Nick van Breda – Helping 1 million people to change the world for the better

Welcome to my website! Let’s give you some heads up below about my life and career. Perhaps I can be of meaning to you.

after I started as a misfit, became an activist and developed skills to become a practivist: “someone who sees problems as opportunities to tackle”. I have been awarded by Forbes to be one of the 1500 under 30 changemakers and 3 times T500 Young Digital talent of the year by The Next Web & Accenture, while I developed into a serial social entrepreneur. This rollercoaster ride was exciting and I would love to give others that have been in similar situation (feeling not understood and alone, coming up for their rights but not knowing how, willing to invent solutions and solving societal quests) the toolkits to do so as well. Now I am on the mission to train 1 million people before the age of 30 to turn their activism and insecurities into their skills to make a positive impact and live a life in abundance.

Here I am, returning the favour to you! I am here to help you make a bigger impact on society! Are you ready for it? Find out what I can do for you based on my own experiences.

Did you know…

…That I have spoken internationally on Innovation, Science & technology conferences in Brazil, San Francisco, New York, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Thailand & China so far. About the future of work, health, labor, banking, living, organizations and education. Pinpointing where micro-communities are shaping society towards, from transhumanists and biohackers towards digital nomads and conscious world citizens.

CHECK OUT MY RESEARCH – BOOK NICK AS YOUR KEYNOTE SPEAKER – GET A SUMMARY OF MY PRESENTATIONS – LEARN ME HOW TO PITCH TO FUND MY IDEAS

…I have organized and helped 85+ hackathons create innovative solutions for SDG’s, business challenges, schools, municipalities and the Ministry of Education since 2014. Check out my biggest hackathon event on Eduhack.nl & 27 hackathon challenges that I have coordinated on Campus Party Europe in the Netherlands where 1650 people from 52 nationalities worked together on SDG’s for one week. Want to know which challenges click here, and reach out to me if you wish to hear the results.

GET TO KNOW IF A HACKATHON IS SOMETHING FOR YOU – LET’S CO-ORGANIZE A HACKATHON – TRAIN ME IN ORGANIZING HACKATHONS

…I have directly coached over 30.000 people, indirectly around 85.000 to date since I quit video gaming back in 2012, and used my community management skills and game dynamics in shaping tools to enable teams to make an impact in society while following their passions and strengths. That is on average 16 or 46 individuals a day. Ever stuck with a question regarding your life, perhaps I can help you out!

CHECK OUT MY TOOLKIT4CHANGE – SIGN UP FOR BEING COACHED – SCHEDULE A COACHINGSCALL

…I lived together with 400 refugees/non-status holders from October 2016 until October 2018 in an asylum-seeker centre called Plan Einstein, an award-winning concept where 15 stakeholders help both formally and informally to integrate people with a traumatic background/out of war-situations on a human-way, creating equality by offering free classes in Entrepreneurship, Business English, Dutch and many more activities like neighbourhood festivals, cooking and singing together and learning how to bike. We influenced governments of the European Union, by how to improve their immigration policy in a debate day as shown here in the video and the local immigration law has changed so that new Asylumseeker centres are built on the same basis as a standard for integration. For more highlights of my contribution click on one of the following links below.

SEE THE TRAILER OF THE DOCUMENTARY – SEE MY IMPACT ON TV – STAY UPDATED ON THE PROJECT

…I have spoken on over 25 conferences next to giving 3 TEDxTalks about overcoming my video game addiction, pursuing a purpose and creating leadership to tackle SDG’s with serious games. Check out my TEDx talks via bit.ly/TedxNick – bit.ly/TEDxNick2 & bit.ly/TEDxNickinVR. It definitely describes how I have become who I am now. Underneath a video portrait and blog about my life in Dutch made by MaatschapWij. I would love to guide people to share their authentic story too, as its alot of burden of your shoulders once you have done that and everyone you meet afterwards you will have deeper conversations with.

TEACH ME HOW TO SHARE MY STORY ON A TEDx

Below you can find more activities I have done professionally. You can take a look at some of the presentations I have given as a speaker, innovation consultant, and trendwatcher. The foundations I have helped set up locally, the schools I have helped in changing their curriculum and way of working with students and stakeholders, plus several projects like setting up an escape room for primary school with new technologies. This by co-hosting Permanent Future Labs to enable more people to start working with technology, all open source, by sharing over 80 technologies in abundance.

 
 
Speaking at 25+ conferences, at schools, for decision-makers and sectors to help them reach innovation targets

REQUEST A PRESENTATION – BOOK NICK VIA GASTSPREKERS

Ananda Sprint – Sasin School of Management – ExO Sprint Coach (Sept. 2019-Dec. 2019)
Coached the management team of the best business school in Thailand to develop exponential business initiatives that could disrupt the current educational landscape. As of 3 December 2019, after a 10-week sprint via OpenExo. I was invited as a head coach for the Sasin School of Management to train the top management in the mindset of a startup capable of disrupting current business models. They did an excellent job and tested 2 new value propositions positively. Now they are setting up resources with the board to make the solution available for the market. To be continued, do reach out to hear more. With our team at ExoWorks, we have helped the following multibillion-dollar companies transform the way they act to save our planet.

