Theme: Harder Better Faster Stronger?

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).

Média Rives
Bvd Raymond Poincaré 15
Liège, Liège (fr), 4020
Belgium

Herrmutt Lobby

Founded in 2003, Herrmutt Lobby is a collective of musicians, handymen, and programmers. Since 1997, the individual members of the group have released music on various labels – DUB, Studio !K7, Vlek, Eat Concrete, Thin Consolation, Catune – and across genres. Alongside music, they’ve also devised and built various softwares, controllers, and apps that help musicians perform live with the freedom to express at the moment’s inspiration/instinct. Their ever-changing musical universe grows through encounters with musicians from diverse horizons, most recently the Belgian jazz player Stéphane Mercier and UK rapper Lord Rao.

Roxorloops

Professional beatboxer and Vocal Artist. Winner of ‘Blue Note Award’ and the ‘BeatBox Special Award’, Belgian and Vice World Champion Beatbox, and soloist at the Royal Academy for Music in Aalborg (Denmark). Jury in 3 World Beatbox Championships and over 30 national Beatbox Championships Teacher of over 800 workshops and lessons (Real Festival, Vocal Jazz Summit, Europa Cantat, London A Cappella Festival, Aarhus Vocal Festival, Stanford University…) Vocal percussionist for Witloof Bay (Eurosong 2011), Bruk Braders, Vox North and Zap Mama. Guest performances for The Real Group, Swingle Singers, Leveleleven, Voces8, Clouseau, Lady Linn… Creating/performing in Theater and Dance shows: Les Daltoniens, Urban Nomads and Shobana Jeyasingh dance company. Band member and creator of ‘Beatoxic’, ‘Bruk Braders’ and ‘Wait A Minute’. Loves Gaming

Alexis Eggermont

Alexis is a Belgian entrepreneur who works at the intersection of data science and social impact. After studying business and physics at the University of Brussels (ULB) and the London School of economics, Alexis worked in management consulting in London for a while before joining Doctors Without Borders (MSF) as a Health Economist. His job at MSF took him to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Kenya and South Sudan. In 2010, Alexis joined a group of friends in the creation of Real Impact Analytics, a company based in Brussels which specializes in building big data software that helps mobile phone operators in developing countries to capture the value in their data. After two years, he joined Harvard University’s MPA/ID program, before launching a second big data start-up, this time in China. In 2016, Alexis came back to his entrepreneurial roots at Real Impact and focused on developing its “Data For Good” practice, which builds analytics applications based on data collected by mobile phone operators with a focus on social impact, such as predicting the spread of epidemics or mapping poverty. This team has recently joined the Dalberg group and become Dalberg Data Insights.

Anne Nihant

Anna Nihant and her husband travel the world and meet cocoa farmers. From Cuba to Bali, through South America, they play fair and square. She will not take advantage of anyone. She is looking for quality, rarity and, above all, fair trade.

Bjorn Tagemose

BJORN TAGEMOSE IS A BELGIAN-SWEDISH PHOTOGRAPHER, DIRECTOR AND VISUAL ARTIST. BJORN IS OFTEN NICK NAMED, “THE ROCK AND ROLL DIRECTOR” Bjorn has worked with some of the world’s top artists like Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Grace Jones, Editors, Simple Minds, John Fogerty, David Guetta, Juliette Lewis, Tiësto, The Hives, Willem Dafoe, Queens Of The Stone Age, Juanes, Slayer, Motörhead and many more. The co-operations range from art films to complete art direction of shows, music videos and artwork. Bjorn’s work is part of the permanent collection of the famous Groeninghe Museum in Bruges and has been on show in various European museums and art institutions like the Paris Louvre, FOMU Antwerp or Stockholm Kulturhuset. Being based in the contemporary fashion capital Antwerp, Bjorn has had the opportunity to work with many of the iconic and cult designers the town has put on the international stage. These cooperative enterprises later propelled him as a director for top names in the industry like Vanity Fair and Louis Vuitton.

Edwin Joassart

Studied electronics, works on both sides of the Internet. Currently CEO of HLO a musictech & gaming startup building electronics for djs and app for the public to enjoy more music.

Julien de Wit

Julien de Wit is a Belgian postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences of MIT who is best described as “an adaptive problem-solver”. His primary interest and expertise lie where Math, Science, and Engineering meet. It is there that he humbly aims to make sense of newly-accessible pieces of reality and, ultimately, improve the human condition. After graduating as an aerospace engineer from the University of Liege in 2011, Julien transitioned to planetary sciences at MIT. There, he developed techniques to study exoplanets with the goal of identifying extrasolar habitats—he hopes this will constitute a beneficial paradigm-shift for our species. Julien now plays a critical role in the TRAPPIST/SPECULOOS project initiated by Michaël Gillon, leading the atmospheric characterization of the newly discovered TRAPPIST-1 planets, for which he has already obtained startling results with the Hubble Space Telescope. Down on Earth, Julien has also cofounded Morpheus, LLC to bring to market a technology to improve the sleep experience of newborn parents, thereby relieving them of being too frequently in “survival mode”. When he is not studying other worlds, Julien likes to enjoy ours via cooking, hiking, or simply having a pleasant and relaxing evening exchanging with friends.

