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Keynote topics

Six stories about AI, work and humanity.

Each topic works as a full keynote, masterclass or session. And every story is tailored to your audience: from healthcare executives to recruiters, from city council to boardroom.

Topic 01

The future of work: from jobs to agility

Labour scarcity is structural. Yet most organisations keep doing the same: more vacancies, more recruitment budget, more of the same. In this keynote Laurens flips the question: it’s not a capacity problem, it’s an organisational design problem.

Using recognisable examples — from the baker who became an EV-charger technician to hospitals redistributing work into tasks — he shows how work becomes agile once you detach it from fixed jobs.

For whom

  • Executives and boards
  • HR leaders and recruitment
  • Conferences on labour market and future of work

Your audience takes home

  • Why recruiting harder doesn’t work, and what does
  • How to organise work around tasks and skills
  • Concrete first steps for their own organisation
Topic 02

AI in organisations: from hype to decisions

Everyone talks about AI. Few organisations make decisions with it. This keynote goes beyond the hype: what does AI concretely mean for work, decision-making and talent — and where do you start without overwhelming your organisation?

Laurens draws on the daily practice of 8vance: ethical, explainable AI already running in healthcare, government and business. No black box, no science fiction — evidence.

For whom

  • Management teams facing AI decisions
  • HR and IT leaders
  • Industry events on digital transformation

Your audience takes home

  • A sober view of what AI can do today
  • How to move forward responsibly instead of stalling
  • Practice cases from healthcare, government and corporate
Topic 03

Skills-based organising: making talent visible

The labour market is full of talent that organisations can’t see, because it’s hidden behind CVs, diplomas and job titles. Look at skills, tasks and potential instead, and possibilities suddenly multiply: for hiring, internal mobility and retention.

The motto of this keynote: the best person for every job, and the best job for every person.

For whom

  • HR directors and talent managers
  • Healthcare and government organisations facing scarcity
  • Recruitment and HR-tech events

Your audience takes home

  • What skills-based working concretely means
  • How to start with the people you already have
  • Cases: from Humanitas to university hospitals
Topic 04

Leadership and behaviour in change

Change rarely fails on strategy. It almost always fails on behaviour: control, patterns, safety and the tension nobody names out loud. As a change expert, Laurens takes you into what really happens inside organisations during transition.

Personal, sometimes confronting, always constructive. Because people only move when they feel seen and taken seriously.

For whom

  • Leadership days and offsites
  • Management teams in transition
  • Organisational development programmes

Your audience takes home

  • Why good plans strand on behaviour
  • How to make patterns discussable
  • What this asks of their own leadership
Topic 05

From strategy to movement: interventions that work

Many organisations have vision, policy and an impressive PowerPoint. And still nothing moves. This keynote is about the gap between knowing and doing — and about interventions that actually close it.

Built on more than twenty years of organisational change, from Part-up to dozens of talent ecosystems in healthcare, government and business.

For whom

  • Boards and programme managers
  • Change and transformation teams
  • Strategy days

Your audience takes home

  • Why movement doesn’t automatically follow vision
  • Interventions that can start tomorrow
  • How to start small and scale big
Topic 06

Humanity in times of AI

AI doesn’t just change work. It changes attention, collaboration, identity, leadership and how we assign ourselves value. That makes humanity not a soft topic, but a strategic question.

This talk is about what remains — and becomes more important — as AI gets smarter: awareness, empathy, creativity, connection and meaning-making. And about the question underneath all of Laurens’ work: how do we make technology strengthen human value instead of replacing it?

For whom

  • Leadership programmes and executive events
  • Public sector and societal conferences
  • Organisations in the middle of the AI transition

Your audience takes home

  • Which human qualities become more important through AI
  • Why congruence becomes more important than control
  • How to organise for efficiency and meaning at once

Which story fits your event?

Torn between topics or looking for a combination? Grab a quick slot in my calendar and I’ll think along with you.

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