2018 Ideas from Europe Final, The Hague

Yesterday I had the absolute pleasure of attending the #ideasfromeurope final in The Hague.  Two years ago, I attended this event, which was then TEDxBinnenhof.  Again it was held in the spectacular #ridderzaal (Knight’s Hall) in #thehague.

Twelve innovative ideas were showcased, each addressing global challenges:

• Modern antenatal care, Julien Penders, Bloomlife, Belgium
• Supporting the development of autistic kids, Aida Nazarikhorram, LuxAI, Luxembourg
• Saving lives by using kinetic energy from vehicles, Francisco Duarte, PavNext, Portugal
• Protecting and monitoring pollinators and their habitats, Dr Fiona Edwards Murphy, ApisProtect, Ireland
• Eliminate food wastage, Klaus Pedersen, Too Good to Go, Denmark
• New ways of communicating for Alzheimer patients,Steffan Preuss, Icho, Germany
• Intelligent medicine, a sustainable alternative to antibiotics, Mark Offerhaus, Micreos,the Netherlands
• Empower respectful societies through addressing bullying, Mervi Pankalainen, Mightifier, Finland
• Encouraging children to speak up against bulling, Tobias Wernius, Speak Up!, Sweden
• Eliminate insomnia and the impact it has on society, Hugo Mercier, Dreem Rhythm, France
• Improve refugee integration and provide jobs, Stefan Steinberger, Refugees{code}, Austria
• Smart urban solutions to reduce CO2 emissions, Artur Racicki, SEEDia,Poland

You can watch all of the videos and read more about each of the ideas – and also other great ideas which didn’t make the finals – at www.ideasfrom.eu

Two keynotes were given:

• Mona Keijzer, State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate for the Netherlands
• Elzbieta Bienkowska, European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship & SMEs

I loved the opening – diversity is a key to survival, with a follow up video from the young lady Severn Cullis-Suzukim who gave the speech to the UN 25 years ago, see both below:

Thanks to Martin Pronk  for organising for me to bring some students from De Haagse Hogeschool / The Hague University of Applied Sciences – great to have you there Zulikha Hesam, Timo Van der Meer, Razvan Tataru Jr., Daniel Amador Torra, Aldrich Kelly.  

Nice to catch up with speaker coaches Barbara Rogoski and Michael Koenka who I’ve known for some time, and meet the third speaker coach, Maarten Fijnaut.

Met lots of great people, and had many interesting conversations, from birth to bees to bullying to antibiotics and beyond! 

Huge thanks to Tess Rutgers van Rozenburg – Rottier and 道 Sonja van Meerbeek for their hard work in making this happen and Jim Stolze for keeping it running smoothly!  Michiel Stol did a great job with communications.  

Apart from amazing ideas, stunning location and incredible energy, I loved the general spirit of connection & collaboration.  The core concept of the event is to connect these ideas with the right people and resources to get them to the next stage of development and help make an even more positive impact on the world.  This has already happened with ideas showcased two years ago and will no doubt continue for those who presented at this event – there were already offers of support and connection from the audience after each speech.

Personally, I aim to more closely connect the students I teach at The Hague University of Applied Sciences with this project and participants.  I’m planning some upcoming meetings as Ideas from Europe doesn’t stop with this event.  I work with a lot of amazing young people from all over the world who are following a Bachelor in International Business.  Those who attended are writing their own blog posts (which I will link to here when they are ready) but overall they told me that they found the event inspiring.  I believe the students can learn from the process of the ideas already presented, and contribute to their success as well via internships, skill sharing and connecting with their own international networks.

For full details on the ideas and speakers, visit www.ideasfrom.eu  #ideasfromeu 

You can see all of my photos over at my 2018 Ideas from Europe Google Photos album

Student feedback: Zulikha Hesam

When I asked Ms. Veldman if she knew about an upcoming event I could go to, I did not imagine that a couple of weeks later I would be sitting in the Ridderzaal, a beautiful 13th century building, attending this huge and formal event ‘Ideas from Europe’. As someone who is overloaded with (sometimes overambitious) ideas and feels energized listening to other people’s aspirations, I have perceived those twelve European entrepreneurs to be a great source of inspiration. Throughout their presentations, I realized that there are a lot of opportunities we can take to tackle global challenges, whether that concerns the mental health of kids, food waste, bullying or refugee integration for example. During that day, I also reminded myself that anyone can have a good idea. The practical significance of that idea, however, comes into play when you are able to attract other people to your idea and execute a common vision together. Ideas from Europe 2018 has therefore been a great opportunity to gather a diverse group of people to listen, share and discuss about shared purposes that positively impact our daily lives.

Student feedback: Razvan Tataru

Ideas from Europe opened my eyes towards the innovations that are going to make a change in the coming future! A few examples would be, PavNext which aims to convert city roads to electricity by capturing the breaking energy of cars. SEEDia is aiming to transform the urban environment and integrate photovoltaic cells capturing solar power in public facilities. The app ‘Too Good To Go’ targets all extra food in restaurants and re-offers it at a discounted price eliminating waste. Other entrepreneurs targeted important areas such as medicine, improving technology for treating Autism and prenatal care. In the same time societal issues as bullying and teenager care were approached trying to contribute towards creating a respectful society. Overall, each project was well developed and already showed practical value and results at the moment of presentation. I truly believe that many of the ideas will turn in viable business models and have a positive effect upon the world!

Student feedback: Timo Van Der Meer

Attending Ideas of Europe has been a great experience. As a soon-to-be Business graduate, I find it very inspiring to see that young entrepreneurs are offered a platform where they can connect with policy-makers and industry specialists. Looking at the ideas that were presented, I noticed some Ideas were not only very innovative and sustainable; they offer solutions with are essential for our future. An example is the idea of ApisProtect; a company that builds sensors in beehives that gathers and analyses data whereafter it provides information to beekeeper. The beekeepers then know exactly what to do. Their goal? To save pollinators from going extinct, while all Europeans (and all non-europeans) can continue to enjoy their favourite fruit, vegetables or nuts. Brilliant.