Julien Penders

Julien Penders is Co-Founder and COO at Bloomlife, where he’s driving the future of prenatal health using wearable technologies and predictive analytics. Passionate entrepreneur in digital and mobile health, Julien is committed to the development of technologies that empower people with their own health, towards disease prevention and a healthier life. Julien brings a unique experience gained while pioneering the field of wearable technologies at IMEC, where he started, grew and directed a multidisciplinary international team. Prior to co-founding Bloom, Julien was Program Director at IMEC where he led the wearable healthcare activities for North America, and Program Manager at the Holst Centre / IMEC, where he was in charge of the activities on Body Area Networks. Julien has led wearable health projects for market leaders in both the medical and consumer spaces. Examples include the development of a cardiac monitoring patch that was successfully taken to FDA, and the development of the reference sensor module for Samsung’s smart watch (Simband) platform. Julien has (co-)authored over 60 papers and 15 patents in the field of wearable technologies and connected health. He has been a keynote or invited speakers at multiple public events and conferences. He is general co-chair for the IEEE Biomedical and Health Informatics conference, serves on the IEEE Technical Committee on Biomedical Health Informatics, and sits on the Program Committees for several international conferences. Julien holds a M.Sc. Degree in Systems Engineering from University of Liege, Belgium (2004), and a M.Sc. Degree in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University, MA (2006) and was a 2004/2005 fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation.

Kirsten Fiedler

Kirsten Fiedler is the Managing Director of European Digital Rights (EDRi), an assosciation of organisations from across Europe which defend human rights in the information society. After her European studies in the UK, France and Germany, Kirsten started blogging on digital rights issues and advocating civil rights in the digital environment. In her spare time, she writes for Netzpolitik.org, contributes to Digitale Gesellschaft e. V. and tweets as @Kirst3n

Linda Green

Linda graduated from the London School of Economics and initially pursued a career in pharmaceutical research before taking a creative leap to BBC Factual programming. After working in programme making, Linda developed a keen interest in Creative Strategy and Development, working to the BBC Director General, then Greg Dyke, to set up the BBC’s Planning team and developing ideas and programme strategy for many of the BBC’s top titles, including Blue Planet, Top Gear and the BBC’s Digital Olympics. As Head of Creative Leadership at the BBC, Linda designed the BBC’s Creative Leadership Programme which over three years developed new ideas, talent and organisational cultural change for BBC North, BBCiPlayer, Strictly Come Dancing, Doctor Who and external clients including BSkyB, Endemol Shine and Fremantle. Linda founded and runs Leading Creative Talent, a Creative strategy and training company, which has broadened its remit to include marketing and PR strategies and consumer products for BBC Worldwide, The Coca Cola Company, Unilever and P&G. Linda writes articles for industry magazines and speaks regularly at international conferences such as the Edinburgh TV Festival, CREA in her native Italy, Copenhagen TV Festival and the Belfast Media Festival.

Louis-Philippe Loncke

Louis-Philippe Loncke is an explorer, adventurer, project consultant and entrepreneur. He has degrees in engineering and management. He has done 15+ expeditions from solo extreme treks across deserts, long distance sea-kayaking on rivers or lakes, scientific or expeditions to raise awareness for an ecological cause. Most of his expeditions were prepared while still having a full time job as IT project consultant. He has totaled 10 world first expeditions and was awarded « European Adventurer of the year 2016 » in Munich during the ISPO fair. He received recognition as torchbearer for the 2012 London Olympics, Fellow of the Explorers Club, elected Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and Ambassador for the Jane Goodall Institute in Belgium. In 2014, he was knighted by Dr. Goodall herself “Sir Iguana”, knight for the Youth, the Animals and the plants at the European parliament.

Marc-André Henin

Marc-André HENIN is an agronomist and a farmer in the family farm with his father, brother and sister. In their mixed-dairy livestock farming system, they turn milk (fat part) into butter. In 2009, the farm is converted in organic agriculture and the range of products is enlarged. Marc-André is involved in the only federation of walloon organic farmers, « L’Union de Agriculteurs Biologique Belge » (UNAB). He stays implied in local action like welcome children and students in farm, transition movement, etc. He is member of an exchange program between North and South farmers with « vétérinaires sans frontière » (VSF). He visited Rwanda and met farmers and representatives from many countries.

