Theme: The world at a crossroads

The world has reached a critical juncture in its development where it could go one way or another. The many choices crossing each other at one place, the inevitable break with the past where every option will lead to a different possibility, or the point in time where tough decisions are made – scary yet full of opportunities. When turning back is simply not an option and significant upheavals are ahead, we need fresh perspectives on how to handle new challenges and go through the fear of uncertainty.

Kinepolis Gent
Ter Platen 12
Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen (nl), 9000
Belgium

Annelore Camps

Founder & Director of Allez,Chantez!

How to build an innovative business model out of free singing sessions. Allez, Chantez! makes people sing full-out together. The singing coaches will guide you on a trip to carefreeness and youth sentiment. That's our offer to the hundreds of people who join us and sing every month in three Flemish cities. Founder Annelore Camps will show you what we get in return and how she built an innovative business model from there.

Bart Van der Roost

General director Opera-Ballet Vlaanderen

When digitisation, globalisation and migration ask questions about our identities, art can help define what makes us human. 'Opera and ballet are uniquely qualified to do so,' Bart argues, 'with a wealth of tradition and shared emotion as well as a license to create, and in the process re-create and redefine those traditions. While all else is uncertainty, art can thrive on the liberty it generates, and act as a unifying force.'

David Bruyneel

Responsible AI lead Accenture Belux

The last thing we want to do is let an AI system decide about one's life. AI has the serious risk of "counter-serendipity" (from Edward Tenner of Harvard's Center for Internet and Society): perpetuating, amplifying and ultimately solidifying existing social biases and prejudices, with attendant (or expected) consequences for human rights. Some also call this the "unintended consequences" of AI as they try to reconcile some of the compliance challenges that persist. So what do we want from people who design, build and deploy AI systems? To build AI systems that are responsible, by incorporating concepts of T.R.U.S.T. (Trustworthy, Reliable, Understandable, Secure, Teachable)

Eva Van Braeckel

Respiratory physician at Ghent University Hospital

Treating cystic fibrosis - standing still is moving backwards. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder caused by mutations in the CFTR gene. The resulting defective CFTR protein disturbs the balance of salt and fluids inside and outside the cell, which leads to the production of thick, sticky secretions in the lungs, pancreas and intestine. Patients suffer from progressive breathing difficulties and have to spend hours coughing up mucus to prevent further damage and lung infections. Recently, a new era has arrived in the treatment of CF, with the development of CFTR modulators improving the function of the CFTR protein. Patients taking these drugs in clinical trials and beyond, experience an almost immediate effect: thanks to rehydration their symptoms are largely relieved. Obviously, this precision medicine comes at a cost. As a society, we will have to deal with an important dilemma: what is the value of a qualitative life?

Farah Laporte

Coordinator at Refu Interim

Bridging the Gap between Refugees and Employers. For refugees, finding a job and a new social network can be challenging. Refu Interim helps to close this gap, by providing them with volunteer jobs where they can make human connections, practice their language skills and discover their opportunities on the labour market. Also, we encourage companies to use their specific skills and talents as an opportunity, rather than a challenge.

Jeroen Lemaire

CEO & Co-Founder, In The Pocket

Why designing technology means designing future humans. Technology is one of the most impactful change agents in the history of humanity, and digital product designers are in the center of this revolution. You have to be ready to deal with the ethics of your digital footprint and take into account how your product or service might impact society as a whole.

Kim Ragaert

Professor at Ghent University specialised in Sustainable Use and Recycling of Polymers

Plastics rehab. Are plastics causing the proverbial end of the world? Plastic waste seems to be everywhere, from our oceans to our digestive track, without a solution in sight. Booo, plastics! But are plastics really the root of all ecological evil? Let's take a step back from the public outrage and try to find some perspective.

Thierry Bouffioux

Founder & CEO Entrepreneurial Endeavours

Today, it is too sexy to be an entrepreneur! The 95-98% failure rate of startups should not be acceptable anymore. Instead, the glorification of Entrepreneurship as well as the spreading of events such as failing forward or fuckups nights, still contribute to the normalization of this failure rate. Doctors and pilots have no right of failure! The lack of basic entrepreneurship education, combined with the rise of the new generations as well as the endless flow of funding constitutes the main reasons of this failing rate. We have developed an inspiring way to educate on leadership/personality, business models and networking, reducing the rate of failure by 80%! Innovative, inspiring, life changing!