Theme: Rebellion

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).

Salle Philharmonique
Boulevard Piercot, 25
Liège, Liège (fr), 4000
Belgium

Kody

Stand-Up Comedian

Un matin du mois de janvier de la formidable année 1978 un événement banal dont l’humanité ne prendra conscience que 30 plus tard se produit. Le même jour Kody aperçoit la lumière pour la première fois et tout le monde est content. Rapidement formé à faire rire, c’est dans les cours de récréation que le futur humoriste s’illustre par ses joutes verbales. Après plusieurs ateliers d’improvisation, il entame des études de commerce (et les termine) pour revenir quelques années plus tard à ses amours de toujours. Il croise alors la route de Kings of Comedy qui lui propose la première partie du spectacle d’Alexis « I rêve a dream ». Dans le pur style du stand-up à l’’américaine, le contrat est rempli avec brio et Kody rempile d’emblée en tant que maître de cérémonie incontesté des soirées Kings of Comedy Show tout en préparant son propre one man show.

David Martin

Chef étoilé

Originaire d’’un petit village du Sud-Ouest de la France, né d’’un père venu du Pays Basque espagnol et d’’une mère Alsacienne, David Martin a beaucoup voyagé pour son travail. Ainsi, il parcourt Londres, Paris, Barcelone ou encore la Nouvelle Orléans. Ce qui l’’a immédiatement séduit dès son arrivée en Belgique, c’’est son premier repas autour d’’un plateau de fromages et de bières belges. La culture culinaire du Chef étoilé est vaste : une exceptionnelle cuisine franco-belge japonisante. Chez David Martin, on déguste de la haute gastronomie dans un cadre fait d’œ’oeuvres d’’art : origamis, tablettes en bois brûlé déchiré, céramiques. Il y a d’’abord La Paix, la seule brasserie étoilée par le Guide Michelin et qui fait en 2014 son entrée dans le Top 100 des meilleurs restaurants européens. Elle fût inaugurée en 1892, et rénovée cent et quelques années plus tard sous l’’impulsion du Chef, dans le plus pur style d’’époque et avec des matériaux d’’origine.

Didier "Jaba" Mathieu

Artist

Futuristic abstract mathematics, alphabetical constructivism, brutally refined.The art of Didier Jaba Mathieu grows from his extensive travels and background as a graffiti writer which is evident in the complex alchemy of his illustrations and digital paintings. Born in Armenia, Colombia, Jaba moved to Liège, Belgium at the age of 14 to further his studies at St. Luc Institution of Arts specializing in illustration. He exhibited widely in art galleries around Europe and South America before relocation to Singapore to join Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a division of Lucasfilm Ltd where he worked as a concept artist and digi-matte painter on feature films such as Transformers, Iron Man and Star Trek. Jaba continues to practice on multidisciplinary levels and participates in countless graffiti performances all over Europe, South America, Africa and Asia. As an extension to his enthusiasm and enery for illustration, Jaba also lectured at Nanyan Polytechnic, Singapore, focusing on Matte

Dominique Mangiatordi

CEO at Royal App force

Dominique Mangiatordi thinks about games for businesses — what employees want from them, what they get from them, and how managers might use our hard-wired desire for a gamer’s reward to change the way we work. Serial entrepreneur, he launched three successful companies since 2000 and was general manager for HomeAdvisor France, an IAC subsidiary (Tinder, Meetic, Vimeo…). In 2015, he founded Royal App Force, a Gamification software company that builds mobile gamification solutions for businesses. Royal App Force has been called by the Trends Magazine “the best B2B belgian Startup to invest in” in their Top50 contest. Dominique lives near Aix-en-Provence, where he teaches UX (User Experience) at l’Ecole des Mines and the Aix School of Art and Design (Esdac).

