Theme: New Horizons

Imagine you have built the first working flying machine in the world. And imagine you are the first person seeing a working flying machine successfully lifting off, flying around and landing safely on the earth. That feeling, that was the feeling the Wright Brothers and their team had on December 17, 1903. On that day, they saw the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight. And at that moment, they realized they have reached a new horizon. A horizon people have been dreaming of since the days of Leonardo da Vinci.

We humans have always been dreaming of new horizons: new possibilities of what is humanly possible. We have dreamed of flying in the air and putting men on the moon. And now we are dreaming of colonizing Mars. We have been dreaming of new horizons in all sorts of topics. And today we hope we can give you a glimpse of some of these new horizons in a variety of topics. And we are sure we, once again, will have that feeling that the Wright Brothers had during that December-day in 1903.

We are very proud to present you our second TEDxVenlo. With this years theme New Horizons in mind our speakers will challenge several regional and worldwide topics. You will hear Ideas Worth Spreading about education, healthcare, agriculture and many more. In this program booklet you can find information of today’s speakers and their ideas. We invite you to not only listen to and enjoy our line-up, but also to talk with different people, ask weird questions and challenge your own horizons. Because that is what we want to achieve: helping you, our region and eventually the world, to take the next step and set your new horizons.

Poppodium Grenswerk
Peperstraat 10
Venlo, Limburg, 5911 HA
Netherlands

Claudia Venhorst

Thanatologist

Claudia Venhorst is a postdoctoral researcher at the faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen. In 2013 she obtained her PhD on a dissertation on Muslim death rituals in the Netherlands. This research was directed towards the lived religion - practices and beliefs - of a diversity of Muslims in a small town setting (Venlo, NL).

Corine Fleuren

Farmer

Corine has a background in food technology and worked for Unilever for 10 years. A couple of years ago she started her own business Mini tree.

Dave Ensberg

Chairman of an Educational Institution

Dave is 31 years old and happily married. He studied administration and political science. Dave is the chairman at a community of schools that educates about 1.800 children with a disability.

Han Stoffels

Tech Entrepreneur

Han has a technical background, and has had several business jobs the past 20 years. During this time he became very interested in innovation. In 2001 he started working at Wacom. Within a very short time the company made millions of revenue. Han found out the hiring process of its new employees was hard, so he stopped at the company in 2012. After a sabbatical he started developing his own software for a new revolutionary recruitment process.

Jan Spruijt

Educational Innovator

Jan was born in Brabant (NL). At the moment he lives in Nijmegen and hes two children. He studied innovation management and technical business science. Via several jobs in education he started his own business. His passion lies in innovation systems and how you can use them for society.

Kim Hendriks

Social Entrepreneur

Kim lives in Venlo, together with her partner Marc and her son Teun. She studied leisure management in Breda and started working as a park manager at theme park Toverland. Despite the fact that Toverland is a magical spot for creating experiences, Kim missed something. The last seven years she worked for Amnesty International where she was responsible for the donating policy in Southern Netherlands. This job fitted well in her motivation to improve the world. However she didn't had much influence on the results, so no it is time for her own initiative: Soepmaatjes (Soup buddies).

Laurens Trebes

Food Entrepreneur

As a young man, Laurens Trebes sailed the seas of the Earth and came ashore in Venezuela, where he started his family and career. Today, this nomadic entrepreneur has businesses all across the globe, and he strives to bring nature closer to the city.

Lennart Budelmann

Entrepreneur

Lennart grew up in Hamburg (Germany) where he also studied his Bachelor of Industrial Engineering. During that time, he conducted an internship at Mercedes Benz (Daimler AG) and completed half of his final year at the University of Cape Town (South Africa). Afterwards he graduated on the development and implementation of an Earned Value Management System (project controlling) in a multinational aircraft development project at Airbus. Lennart holds a Msc. with honors in Management of Technology from Delft University of Technology, specialized in Supply Chain and Operations Management with an additional annotation in ‘Technology in Sustainable Development’. Next to his Msc. studies at Delft University of Technology, he joined Pratap Thapa and Fred Henny to co-found aQysta.

Maarten Loonen

Arctic Researcher

Dr Maarten Loonen is a polar researcher who has been travelling to Spitsbergen for over 25 years to study the behaviour of migratory birds and changes in their living conditions. The Polar regions are unique for researchers as rises in temperature and the consequences for humans, animals and plants are extra visible here. On Spitsbergen, Loonen and other Groningen scientists are studying whale hunting, tourism, mining, ecosystems and the consequences of climate change for migratory birds. In 2014, Loonen was one of the researchers of the University of Groningen that were invited by the Dutch Navy to join an expedition to Jan Mayen island. This was a unique opportunity for the researchers to visit this isolated island. The multidisciplinary research team concentrated on archaeology and biology.

Marijn Poels

Documentary Maker

The 40 years old Marijn not always has been a documentary maker. When he was a teenager he was a grave digger. And during was of the many moment he was digger a grave, he saw the light. After several attempts to study he started working at a local news paper. He learned about filming and people loved his movies. Marijn could easily compare the people in hopeless situations with himself. And that motivates him to give a voice to the voiceless.

Merve Karaman

Member of City Councel

The 26 years old Merve grew up with the goal to be a role model. She is really aware of her environment and society and she wants to give something back. Merve is chairman of IQRA Venlo (youth organization), vice-chairman of the national youth committee of HDV Gençlik, local council of the municipality of Venlo and editor of the Turkish-Dutch news paper Haber. She studies business administration and law, and graduated last year.

Ramon Testroote

Alderman

The 43 years old Ramon was always socially involved. Ramon was a volunteer and was board member for several organizations. Finally he became alderman in the municipality of Venlo In 2006.

Tim in 't Veld

Tech Student

Tim is a 27 years old master student in Business Informatics. He is partly visually disabled but he uses this to his advantage.

Xavier Friesen

Scholar

Two years ago the now thirteen years old Xavier took the decision to do voluntary work in Africa. After a visit in Asia, he wanted to help young children with good education. Via the organization Travel Activa, and in cooperation with other partners he landed in Zambia. Xavier supports a project of building schools, like the Linda Blind Farm School he realized.