SPEAKERS | Brave New World

MEET OF OUR 2026 SPEAKERS

MARIETJE SCHAAKE

Fellow at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center and at the Institute for Human-Centered AI

Marietje Schaake is a Fellow at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center and at the Institute for Human-Centered AI. She is a columnist for the Financial Times and serves on a number of not-for-profit Boards as well as the UN's High Level Advisory Body on AI. Between 2009-2019 she served as a Member of European Parliament where she worked on trade-, foreign- and tech policy. She is the author of The Tech Coup.

DRIES DEPOORTER

Artist that handles themes as privacy, artificial intelligence, surveillance & social media

Belgian creative technologist and artist Dries Depoorter, based in Ghent, creates thought-provoking work about technology, surveillance, AI and social media in a playful way that makes people laugh while delivering serious messages in an accessible way. His projects explore digital culture that can inspire marketers: privacy challenges, artificial intelligence applications, surveillance and authentic social media projects. With his unique background in electronics and digital innovation, Dries has become a voice for forward-thinking brands and marketing professionals looking to navigate today's complex digital landscape. His artistic approach can directly inspire brands to think differently and develop original marketing concepts that stand out. Through his work, Dries demonstrates how combining creativity with technological insight creates viral moments. His award-winning "Die With Me" app, accessible only when a user's phone battery drops below 5%, demonstrates how scarcity and unique user experiences can create powerful engagement. On Black Friday, he doubles the price of his app instead of offering discounts, showing brands how breaking marketing rules can create attention. In his viral project "The Follower," Dries leverages open cameras and AI to reveal the reality behind curated Instagram moments—offering marketers an unfiltered look at consumer behavior and content creation. Meanwhile, "The Flemish Scrollers" uses AI to automatically identify politicians using smartphones during parliamentary sessions, highlighting how technology can create accountability and transparency in public spaces. Dries has exhibited at prestigious venues including the Barbican in London, Art Basel, Mutek Festival in Montreal,ZKM, Bozar, WIRED and Ars Electronica. As a speaker, he's shared insights with innovative organizations including TEDx, MoMA, SXSW, Chanel, Adidas, Samsung, Deloitte, KBC and Adobe.

BRITTA VAN BEERS

Professor of Biolaw and Bioethics

Britta van Beers is professor of Biolaw and Bioethics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Law, Department of Legal Theory. As a lawyer and philosopher, she teaches and writes about the legal–philosophical aspects of the governance of emerging technologies. She is particularly intrigued by the legal and philosophical meaning(s) of concepts such as personhood, humanity and dignity against the backdrop of developments in biotechnology, neurotechnology and AI.

GEORGE STRAKHOV

Agent Midwife / Creative Technologist

George Strakhov

- Creative Technologist / Agent Midwife
- Multi-Gold-Lion winning Creative Strategist
- 15+ years in Global Agencies across 3 continents
- Building AI agents since 2022
- Collaborator with Oxford University on Agent Alignment
- Founder @ move38: the intelligence scaling company

George is what would happen if you put an award-winning creative strategist, an expert midnight hacker and a jazz musician in a bottle and shake well. Oh, and don’t forget to add 18 years of global business experience, angel investing, and a good eye for design.

MEET OF OUR PREVIOUS SPEAKERS

NINA SCHICK

AUTHOR AND POLITICAL ADVISOR

Nina Schick is an author, advisor and speaker, specialising in how technology is transforming geopolitics and society. Nina is an expert deepfakes and synthetic media, cybersecurity and the geopolitics of technology.

She has advised global leaders including Joe Biden, and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Secretary General of NATO. She has been published in the MIT Tech Review, The Times, UnHerd and TIME. Her debut book, ‘Deepfakes,’ was released in 2020.

Nina speaks seven languages and calls London, Berlin and Kathmandu home.

ANDREA EVERS

PROFESSOR OF HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY

Andrea Evers is professor of Health Psychology and chair of the Institute of Psychology at Leiden University. She is also affiliated to the Technical University Delft and Erasmus University Rotterdam as Medical Delta Professor Healthy Society. As a clinical psychologist (BIG) and cognitive behavioral therapist (VGCT), she translates insights from fundamental research into applications in practice. She received several prestigious research grants and awards for her work, including the Stevin Prize, the most important scientific award for research with a social impact in the Netherlands. She is also a member of the KNAW (Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences) and the KHMW (Royal Dutch Society of Sciences).

HAROON SHEIKH

PHILOSOPHER

Haroon Sheikh is a Dutch philosopher with Pakistani and Surinamese roots. He conducts multidisciplinary research on issues relating to international order and new technologies. His work is characterized by a broad orientation on different fields and schools of thought and a fruitful combination of empirical research and abstraction, orthodox as well as unorthodox thinking.

Sheikh is a senior scientist at the WRR (the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy) and he teaches in Amsterdam at VU University.