Theme: THE PROCESS OF INCEPTION

A new edition of TEDxMaastricht, new opportunities and a new playing field to offer new ‘ideas worth spreading’ to our TEDx community. It’s a special anniversary edition, as we are we celebrating the birth of TEDxMaastricht as we know it! Since its origin five years ago, we are proud to facilitate a platform where original and creative ideas, small and big, can take flight. Not just in Maastricht, but in the global TED community as well. To celebrate TEDxMaastricht as a founding place where new ideas and initiatives can be launched. Our theme and inspiration for this is: ‘The process of Inception’.

‘A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite the rules. An idea, resilient and highly contagious, because an idea that is fully formed, fully understood, sticks! And once an idea has taken hold of the brain, it’s almost impossible to eradicate’ – freely quoted from the movie Inception.

We at TEDxMaastricht think that planting a seed is just the beginning. The quality and impact of an idea is largely formed by the right soil, breeding ground or pressure cooker. If the environment is nourishing and the hand of time is on your side, your idea will be able to evolve into a mature concept. We therefore challenge our speakers to not only share their success, but also to inspire our audiences to take action and initiative by showing them the context in which their idea was founded. This brings the hero TEDx speaker closer to the individual trying to take action.

Because for us, inception also means the beginning of undertaking a new (ad)venture and taking action. Even though you may think you cannot change anything as an individual, we’d like to invite you to join our community. Anyone of us can ‘be a changing factor in the world’: small actions matter. As TEDxMaastricht we are a collective of individuals and as such we are one of 3600 similar community events organized yearly around the globe. So collectively, the global TEDx community is able to cause ripples of change around the world.

Session 1
Musical opening - Son Mieux
1. Clemens van Blitterswijk - The future of regenerative medicine
2. Frenk van der Linden - Curiosity makes the gaps that separate us disappear
3. Stefaan de Wildeman - Don't suck!
4. Lisa Hu - How to make fair the new normal

Session 2
Musical opening - Rachel Louise
1. Sander Heijne - Why we do need a government
2. Shannon Thrace - Getting real - life with transgenderism
3. Eddy King - Virtual Reality, the uncharted territory
4. Ernst-Jan Pfauth - How we can beat the burnout society

Session 3
1. Edith Bosch - Did you ever look in your mirror?
2. Bjorn Magnus Jacobsen - Stop the cycle of violence
3. Illac Diaz - Light in a Bottle
4. Karin Bruers - Social sofas

mecc
Forum 100
Maastricht, Limburg, 6229 GV
Netherlands

Bjørn Ihler

Jacobsen survived the attack on Utøya island in Norway in July 2011, when right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik shot and killed 69 people and injured 110 others. Bjørn is now working against extremism and hatred through a variety of means including writing, talks, filmmaking and theatre productions on related topics. “The core issue when dealing with violent extremism is recognizing that we all dehumanize each other”, says Bjørn.

Camiel Meiresonne

Meiresonne started as keyboard player in Soul Sister Dance Revolution and was lead singer of All Missing Pieces in his younger years. Son Mieux is now part of his mature life in which he gives his listeners a look through his music. As he prefers to write his songs in the middle of the night, it sounds intimate as well as exuberant. At TEDxMaastricht Camiel will treat us with an unplugged, acoustic version of his songs.

Clemens van Blitterswijk

Blitterswijk is a renowned name in the tissue engineering and regenerative medicine field due to his unique multidisciplinary approach. He is one of the most frequently cited Dutch scientists in Materials Sciences, the applicant and co-appli¬cant of over 100 patents and has co-founded multiple biomedical companies. Today, he combines his Professorship at Maastricht University with a Founding Partnership of the new LSP-Health Economics Fund (LSP-HEF) of the European healthcare investment group Life Sciences Partners (LSP).

Eddie King

King explains that as a student of the law, the idea that a sensory experience can be so accurately simulated that we consider it a ‘reality’ is fascinating. Virtual reality is the next frontier of legal exploration. It is incredibly important because it offers information and experience which has the potential to be very damaging.

