THEME 2022

Press(ing) Issues: fact or fiction

How we see the world is dependent on the eyes of journalists rather than us actually seeing the world. Is this view biased, subjective, or unbalanced?

What stories are not being chosen to be covered in the media and news that should be, particularly those that affect women and issues that matter to women’s lives?

Social media is allowing the reach of news to be more personal and enabling us to respond to people in the news via their sites and blogs.  How is this effecting girls and women, their self-image, mental health and aspirations for the future? How does it affect our view of the world and is social media allowing more misogynistic behaviour?

What stories should be heard more, less, differently, or not at all across any type of media?
Everyone has a story. What is your story and how should your story be heard?

TEDxAmsterdamWomen focuses on these ideas in 2022 and find out how we as women can hope to change the way women are represented in the news and any form of media.

Our first-ever Marketplace will be present during this year’s event!

Female entrepreneurs showcase their products and share inspiring stories of how they’ve become successful in their niche businesses.

Speakers 2022

Angelique Houtveen

Coached by Eva Wilms

Angelique Houtveen is a radio DJ, podcast host, voice-over and music columnist.

She won the Marconi Talent Award in 2013. As a little girl she felt the need to share music with the world and touch hearts. After getting ill, she quit her job in PR to try radio. Her path has led her to some of the big radio stations in The Netherlands with a highlight being one of the DJ’s on a big project called Serious Request.

Her journey as a woman (and one of the very few women of color) in a male-dominated job-field has made her think about the meaning of representation and boundaries.

How to stay true to yourself and your mission while working in a field that’s trying to project it’s own ideas onto you.

Sterrin Smalbrugge

Coached by Fleur Schiffelers

Sterrin Smalbrugge is a Dutch ecologist and herpetologist.

Her biggest passions in life are science and education. It is her life’s mission to make the world a better place for animals, especially those who are underappreciated like reptiles. She writes educational books about reptiles for children and is soon to publish her first book about reptiles for adults. Sterrin hosts a TV show on the Dutch streaming service Videoland and she tours with an educational theatre show throughout the Netherlands. She is also the ambassador for National Geographic Junior and made a documentary about king cobra’s and their struggle to survive in areas with a dense human population.

Sterrin is currently conducting a PhD study on the influence of humans on animals and their habitat, at Wageningen University.

If we want to save this planet, we cannot only focus on conserving charismatic species.

Gwenda Nielen

Coached by Fleur Schiffelers

Gwenda Nielen is sociologist, behavioural researcher and former lieutenant-colonel of the Dutch army. 

She has built her expertise on disinformation, online & offline manipulation by combining knowledge with operational experience. Working in Afghanistan, Syria, Georgia and the Sahel Region helped her to grow an understanding of the complex dynamics behind several societal and security challenges. Many of which are fuelled or even created through disinformation. 

So now she’s on a new mission; to limit the harmful impact of online originated manipulation of perception and behaviour. By unravelling disinformation and showing how and why it works, she’s ruining the magicians’ tricks.

Pressing issues Fact or fiction; it doesn’t matter #pressingissue #disinformation #onlinemanipulation #informationresilience

Laura Bas

Coached by Maria Punch

Laura Bas is a multiple award-winning Changemaker, specialized in meaningful youth participation and gender equality.

Laura raised the importance of these issues at the United Nations at the age of 25 with her self-written speech. As the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ former Youth Ambassador for Sexual Rights and Gender Equality, she also consulted with hundreds of young people around the world. She carried these insights and recommendations with her as a member of the Dutch Delegation to the United Nations, where she negotiated as part of the Dutch Delegation on the Netherlands’ behalf and met with world leaders.

The importance of Meaningful Youth Participation. Half of the world’s population is under the age of 30, whilst the average age of our world leaders is 62 (!)

Anouk Mols

Coached by Sara Bruinsma

As a media sociologist, Anouk studied the digitization of everyday life. In other words, she explored how people interact via social media, how they are constantly available through smartphones, and how they use smart technologies.

She is fascinated by how people in society keep an eye on friends, colleagues, and families and how digital surveillance then impacts privacy. She is also a mother of two boys and the transition from researcher to a working mom inspired her to redirect her focus towards families.

Her own research about parental monitoring shows that families negotiate a thin line between digital safeguarding and providing freedom.

In an era of datafied and digitalized family life, mobile technologies can constrain childhood.

Saron Patronilia

Coached by Maria Punch

Saron Petronilia went through one of the deepest darkest holes in her life during her menopausal years. and came out of it to be happier, more vital, more powerful and more feminine than ever before.

She has carried out tens of thousands of hours of research, interviews, training and coaching on female strength, female leadership and the evolutionary significance of the menopause. She has more than 10 years of experience coaching women in their menopausal years, to have more energy, decisiveness, self-confidence and grow into their female leadership. With over 40 years of experience as a writer and journalist, she has written two books about menopause.

Malou van den Berg

Coached by Barbara Rogoski

Malou van den Berg works as lead in a corporate setting and is active for the LGBTIQ+ community.

Being queer and having a modern family, she experiences the effects of living in a heteronormative society ánd deviating from the norm in her day-to-day life.

She is intrinsically motivated to make the world a more diverse and inclusive place and she hopes to touch you to make an actual difference on this pressing issue!

Malou is the winner of the TEDxAmsterdamWomen Talent Night 2022.

