Michaël has a passion for technology and innovation. As editor-in-chief of Smart Business he daily hunts down the most compelling news and intriguing background stories that impact companies and organizations of all sizes. Thanks to his previous experience at PC Magazine, ZDNet.be and TechPulse, he is well-informed of noteworthy innovations in the world of IT, how they can impact us and what technology they rely on.
Speakers
These experts will show you how to transform, digitalize and expand your business
John Baekelmans is Managing Director & Vice President at imec. As Managing Director for the Netherlands, he is responsible for the overall business and operations. Imec NL develops technologies for wireless autonomous sensing solutions, innovative health solutions and flexible electronics in an open innovation setting and in dedicated research trajectories.
Before imec, John spent 21 years at Cisco where he held various global leadership positions within Engineering, Services and the M&A departments and has authored numerous US and European patents. John was also the co-founder of a Belgian residential solutions startup called fifthplay. Before Cisco, John designed, implemented and operated large PBX-networks at Siemens.
John obtained a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Antwerp, Belgium and is a former Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE). In his spare time, he is engaged in Belgium’s National fast response rescue team to assist in global disasters. He loves to ski, is an advanced scuba diver and currently lives in Eindhoven.
In 2002, Christian founded his own agency (Artificial Industry), the agency facilitated disruptive ideas and incubator solutions for big brands such as Randstad, Oracle, Philips, Toyota, Auping, and Adidas, Bjorn Borg, Endemol, Rabobank, Corio, EyeWorks, ABP among others. As an executive advisor Christian stood at the cradle of several successful disruptive initiatives, often spin-outs in completely different industries but always focused on the interface between humans and technology. Christian and his agency have received several nominations and awards for its innovative vision and people-oriented approach, including Shell LiveWIRE Young Business Award SAN Award, Gold Award hooking, Red Herring Top100, Broos van Erp Prize, and many others. Finally, in 2014, Christian sold his agency to a multinational company, and so he could focus on giving presentations and workshops about disruptive innovation and exponential technologies. Besides speaking Christian is also an executive advisor and currently involved in several serious disruptive startups.
Christian Kromme is an experienced tech entrepreneur and speaker on the subject of disruptive innovation. During his presentations, Christian takes you on a journey through our exponentially changing world where increasing disruptive technologies and business models provide a massive shift of power towards the consumer.
Wouter Baetens is a Solution Sales at InspireX, Cronos Microsoft Business. He embraces new technologies like it’s his second nature and can translate their business relevance and possible applications in a comprehensive way.
Stijn Michiels is an innovation catalyst, passionate about bleeding edge technology and innovation. He works for InspireX, Cronos Microsoft Business, where he evangelizes and promotes the latest additions to the Microsoft Platform at different customers and partners. His main objective is to leverage these technologies to solve business needs in this ever-changing digital world.
Deevid De Meyer is one of the mad engineers at Craftworkz, a Cronos Division. With his background in artificial intelligence, Deevid has been highly involved in building chatbot applications. He has experience with many different chatbot platforms, like api.ai, wit.ai, luis.ai and Watson Conversation. Also, Deevid has been involved in developing Craftworkz’ own chatbot platform, called Oswald. Deevid is the go-to person when it comes to AI & robotics.
Johannes is the co-founder and CEO of POM, a Belgian fintech company developing payment solutions which optimize the invoicing process for both billers and end-users. He has over 10 years of experience in business strategy and management roles in the e-invoicing and e-payments industry. Within POM, Johannes is responsible for general management, strategy, team management and investor relations. He’s a regular speaker on various events nationally & internationally around FinTech (awarded with the 1st prize for the pitch competition of the FinTech Belgium Summit 2016). Furthermore, Johannes is also the founding member and Executive Committee member of EESPA (European E-invoicing Service Providers Association) and member of the B-Hive Members Advisory Group.
Driving new business opportunities within Sentia Belgium and has consistently fulfilled roles on the crossroads of technology and business within startups and enterprise companies. Public Cloud is a means for him and every transformation is a result of a mindset shift within the organisation, and not just using some technology.