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).

Arenberg Schouwburg
Arenbergstraat 28
Antwerpen, Antwerpen (nl), 2000
Belgium

Bo Grove

Cool & curious

Bo is a 15-year-old who is currently attending STEM-school Hardenvoort in Antwerp. He can only be described as CURIOUS. His interests are varied: Japanese culture, the science of farming, the world of Minecraft, electrical engineering, coding and programming, to name a few. In this year’s Coolest Project competition, he successfully presented his COOL KIT concept.

Eddy Van Hemelrijck

Lecturer, trainer & personal development coach

After an international business career in sales and management for medium and large sized corporations, Eddy moved into education, training and consulting, mainly in sustainability, personal development and intercultural management. Eddy is CEO of MAROR NV, Lecturer at Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences and Arts, and Co-founder of Emagine Life, a meeting place in Antwerp to help create a better future for all. He has a heart for people and nature.

Ellen De Meyer

Mother & activist

Ellen is more commonly known as ‘the mother of baby Pia.’ She is 33 years old, married to Tim and has 2 children: Briek (3) and Pia (1). In 2019, Pia - and to an extent, the whole family - became public figures, when they started a fundraising campaign to gather almost two million euros for the world’s most expensive medicine. With the power of social and regular media, the impossible was done. But at what cost?

Fatinha Ramos

Illustrator & visual artist

Fatinha is an Antwerp-based illustrator and visual artist, originally from Portugal. Her work has appeared in exhibitions around the world, receiving awards from the Society of Illustrators NY, 3×3, Communication Arts, World Illustrations Awards, White Ravens, among others. Fatinha has worked her magic on children’s books, covers, posters, editorials, advertising, fashion, animation and diverse personal projects, including a book on Sonia Delaunay for the Museum of Modern Art in NYC that won a Global Illustration Award in Frankfurter Buchmesse and a book review in The New York Times. website: www.fatinha.com / Instagram: fatinharamos / Facebook: fatinhaillustration

Hans Claus

Artist & Prison Director

Hans was born an artist. He is active as a poet, a sculptor, a painter and a photographer. He fulfills his social role as a criminologist (1984) and as a prison director (1986 to now). He's currently in charge of the prison of Oudenaarde. The artist and the director within him conspired in 2010, creating a new concept of prison: the detention house. As the founder of Rescaled, he strives

Johan D’Haeseleer

Expert personal efficiency, biohacker, Experiman

Johan is irrational by nature, an engineer by education and an experiman by design. He mastered work simplification at a large retailer. Johan has started applying these perpetual improvement tools and principles on his own productivity. Needless to say, he believes strongly that everything is fixable.

Katrien Kolenberg

Professor of Astrophysics & artist

Katrien’s work lies in the intersection of artistic expression and scientific exploration. After a PhD in astrophysics, she started doing research at the University of Vienna and at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Currently, she is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Antwerp and the Free University of Brussels, STE(A)M Coordinator at the KU Leuven, and an artist. Katrien uses astronomy as a tool for global development and art as a way to touch upon the human condition, often in a cosmic perspective.

Nancy Vermeulen

Founder & Space Tourism Trainer

Nancy has always been fascinated by space. She studied astrophysics and became an airline pilot/instructor. She took part in the ESA astronaut selections, led a Mars simulation expedition and later founded her own Space Training Academy. There, she will be part of the training of future space tourists. As a true Space Ambassador, she aims to bring the universe closer to the people through lectures, team building exercises and space training courses.

Pierre Van Damme

Researcher, author & Vaccination scientist

Pierre was born in Ghent and studied in Antwerp. For more than 30 years, Pierre has been conducting vaccine research at the University of Antwerp: He leads the Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination, a collaborative centre of the World Health Organisation. Pierre has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed papers, and his most fascinating projects are related to the hepatitis B, polio and ebola vaccines. He is married to Myrjam Cramm, general practitioner in the centre of Antwerp. They have 3 children.

Rihab Hajjaji

Founder & activist

Rihab is the founder of ‘PEP!’ - a non-profit that aims to improve the educational position of underprivileged children in Belgium. She tells us what motivated her to take on this role, and why educational equity is so important in the region of Flanders – where we currently face the biggest ethnic gap worldwide in the educational system.

Stef Kuypers

Researcher in monetary and behavioural economics

Stef started his career in IT but is a multipotentialite by nature. After working in the fields of creative thinking, improvisation and business interventions, he dove into economics, monetary systems, complexity theory and human behaviour. Today, he researches how monetary systems influence both our individual behaviour and how they affect the way we organise our society. At Happonomy, he works on building an economic system that supports our quality of life.

Vera Gomes

Author & health care advocate

Vera is an author, health advocate and someone who looks at the stars. She was born in Portugal and moved to Belgium 6 years ago, when her passion became her work: Space! Despite her busy and demanding professional schedule, she found time to fight for patients’ rights and better healthcare in Portugal, where she travels often for her advocacy activities.

Wouter Denayer

Technologist & gatekeeper

Wouter is a technology optimist. He is on a mission to strip away both hype and fear surrounding Artificial Intelligence, so that its true potential for society and business can be realised. With a degree in linguistics & literature to balance his inner geek, he architects IT solutions that actually deliver their promised value. As CTO for IBM Belgium, he feels privileged every day to work with a diverse and global team of wonderful colleagues.