Hack het veranderend gedrag van kids! – Co-organizer (July-Sept. 2019)
We invited 30 persons to come up with innovative ways to get children not dropping out of school in a creathon of 12 hours. 6 outcomes are now being implemented into the schools and education eco-system of Epe.
 creathon epe foto

GET A GLIMPSE OF THE RESULT

Change Ahead Business event – Co-organizer (May – June 2019)
 I co-organized the Change Ahead event initiated by Fountainheads and the Attention Group. We teamed up with Eric Mijnster and STUDIO.WHY give a present to our network in the form of a secret program. We entertained, educated and inspired 110 people to make the world a better place in Muntgebouw Utrecht.

Collaborator @ Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (Dec. 2017- Now)
This August 2019 I am visiting the factory in Toulouse as a R&D developer and Marketeer for Hyperloop Transportation Technologies. I have been actively educating others on how to organize businesses in a flat way cultivating digital collaboration tools. Now we have over 700 people working at Hyperloop, without having a standard paycheck every month, all based on a community of talents, like the inventor of the Vacuum tube towards employees of Tesla and Google joining the mission of bringing this new sustainable way of transport into reality. Check out our timeline and start believing in clean and superfast travel by levitating in vacuum tubes. See more at Hyperloop.global

Innovation Games Noord-Brabant (Sept. 2018)
Hosted technology inspiration shots to inspire both participants and personnel working at the province Noord-Brabant to change mindsets towards possibilities today. Showcased how everyone can start with building their prototypes with 3D printing, how everyone can train meditation and reduce stress using EEG (Brainwave sensors) connected to a drone and how to overcome fears with VR like fear of heights. Many of today’s consumer technologies are perfect solutions for problems in many industries, from further personalizing education or healthcare towards re-imagining the photo industry with 360 footage. 500 people enjoyed playing with technology and some of them are now taking action in using EEG scanners to improve healthcare for handicapped people.

 

 
Future Flux Festival 2018 & 2019
Started as project manager in March 2018 to replace the creative director who started Future Flux Festival in 2016. Had to make a shift to better connect the festival to the Rotterdam Maker District and the new maker movement. For that, we invited 150 inventors to showcase students, graduates and startups to experience what the new maker industry is all about Making an impact in 9 themes on various societal questions. Finished the project in July 2018 and continued as Senior program manager in 2019. We scaled the event up from 750 visitors to 2250 visitors in just one year by partnering up with the RDM10Years celebration, University of Rotterdam and innovation ecosystem partners in South Holland. With this event, I have empowered over 130 innovations that we have given a stage to pitch their projects and we have had over 30 workshops, roundtable sessions and speakers in just two years most of them giving back to the festival of the new makers. Check out the aftermovies on http://futurefluxfestival.nl  No other festival offers this amount of new technology innovations for the Port industry and is also completely free to attend.

 
Aventus Leert Inspireert (800 persons serious game, April 2018) – Co-organizer
Was part of the external advisory board of the Aventus Leert Inspireert annual event to set up a one-day training for all employees of MBO Aventus. Trained several teachers in a train-the-trainer course before the event for organizing hackathons and facilitating the design thinking process this training and the organization of Aventus Leert was provided by Nick van Breda Consultancy together with STUDIO.WHY. I took the role of trendwatcher in the serious game we organized for 800 Aventus employees and together with 50 facilitators we were able to let all sectors within Aventus work together on 4 education challenges collected by the AMT. 130 teams enjoyed this serious game and at the same time were able to solve their own challenges and the 4 best teams for each challenge were able to pitch a solution at the end of the day. Challenges were: how to make sure the school and its classrooms stay clean, how to make sure the school becomes future-proof with technology and new learning materials, how to make sure the learning environment becomes better for everyone and how to get rid of the YES, but… culture in school, turning it into YES, and.. the winners are granted time and budget to further implement their outcomes. Other teams can work on their outcomes as well and ideas are taken into consideration by the school directors. Check out the aftermovie of our follow-up event MBO Vakmanschap which we organized in October 2018 where 8 schools competed in a design thinking battle to bring in the best teachers in healthcare education.
 
 
Aventus – Hack je Plek (July-October 2017)
Hackathon for students and teachers to solve cases from a local theatre and the municipality. Together with 40 persons we hacked 3 cases and offered a 1-day training (valued at 1500 euro) in further coaching the development of the concept to make the Theatre attractive for Misfits to start their performance career with the use of all facilities freely provided by Podium Gigant. Check out the after movie of Hack je Plek, October 2017.
 