Edith Bosch

As a former judoka, Dutch Champion, European Champion and World Champion Bosch proves there is no challenge too great for her. But do great achievements always equal happiness? “I was the insecure overachiever who kept striving for a perfect picture. Despite all my achievements, I felt unhappy. I was forced to take a good look at myself. What I found, was a totally different person.”

Ernst-Jan Pfauth

Pfauth is the co-founder and publisher of De Correspondent, a Dutch journalism platform which raised 1.7 million dollars in a world-record breaking crowdfunding campaign allowing it to launch in 2013. Pfauth also has a love of art and culture and hosts talk shows for Frans Hals Museum and The Dutch National Opera & Ballet.

Frénk van der Linden

Frénk van der Linden is a journalist and writer who graduated from the School for Journalism in Utrecht in 1980. He has gone on to interview hundreds of people in the world of politics, sports and media for newspapers, television and radio and is regarded as one of the best interviewers in the Netherlands.

Illac Diaz

At 44 years old, Diaz is no ordinary entrepreneur. From Peru to the Philippines, his NGO Liter of Light has already helped 382,000 Filipinos, and 690,000 people throughout the world get out of energy poverty.Thanks to a clever and environmentally friendly innovation, Diaz has been able to help bring light to poor areas and prevent them from needing to rely on coal, nuclear and hydro plants.

Karin Bruers

Karin Bruers presents Social Sofas. A project that has now extended beyond a decade; a project which has become a company. Keep your eyes peeled for Social Sofas in Spain, Germany, Italy, Japan and Iraq because this concept is taking the world by storm.

Lisa Hu

Hu graduated in 2014 from Design Academy Eindhoven. She’s been a social designer ever since. Hu believes that awareness of social issues can start with kids at school. She has identified the classroom as a perfect setting for broadening and enriching perspectives due to the variety of cultures that often exist in one room. To encourage empathy and provoke opinions on these issues she has designed a citizenship game, enabling children to discuss societal issues and explore their own perspectives. In this way “we don’t just learn how society works, but we also get the chance to question it and look at our own rights and wrongs.”

Rachèl Louise

Rachèl Louise captivated the audience with a voice and lyrics that resonated far beyond the theatre. She shared melodic moments of tenderness that were heartfelt and mesmerising for our audience. Her powerful song ‘March’ written and performed for the Women’s March in Washington was an incredibly empowering part of the TEDx Maastricht event. After her debut in 2012, Rachèl Louise developed her musical career as a songwriter for a variety of artists and as an important part of the band with whom Dotan has broken through. For her solo EP, she worked together with Norwegian producers Odd Martin Skålnes and Magnus Skylstad who gained their reputation in the band Aurora. Rachèl Louise toured the Netherlands together with Causes. You might know her songs ‘Keep your heart’ and ‘Far Away’ from her EP ‘Big Girls’.

Sander Heijne

Heijne is a research journalist, historian and entrepreneur. He worked for the editorial economy of the Volkskrant for five years, where he developed a fascination for the effect of bureaucratic systems on our everyday existence. His research into this area will be amalgamated into a book of the marketing and privatization of the public sector in the Netherlands, published in 2017.

Shannon Thrace

Thrace is a grad student, writer, IT professional and devotee of farm-to-table restaurants, summer festivals, all-night conversations and formidable philosophy texts. Thrace shares a personal account of the tumultuous final eighteen months of her previously happy marriage.

Stefaan De Wildeman

Wildeman knows better than anyone how disastrous the impact of the present generation of fossil-based plastics is on the environment. As the current group leader of New Biobased Building Blocks at the University of Maastricht, he tries to bring about a social change towards sustainable products and habits. There’s one important message he wants to make clear to his audience: “There are a lot of eye-openers about our plastics industry and our plastics habits. Once you understand how unsustainable your behaviour is, you’ll find the energy for change in no-time.”