Michela Magas

She co-founded Stromatolite Design Innovation Lab in 2000, developing futures concepts for international clients including Apple, Nike and Nokia – stromatolite.com. Her practice-based PhD research investigated music interpretation systems and led to her co-authoring Sonaris, an innovative music search technology, as well as launching the Open Product Licenses, enabling design by attribution. Michela directed MIReS.cc, investigating the future of music technology with seven top European research centres. She founded the global Music Tech Fest – musictechfest.org, which brings music industry, SMEs, innovators and researchers under one roof. Her work has received the ‘art meets science’ NEM art award twice, several TSB and EU FP7 awards, and was selected for the exhibition showcasing the best of British innovation at the Science Museum during the London Olympics.

Nicolas Demassieux

Inspired by his humanist vision Nicolas Demassieux is passionate about digital technology, by the complex interactions between the digital ecosystems, the society of human beings, and the physical and biological planet. He is interested in a large set of domains, including: complexity, biology, evolution and paleontology, natural and artificial intelligence, natural and artificial ecosystems, urbanism and governance of the digital life. Nicolas Demassieux published more than 40 papers and book chapters, holds several patents and in 2007 was honored to be appointed one of the 9 Motorola fellows. Nicolas Demassieux started his career as a professor at Telecom ParisTech in the area of digital Integrated Circuit design for Multimedia and Telecom. its. His work on the first generations of digital image processing (MPEG) and wireless communication (OFDM turbocodes) was transferred to industry and led to several successful product lines. He also pioneered in France the use of Multimedia and Web-based material for teaching, and created one of the 1st curriculum about innovation. He joined Motorola in 1997 to help create a new research centre in Paris, before taking the direction of the European research, and later of the global broadband Wireless research of Motorola. With his teams, he worked at enabling Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G mobile broadband, mobile Internet, mobile television and digital home. Nicolas Demassieux then worked for two years at creating an Internet start-up, in the area of big data market place. He joined Orange in 2010 to lead the research effort of the Group, involving 650+ engineers and PhD students in multiple countries.

Philippe Coucke

Dr Coucke Philippe is born in Ghent in 1959. He accomplished his medical degree at the State University of Ghent Belgium in 1984, and was trained in radiation oncology at the University Hospital of Ghent and Besançon in France. He became senior member of the staff at the University Hospital in Lausanne (CHUV), Switzerland where he obtained the Academical degree of “Privat Docent & Maître d’Enseigment et de Recherche”. In 2005, he was appointed as head of the Department of Radiotherapy at Hopital Maisonneuve Rosemont, Montreal Canada and as Clinical Professor at the University of Montreal. In 2006, he took over the leadership of the Department of Radiotherapy at the University Hospital in Liège and became Professor of Radiation Therapy at the same university. More recently, he has a special interest in the link between disruptive technology and societal changes.

Phoenix Perry

Phoenix Perry creates physical games and user experiences. Her work looks for opportunities to bring people together to raise awareness of our collective interconnectivity. A consummate advocate for women in game development, she founded Code Liberation Foundation. This organization teaches women to program games for free. Since starting in 2012, this project has reached over 2000 women in the New York area between the ages of 16 to 60. Fostering professional growth and mentoring new leaders in the field, she strives to infuse the industry with new voices. As principal founder in Dozen Eyes Games, a company producing works for social change and interactive installations, she also is an entrepreneur. Currently, she is a Lecturer in Physical Computing at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her speaking engagements include A MAZE, GDC, Games for Change, The Open Hardware Summit, Indiecade, Comic Con, Internet Week, Create Tech, IBM Dev Pulse, Montreal International Games Summit and NYU Game Center among others. Perry’s creative work spans a large range of disciplines including drawing, generative art, video, games, interfaces and sound. Her projects have been seen worldwide at venues and festivals including the GDC, E3, Come out and Play, Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science, Lincoln Center, Transmediale, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, LAMCA, Harvest Works, Babycastles, European Media Arts Festival, GenArt, Seoul Film Festival and Harvestworks. In 2011 she co-authored the book, Meet the Kinect with Sean Kean and Johnathan Hall. Finally, she has curated since 1996 in a range of cultural venues, the most recent of which is her own gallery, Devotion Gallery until 2014. Devotion was a Williamsburg gallery focused on the intersection of art, science, new media, and design.

Sandra Huygen

Sandra HUYGEN is Consultant in the natural health sector, Energy Therapy expert, Professional Executive Certified Coach, Trainer, Speaker, Author and a Happy mother of 2 adorable red haired kids (her sun shines) Throughout her life quest and her education (PhD in Life Sciences, MBA, Masters in energy therapy & International Master Coaching degrees), she specialized in connecting people, projects and companies with their highest & healthiest sustainable natural potential. She brings vision, strategy, senior expertise, energy & coherence in people, in management & companies to build a well-balanced and thriving work experience. She focuses on sustainable true self, excellence in an organic & authentic personal development, and both values- & results-oriented forceful organizations. Sandra is a passionate woman who follows her heart and intuition fully dedicated to empowering people and reconnecting them with their highest energy, highest self, and striving life forces.