Creating a diverse and inclusive society by giving insights in the challenges of a modern family living in a heteronormative society.

Maartje Laterveer

Coached by Sara Bruinsma

I’m a journalist, writer and consultant.

As a journalist I write about inclusion and diversity, on which I also advise corporate clients. I’ve written non-fiction books on gender, a topic I find especially fascinating after starting my career in fashion journalism and having interviewed the most successful women on this planet, only to discover that they all have one thing in common: deep-seated insecurity.

I’ve come to believe that society plays a big role in this by socializing women ánd men in patriarchal structures. I’ve shaped my career around exploring these structures and helping people break free from it to be(come) who they are.

It’s time for women to #reclaimourbody and there’s nothing superficial about that. It’s fundamental to freedom.

Gema F.-B. Martín

Coached by Maartje van Bavel

Gema is a clinical pyschologist, social scientist and media artist specialized in Technology.

She leads academic research and industry projects focused on robotics and artificial intelligence (artificial emotions for cognitive systems) and virtual environments (metaverses). Pioneer in the study of the creativity in the metaverses, her research, psychology based, has a focus on the interaction between mental health, creativity and technologies.

She is a member of the Avatar Ochestra Metaverse, a virtual orchestra that performs in a metaverse since 2007.

Fiction dreams so science can demonstrate, and technology can build.

Speaker Coaches

Entertainment

Nataly de la Gala

Nataly de la Gala, is an active representative of the ancient knowledge of the Andean Peruvian Culture in Europe. Her work extends to helping women in their spiritual awakening path, through practices such as Quantum Healing, Womb Healing, Women Medicine Circles, Women Team Building, etc.

Noticing the urgent need of women empowerment, she is currently working on a project that will allow the cooperation and synergy between native women of Amazonian Tribes and women living in civilization.

In 2014, she became ambassador of @oneyoungworld , organization that has as counsellors inspirational women leaders, such as Mary Robinson, first women president of Ireland. Since then, Nataly has remained active in several topics that support gender equality, diversity and inner self-development.

Videoart by Visual Artist Na lúa @nalua.lab.

Footage by visuallyus & David De los Santos.

Blue Luna - Symbiosis

A beautiful visual sound performance by harpist Doriene Marselje and a modern dancer about how people and technology go together.

In a time where technological developments go faster than we can keep up with, it is sometimes difficult to keep control. Symbiosis artistically shows the existential struggle between artificial and human intelligence. Who actually makes the decisions? Our human brain or the pre-programmed computer? Or do we only really innovate if we respect and embrace different digital and analog values?

Symbiosis is performed by Harpist Doriene Marselje and dancer Frank Dietrich in the midst of a light installation. It is a magical show that can appeal to every imagination in the realm of connection, collaboration and looking to the future.

Main Event FAQs

The TEDxAmsterdamWomen main event will be held on Thursday, December 1st at Theater Amsterdam. Doors open at 18:00 and the event begins at 19.30 sharp.

Thankfully, there is a 24-hour parking garage for your convenience. It’s only a 3-minute walk to Theater Amsterdam. 

If you are coming by public transport, the location is a 15-minute bus ride from Amsterdam Centraal station.

Ticket prices are being sold at €100.

TEDxAmsterdamWomen is a non-profit organisation run entirely by volunteers. There are costs related to organising the event, from catering to venue rental and much more. To cover our expenses, we rely on our partners and ask for a participation fee from attendees. 

The price includes dinner & some drinks, entertainment and inspirational speakers as well as the chance to network with a fascinating group of people.



Tickets are being sold on our website until 28 November. 

To stay up to date with the latest information, make sure you to follow us on our social channels Linkedin, Instagram & Facebook and avail of early bird discounts. 

Stay informed of all the news related to TEDxAmsterdamWomen, including our exclusive events.

We try to make the payment process as easy for you as possible. We accept payments by iDEAL, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or Bancontact.

Kindly bring along your printed ticket or present an e-ticket on your mobile phone. It is your proof of registration and guarantees your entry to the venue.

Check out our main event page for more information on the awesome speakers lined up.

Absolutely! The ticket price includes some beverages and a delicious dinner.

We are always on the lookout for professional volunteers who can share their expertise and keep TEDxAmsterdamWomen running. Send an email to info@tedxamsterdamwomen.nl with your availability and expertise. We will reach out when the need arises.

Unfortunately, we do not offer refunds. However, kindly contact us and we will connect you to someone who would like to attend. This way you can transfer the ticket to them.

Our venue has good facilities for those in wheelchairs and for the hearing-impaired. 

If you require special assistance during the event, please send us an email so we can assist you further and inform the venue.

There are over 400 tickets available for the main event.

We’re always on the lookout for new speakers! We encourage you to apply to our Talent night event next year and share an idea worth spreading!

Unfortunately not. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis.

This event is entirely in English.

Yes! You will be able to share your talk online once it has been approved by TED organisation and uploaded onto the TEDx YouTube feed.  This usually happens around February.  You will then be able to share the entire talk through a YouTube link.

Yes! We encourage you to use the below hashtags, tag the venue and us! We can use all the promotions we can get.

#IdeasWorthSpreading #TedxAmsterdamWomen #PressingIssues



We request that you kindly fill out the feedback form sent to you after the event. This is a requirement by TED so we can evaluate how successful our event was and if everything was to your satisfaction.