Theme: Get enlighTED

In the spirit of the age of Enlightenment, people all over the world are now examining dogmas and old convictions, due to the failing of our economic-, monetary-, political and social cultural system. The loss of faith in big corporations and the changing beliefs in how people are supposed to thrive together are present everywhere. So: are we on the verge of a ‘new Enlightenment’?

De Philharmonie
Lange Begijnestraat 11
Haarlem, Noord-Holland, 2011 HH
Netherlands

Arita Baaijens

Arita Baaijens is an explorer, biologist, author, photographer, and fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, the Explorers Club, the Long Riders Guild, and WINGS Worldquest, who recently selected her for one of their distinguished awards. The Dutch adventurer has already completed over 25 desert expeditions on camel throughout Egypt and Sudan. She is the first woman to have crossed the Western Desert of Egypt solo on camel and the first Western woman to have travelled the Forty Days Road on camel twice. In Mauritania she photographed the last surviving female caravaneers. Currently Arita Baaijens travels and works in Siberia and Central Eurasia, to research sacred landscapes and traditional cultures. In 2013 she was the first to circumambulate the Altai Golden Mountains in the heart of Eurasia: 4 countries, 101 days, 1500 km on horseback. March 2015 the Spanisch Geographical Society honored Arita Baaijens as Traveler of the year.

Arnoud van Aalst

Arnoud van Aalst (The Hague, Netherlands) is co-founder of Dutch National Portrait Gallery and an active board member of several cultural organisations such as International Council of Museums (ICOM) Netherlands. He was the business director of leading Dutch architecture and design institutes such as Berlage Institute Post Graduate Laboratory of Architecture and Premsela Platform for Design and Fashion, and is now director of Artiance, Center for the Arts in Alkmaar.

Bo Benchellal

Mo Benchellal is best described as a fashion designer and art director. With his designs he plays with the combination of past vs. future & tradition vs. innovatory. His style is voluminous, traditional, classic, innovatory, handcrafted and above all très chique & high fashion.

Federico Pistono

Federico Pistono is a futurist, social entrepreneur, hacktivist, public speaker, founder and CEO of konoz – a startup that curates and organizes educational videos, whose mission is to become the largest online community for free learning in the world – and he's author of the best-selling book "Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That's OK: How to Survive the Economic Collapse and Be Happy", which has been translated into Spanish, German, and Italian. He lectures regularly at Universities and Fortune 500 companies about the future of humanity.

Femke Wijdekop

Femke received her LL.M. in International Law from the Free University (Amsterdam) in 2003. After graduating she worked at the University of Amsterdam for 4 years, doing research in the fields of International Law and Constitutional Law, which included a research visit to the Freie Universitat Berlin in 2006. Between 2008-2013 she worked at The American Book Center Amsterdam and Amsterdam FM radio, organising lectures, book signings and a monthly book club. She interviewed national and international authors on her weekly radio show “Samen”, a platform for positive news.

Freek de Jonge

The entertainer Freek de Jonge (70) has been performing in the Dutch theatres for many years now. He started his carreer in the late 60’s and performed ‘Neerlands hoop in bange dagen’ as a duo with Bram Vermeulen for a period of 10 years. Their style was new. The high joke-density, the narrative character of their performances and their social criticism was unprecedented in Dutch theatre. He persisted this style when he went solo with his show ‘ De Komiek’ (the Comedian) in 1980. Freek knows like no other how to tell a story and he touches the very core of the matter in a playful way. He is still as critical as ever. In a recent interview he described the current society as ‘decadent’ and he appealed for an ‘ethical reveille’. All the more reason for TEDx Haarlem to invite him as one of our speakers.

Herman van Bolhuis

Herman has always been intrigued by the impact of new technologies and their impact on our lives. He is a creative serial entrepreneur, innovator, inspirator, connector and researcher with focus on future technologies and disruptive developments for people, organisations, cities and society. Predominantly international experience. Experience ranges from IT Strategy, IT Management, IPR's, E-Learning to Business IT Alignment, Networking and Location Based Services and mobile strategies, 3D printing / Makers, Smart Cities and Open Innovation.

Pieter Spinder

Pieter Spinder studied Marketing & Small Business Management. After graduation he worked in various roles in corporate organisations. As he grew up in an entrepreneurial family he followed his passion and decided to start his own business. Over the last 20 years he was involved in businesses in Sales, Online and Marketing & Advertising. After working as a lecturer of Marketing at the University of Applied Sciences of Amsterdam (HvA) Pieter felt confronted with the rigid and structured world of education and decided to change the system for the benefit of the students.

Thierry Sanders

Thierry Sanders is 48 years old. In those years he has moved 26 times in 12 countries. That is 1 relocation per 2 years. You’d think the guy would be nuts as a result, but it has made him calm, determined and flexible. His motto is: “Life is too short to do boring things”. So he tends to pick up ambitious stuff to do, like devise an alternative for the banking system. Devising though is for sissies, the proof of the pudding is in the eating! He is about to embark on this adventure to Indonesia.