Piet Baeke (Festival of the Future – POM):

Stijn Ilsen on your stage? That is seeing your childhood dreams come true: he launches you into immeasurable space, talks non-stop about the Belgian satellites he helped to put together and shows breathtaking photos of our globe. With his clear explanations, contagious humor and delightful enthusiasm, he transforms every room into a space capsule full of new discoveries!

Stijn Ilsen? Highly recommended!

Space exploration inspires entire generations by pushing boundaries time and again. Therefore, it fits perfectly as a keynote for events, seminars, workshops. I already gave many keynotes, around the theme of Moonshot Mindsets or specifically around a particular theme on request.

 

Moonshot Mindset: Achieving the Extraordinary

Technology is not only changing, the pace of change is accelerating. Technology is expected to evolve further in the next decade than in the past 100 years combined. So there has never been a better time to focus on innovation, to think bigger! Everyone in the world is working toward a 10% improvement. With a Moonshot Mindset, you set a goal of 10x instead of 10%. As a space engineer and manager, working on innovative and inspiring space projects, a moonshot mindset is my natural attitude. I am currently working on 2 moonshot projects with great passion.
In this keynote, we start from the ultimate moonshot, where John F. Kennedy inspired an entire nation to achieve an almost impossible goal: putting a man on the moon. His vision created a moonshot mentality that made it possible to achieve the extraordinary! With this example, we look at how you can acquire this moonshot mentality in your organization and apply it from small to world-changing projects. A journey filled with inspiring anecdotes, management and design techniques from Tesla, Apple, Google, SpaceX, Kodak. With SpaceX as the example, we explore what techniques are used by the world’s most successful innovators. Moonshot goals give your organization a clear, bold vision, which can also help you win the war for talent and even become a talent magnet.

An inspiring keynote that gives you the passion to innovate, strengthen your organization and achieve the extraordinary.

 

 

In addition, you can also link the space theme well with elements from other sectors.

Are we going back with humans to the Moon or Mars? And why is this a good/bad idea.

Belgian space travel? Does that exist! Absolutely! Belgian companies build satellites and participate in the most ambitious space missions.

Where can I book my ticket to space as a non-astronaut?

There are many good ideas to send scientific missions into space, but the budget is limited, so you have to make the right choice.

There is only 1 chance to launch a satellite, first-time-right! When launching a new product, it also has to click right away.

Spacecraft are extremely complex devices, so a thorough design & verification method is needed.

Earth is only 1 of billions and billions of planets in our universe, at first glance not special at all. So what makes it unique?

How do you reconcile an extremely challenging specification with a realistic schedule and cost

How a commercial company like SpaceX is turning a conservative world completely upside down

…

 

A few events where I presented recently can be found here.

I am an aerospace engineer so I tell from my experiences and my own world. I see technical and programmatic problems on a daily basis and look for solutions.

I am regularly asked to give interpretation on Belgian radio and television and give some 30 lectures a year for various organizations. I recently gave 2 TEDx talks. The first one dealt with Planetary Protection, and in December 2023, I gave a talk about the Moonshot Mindset. This last TEDx talk was the inspiration to make a full keynote about a Moonshot Mindset. This keynote is therefore much more elaborate and practical, compared to the TEDx talk. It is full of tips and tricks on how to adopt a Moonshot Mindset in your organisation.

I am not a hard-core scientist, I am an engineer who looks for pragmatic solutions to complex problems.

 

Bookings

Direct: stijn.ilsen@gmail.com

Sprekerspool: sprekerspool.be/spreker/stijn-ilsen

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