Innovation Games Gelderland (Gelderse Einsteinweek 2017) Co-organizer
Supported the Innovation Games Gelderland in technology, including bringing in over 60 technologies, mentors and tech makers to support teams in building their first prototypes resulting in the winning team that made a prototype with our support.
 
Summa Hackathon co-organizer
Organized a hackathon to improve the quality of future-proof education for the Process technology course. Reducing 40% of students who lack motivation to finish school after working in (now) completely automated factories without work for production employees anymore. The outcomes of April 2017 are still being developed and turned into new lesson materials. Check one of the final pitches to create an escape room learning environment.
 
Pitch trainer for WhatTheHackathon
Gave pitch training and finishing the keynote on WhatTheHackathon 2017.
pitchtraining whatthehackathon
 
Project manager of the first Educational Escape Room for Primary School
‘Het Geheim van de Monnik’ is an escape room built together with the Religious Museum Uden to train 800 primary school students in Literature and new media. I took care of the project managing the new media part with design expert Luc Thijssen. We implemented VR, AR, QR, Gaming, literature but also math and storytelling in this temporary Escape room from February to June 2017.
 
Became the Youngest host & advisor for the Erasmus+ & Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program
Searched for a partnership with Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs to work on my iCity Tender project Stamboom. Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs was so enthusiastic about my experience and knowledge about changing education that I was invited to be the first host that has a business of less than 3 years registered plus they asked me to host a mini-hack and give a keynote on the annual Erasmus LEO-NET consortia conference in Barcelona, March 2017.
LEO NET Barcelona
 
Won the Dutch Open Hackathon 2016
With a team of 5 people, we ended up winning 4 prizes including the overall prize and the public prize on this massive Dutch Open Hackathon with 300 participants between 9-11 December 2016. As a result, we started the startup “Find It, the Pokémon Go for lost and stolen items”. We are still developing Find It and looking for launching partners in 2017.
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Advising & participating Donders Brainhack Education Hackathon
Helped with the marketing and program of Donders Education hackathon, over 30 PhD students and graduates participated in November 2016 with amazing results. Check out our pitch here.
 
 
Became a professional speaker for Wiseass Agency (July 2016- July 2017)
After my TedxTalk & my scientific research presentation, I got the opportunity to speak for an agency for young ambitious leaders in the Netherlands. With Wiseass Agency every element of speaker events can be done for organizations.
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Campus Party meets Education Hackathon Co-organizer (Jan. – July 2016)
Helped with organizing the first European Campus Party edition in the Netherlands including coordinating 25 hackathons & organizing the biggest European Education Hackathon ever with over 200 attendees and 65 hackers plus a Climate Hackathon. February 2016 – June 2016. Campus Party attracted 1500 Campusero’s (week stay camping visitors) & 8500 day visitors. This while also developing the highly successful scale-up co-workspace JIM (Jaarbeurs Innovation Mile) as my bachelor thesis.
 
Initiator 24h Education Hackathon The Netherlands (Jan. 2015- currently)
We train teachers to organize their own alternative way of doing education, with hackathons, education tours and tools we develop mostly open-source. Organizer 2015/2016/2017/2018/2019 editions of the worldwide 24-hour Eduhack, an initiative launched by Presenté in 2013.  Check out educationhack for our upcoming editions. Feel free to participate in hacking Education, here in the Netherlands with us or globally with partners. For updates join our community.
 

Writer @ Articulum, Influencive & Startup Grind (2012-2016)
Co-Founder of Articulum, Writer Influencive & Startup Grind, I wrote over 200 articles around entrepreneurship, startups, purpose, management and cultural differences. I also wrote blogs to promote events and this brought me to become an experienced trendwatcher who now translates trends into keynotes and inspiration shots at hackathons for actionable output. 
Community catalyst Under30Changemakers(November 2013 – Currently)
Building the biggest NGO Startup & (Social) entrepreneur communities across the world further by writing interesting articles, and guiding startups, from misfits to rebels and drop-outs through organizing workshops or impact events. Everything is to encourage people to stand on their own feet and start businesses out of their own beliefs and passion.
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INNOVATIONHACK
Co-organizer INNOVATIONHACK May 2015

Pressure cook for businesses and students to solve business cases within 4 to 6 hours. With teams of 4-5 multidisciplinary students and Studio Doon Innovation Cards, they learn how to work with a Lean Startup Method while they are helping a business further in finding new business models or a modern strategy approach.

RUUW & Misfits
Co-founder Foundation RUUW, Misfits member Jan 2014 – Jan 2018

Together with 15 ambitious youngsters from Uden and Veghel, we set up RUUW. A local initiative to support and thrive forward local entrepreneurship. We do this by activating the community and organizing 3-4 events a year for the age group between 18-35 years old. After organizing several events a new group of young entrepreneurs approached me to join Misfits and currently 40 entrepreneurs arranged a co-workspace in the city centre of Uden thanks to a collaboration with Rabobank and Gemeente Uden.