Elodie Orbaen

Para-Climbing World Champion

Having a birth defect at the left  leg and hip ( left leg was 25 cm shorter than the right) and my femur was weak. I could not walk and I had a prosthesis at 1 year old. Between 2 and 15 years old, I endured many operations to consolidate my bone and to prepare my leg to be strong. At 11, I had external fixators to extend my femur. After many many hours to learn how to walk with a “new leg”, the situation has stabilized. Rock climbing has always been part of my life. Outside, on rocks, or inside, this sport, which is also a way of life, carried me up throughout my life. It allowed me to evolve in a world where I was able to fully be myself and have my own place : adapting movements, supports, strength , balance… in the same way as any other person facing a combination of climbing holds. The only difference being that I always have to innovate, to find my own solutions , to use a few detours to get to the top. A daily challenge!

Eric Rodriguez

Serial entrepreneur & Engineer

Eric Rodriguez is a civil engineer from UCL, specialised in computer sciences and artificial intelligence. He always had strong interests in technical design/architecture, analysis, mathematics and optimisation. His passion is to be always learning and to use this knowledge combined with new technologies to build tomorrow. Serial entrepreneur, over the last decade Eric has been busy building startups in a CTO role: auctelia.com, pictawall.com, lex.be and data.be Enthusiast about new and emerging technologies, he’s also very active in the developer community, taking part to (too) many hackathons and startup weekends.

Erwin Schöpges

Farmer & Milk Producer

Erwin Schöpges est agriculteur et producteur de lait. Il est également le porte-parole du syndicat agricole MIG. Le MIG est une association de producteurs de lait belges défendant différents objectifs pour la mise en place d’une filière de production durable

François Gemenne

Researcher

François Gemenne is FNRS senior research associate at the University of Liège, and he is also the executive director of the interdisciplinary research programme Politics of the Earth at Sciences Po (Médialab) in Paris. A specialist of environmental geopolitics and migration dynamics, he also lectures on environmental and migration policies in various universities, including Sciences Po (Paris and Grenoble) and the Free University of Brussels. His research deals mostly with environmental and migration governance. He has worked in particular with populations displaced by environmental changes, including natural disasters, and the policies of adaptation to climate change. He has conducted field studies in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina, Tuvalu, China, Kyrgyzstan, the Maldives, Mauritius and Japan, after the Fukushima disaster.

Gaëtan Bouillet

Freerunner

Eternal Child recently certified with a Master in Public relations and a Master in Management Science (UCL – LSM), I have always been fascinated by the beautiful world of extreme sports.Since I am a kid, I always jump around, climb, run, make myself some sport challenges outside… I never stopped playing.At the age of 10, I began gymnastics but I only felt in love 8 years later with a new « sport activity », which was fitting perfectly my adventurous mind and my wish to constantly re-appropriate my body and my environment : Freerunning. After a long training and during my University studies, I had the possibility to travel the world to practice Freerunning for a lot of events, jams, workshops and competitions. I organized many choreographed shows for the television, festivals, commercials or companies (Belgium’s Got Talent (finalist), Brussels Summer Festival, European Commission, BMW, Galeries Lafayette, etc.). I also took part into world competitions as a judge in 2010 (Vienna), 2012

Idriss Aberkane

Knowledge Economy, Biomimicry and Cognitive Neurosciences Expert

Idriss Aberkane is an expert in Knowledge Economy, Biomimicry and Cognitive Neurosciences teaching at Paris-Saclay University (Centrale-Supélec). He holds three Ph.Ds, has given more than 150 talks on 4 continents and created three companies from Africa to Europe. His essay “The Economy of Knowledge” has been translated in English, Chinese and Korean. He is an affiliated scholar of Stanford University and an Ambassador of the Unesco-Unitwin Complex Systems Digital Campus.

Karin Kollenz-Quétard

Entrepreneur and Professor of Strategy & Innovation

Entrepreneur and Professor of Strategy & Innovation, Karin Kollenz-Quetard designs and delivers executive management development programs and advises high-tech start-ups and telecommunication companies. She is adjunct professor at Aix-Marseille Graduate School of Management and visiting professor at the London Business School (UK), HEC (F), EDHEC (F), and Antwerp Management School (B). Before founding TelcoSeminar, an executive learning organization she acquired significant international experience in strategy consulting (BCG, ADL) and the telecommunication industry (T-Mobile). Karin speaks five languages and regularly delivers keynote speeches, workshops and projects in English, French and German. She holds a PhD in Economics and an International MBA. Of Austrian origin, she lives in Southern France with her family, but frequently travels to her clients based in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and throughout Europe.

