and shark consumption habits.

Damien Ernst

In 1998, Damien Ernst graduated from the University of Liège. His did his master thesis on electricity networks, focusing on loss of synchronism phenomena that can lead to blackouts in a matter of seconds. His doctoral thesis focused on reinforcement learning to solve control and decision-making problems in electricity networks. After his thesis, Professor Ernst continued on that path and published extensively on the subject during his three-year post-doctoral research, funded by the FNRS and spent at CMU and MIT in the USA, and at ETH in Zurich. Damien Ernst then headed to France, where he was a professor at Supélec, an engineering school in Rennes. Since 2011, he is Associate-Professor at the University of Liège, where his research projects focus on smart grids as well as the integration of renewable energy into electrical network

Dimitri Laboury

Dimitri Laboury is Senior Research Associate of the Belgian National Foundation for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS) at the University of Liège, where he is head of the Ancient Egyptian Art Historical Research Unit and teaches Ancient Egyptian Art History, Archaeology, History and History of Religions. He took part to several archaeological expeditions in Egypt and co-directs the Belgian Archaeological Mission in the Theban Necropolis (Luxor, Upper Egypt). He specialized in the study of Ancient Egyptian thought and cultural history through the art of that civilization. His last book was devoted to a new biography of king Akhenaton (Paris, 2010), already available in Spanish and to be translated soon in English, and he is currently working on artists, their practices, and their social status(es) in Ancient Egypt.

Dorothée Goffin

M.Sc. in Chemistry and Bio-industry and D.S. in agronomical sciences and biological engineering from the University of Liège (Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech), Dorothée Goffin has a very diversified and multidisciplinary scientific experience. Passionate scientist craving for new knowledge and experience, she early realized the importance of “thinking out of the box”, exploring other fields and considering societal issues. She developed, during her PhD thesis, innovative health ingredients produced through a process inspired by nature. She then developed a start-up project around these ingredients acting on gut, bone health and immunity and therefor received numerous prices and grants. She then developed and co-created with the 1st vice-rector, Eric Haubruge, the first Living Lab in Wallonia, the Smart Gastronomy Lab which is a use, co-creation and prototyping multidisciplinary lab for food, technologic and gastronomic innovation.

Gaëtan Streel

Gaëtan Streel is a belgian artist born in 1977. He defines himself as a curious mind and has been working in many fields : writing, music, photography, video. He studied philosophy of science and then computer sciences at the University of Liège with a particular interest in formal logic and digital audio processing. Whenever he has time, he likes to get involved in the hacklab scene or installation art involving arduino, pure data, sensors and all sorts of unusual contraptions Gaëtan has been working professionally as a musician and as a sound engineer for 15 years. He’s been playing in many bands but in 2012, he released a first album under his real name entitled “One day at a time”. He’s currently working on his next album and a first exhibition of his photographic work.

Grégoire Van Cutsem

Marketeer of the Year 2014, head of communication, marketing and sales, Grégoire van Cutsem has been working for Lampiris group for nearly 5 years. He developed a unique marketing approach in the world of energy, based on strong brand values, which live daily through the actions that take the company. With a Finance background, Grégoire van Cutsem has built most of his career in marketing in the mobile telecoms sector. His experience as a Pricing Manager drove Grégoire to be the B2B marketing manager at Proximus for several years. Now head of sales and marketing at Lampiris (Belgian 100% green and natural electricity and gas provider), it’s with a true “challenger strategy” that Grégoire and his team stand out on a market dominated by international groups. Whether it’s at work, in sports or through associative activities, Grégoire goes by his values of team spirit, passion, enthusiasm and commitment.

Jamie Anderson

Jamie Anderson is a speaker, author and cyclist. Named as a “management guru” in the Financial Times, Jamie has also been included on a list of the world’s “top 25 management thinkers” by the journal Business Strategy Review. He is visiting professor at Antwerp Management School, London Business School and INSEAD.

Koen Delvaux

Koen Delvaux is a senior manager who has a background in both startups and corporate organisations. Today he is heading the consumer innovation department of Proximus, Belgium’s largest telco. His team brings new products to the market using lean startup principles, together with an ecosystem of partners. Before joining Proximus, Koen was active as an independent management consultant in the areas of innovation, social media, customer centricity and digital marketing. He has experience in several sectors like energy, telecommunications, media and retail. He was a founder and coach of several internet startups and stays in touch with the world by blogging about his experiences.

Martin Saive

Martin Saive was born with a pencil in his hands. With his markers or his keyboard, he loves to create colorful worlds made of pictograms, typography and playful shapes. After having worked in major advertising agencies, he chose to focus on what he’s doing best: illustration. His style is recognizable in an instant and adapts to all different kind of projects such as videos, advertising, e-learning and many more. Because his « small » drawings tells a story, simplify or explain the most complicated messages, but always with the « Martin’s touch » which sign a fun and unique creation every time.

Olivier Pirnay

Olivier Pirnay (Oli) is a Belgian press cartoonist. For almost 6 years, he has been drawing the news of the world one day at a time in columns named « Les Humeurs d’Oli ». At first, he seduced local press like Le Poiscaille and La Meuse. His growing success brought him to work with private and public companies (SWDE, Enseignons.be, CGSP…) and politics, to finally focus exclusively on newspapers . He now works for the national daily pages of Sudpresse. Oli tries to give his own vision of the world and make people reflect upon and through his drawings. This illustrator is also a former graphic designer who worked 10 years for a Belgian holiday company, Ardennes-Etape.

Ozark Henry

Ozark Henry has left his mark on the Belgian music scene since the mid-’90s as a singer, songwriter, composer and producer. His early, mostly avant-garde electronic work quickly earned him the support of artists like David Bowie, Trent Reznor, Jah Wobble and Zazie. He toured as the supporting act for Moby and Garbage and the acclaimed French music magazine Les Inrocks labelled him ‘le jeune Bowie Flamand’. Since then, he has released seven platinum studio albums and three soundtracks, cutting out a unique musical path. Always looking for new ways to translate sensory, emotional experiences through to his music, he blends heritage with technology, craft with experiment, audio with visual.

Philippe Gabant

Dr Philippe Gabant, is one of the founder and the CSO of Syngulon SA. Syngulon is a startup in synthetic biology founded in 2013. Philippe holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and a Master in Management de l’Innovation from HEC Saint Louis (Brussels, Belgium).

Richard Mardens

Having a passion for nature and the great outdoor Richard Mardens is a trained biologist who has always been attracted by adventure and discovering. By the years he obtained a complementary master in sciences and environmental management, became a dive instructor and specialized himself on marine mammals. From Asia to the Alps, through Africa, Australia, Iceland, Georgia, and the Canadian Rockies he traveled to explore, to learn, to meet new people, new cultures, to study more species and also to learn more about himself. Today He focuses to put his skills and experience to benefit the environment. After a while spent in Québec he co-founded « A paddle for the St-Lawrence » an expedition to discover and share the St-Lawrence river convinced the the beauty and the richness of the world sometimes need to be highlighted.

Sylvain Lodiot

Sylvain Lodiot works for the European Space Agency. He has been involved in several projects, but the Rosetta mission has always been present in his professional career. Since April 2014 he is the Rosetta Spacecraft Operations Manager. 2014 has been a fascinating year for Rosetta and space exploration starting with the probe wake up from hibernation in January, followed by the arrival at the Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August and the Landing of Philae on the Comet in November.