L'Enfant Pavé

Rap Artist

While L’Enfant Pavé is still being a MC for Starflam who was back on stage during summer 2015 and asides from (excellent) acting performances in “Genova 1” and “Bloody niggers”,L’ Enfant Pavé has recorded his first solo album under the moniker of King Lee. King Lee appeared in 2006 with smashing new material and the purpose to replay Hip-Hop productions on stage with real instruments. He dropped 3 albums since 2006 with King Lee. In 2016 he will happily celebrate Ten years of King Lee through a serie of 10 events ( Concerts, exhibitions, new album,…) The TEDx Conference is one of them. This sonic kaleidoscope reveals a true artist, an early member of international hip hop culture, part of the scene since the very beginning.Beside to be a MC, he’s also an actor , a director , and a Radio host on Radio Rectangle.

Lionel "Ploum" Dricot

Blogger, Writer, Engineer and Futurist

Mostly known as Ploum, Lionel Dricot is a blogger, writer, engineer and futurist. He likes to write about our potential futures and talk about the impact of new technologies on our society. He blogs on www.ploum.net.

Marion Poizeau

Freelance filmmaker

Freelance filmmaker Marion Poizeau has always filmed and written stories about the places she has visited during her different trips around the world. In 2013 she produced and directed the film “Into the Sea” driven by the desire to bridge our fear of the unknown and to connect with others by sharing a passion. The story of three women who are introducing a new sport in Iran: SURFING. In october 2015 she has received an Award for ‘Into the Sea’ for the best ‘Peace and Sport’ documentary.

Ronnie Belmans

Executive Director of Global SmartGrid Federation and CEO of EnergyVille

R. Belmans received his MSc degree in electrical engineering in 1979 and a PhD degree in 1984, both from KU Leuven. In 1989 he added a Special Doctorate from the KU Leuven and in 1993 a ‘Habilitierung’, from the RWTH, Aachen. Currently, Ronnie Belmans is full professor at KU Leuven, teaching techno-economical aspects of power systems, electrical energy and regulatory affairs, among others. His research interests include smart grids, security of energy supply and the techno-economic aspects of the liberalization of the electricity market. Prof. Dr. Ir. Ronnie Belmans is vice president of the KU Leuven Energy Institute as well as cofounder and CEO of EnergyVille, a research collaboration specializing in energy in smart cities and buildings, in cooperation with VITO and imdc. On a global scale he is executive director of the Global Smart Grids Federation (GSGF). Ronnie Belmans is also honorary chairman of the board of directors of ELIA, the Belgian transmission system operator.

Steven Laureys

Director of the Coma Science Group

Steven Laureys MD PhD, is director of the Coma Science Group (http://www.comascience.org) at the GIGA Research and Neurology Department of the University and University Hospital of Liège, Belgium. He is Research Director at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research and board-certified in neurology and in palliative medicine. He is President Elect of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness and  Chair of the World Federation of Neurology Applied Research Group on Coma. His team studies acquired brain injury and altered states of consciousness (e.g., comatose, “vegetative”/unresponsive, minimally conscious and locked-in syndromes) confronting clinical expertise and bedside behavioral evaluation with neuroimaging, also dealing with the ethical implications of this translational clinical research.

Yara Al Adib

Service & UX Consultant

Like many Middle Eastern citizens, Yara is a traveler: born in Syria, raised in Kuwait, gained a design education in Lebanon and Italy, and currently based in Belgium, her new home. Traveling between the Middle East and Europe, Yara gained a scent of both regions in culture and academics to give her an international passport and perspective on life. The more she traveled, the more convinced she became that she could act as a mediator between the two distinctive, yet similar worlds. “A designer designed to create change,” Yara deploys her travel lessons, design profession, and drive for positive change to express herself. Being in Europe, today, and experiencing the immigration crisis, Yara is on a peaceful mission to encourage knowledge transfer and tolerance amongst the refugees and locals in Europe. “We are all citizens of the world and not all of us we fortune enough to be born in a stable and safe country, Europe please empathise with those coming from war zone and give them the