Speaker and Moderator

Arko van Brakel

Arko van Brakel is a passionate entrepreneur and speaker who helps organizations put innovation and entrepreneurship into practice. With his energetic style and pragmatic insights, he provides practical tools to navigate change and achieve success. Arko ensures that his audience is not only inspired but also motivated to take action.

Rate indication: € 2,500 to € 3,499
Available for booking as: Speaker Day chairman Interviewer Presenter Panelist
Languages: Dutch English

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030-3040025

Arko van Brakel inspires his audience to take action. One of his books is aptly titled Ondernemen met impact (Entrepreneurship with Impact). He teaches his audience how to make the most of their talents, competencies and ideas, enabling them to respond effectively to the innovations, disruptions and changes the world needs. This helps them become resilient and adaptable, ensuring they remain relevant in the future. While we cannot shape the world entirely, we can shape the choices, behaviors and responses of individuals, teams and organizations.

Speaker

There is never a dull moment when Arko takes the stage. His approach is energetic, professional and authentic. Empathy and genuine engagement with his audience are central to his work, as he is committed to making a real difference. Arko speaks and motivates with sincerity and passion. His genuine involvement quickly puts his audience at ease. His infectious energy creates a dynamic atmosphere filled with action and interaction. With years of entrepreneurial experience, including both significant successes and setbacks, and thousands of speaking engagements to his name, Arko is an experienced professional with extensive knowledge and expertise.

Entrepreneur

After completing his degree in Marketing Management, Arko launched his career as a serial entrepreneur by co-founding EuroNet Internet, one of the first commercial internet companies in the Netherlands. He went on to establish and contribute to various other ventures, including the Next Marketeer training program, PuntEdu, Jamby, the training and consultancy firm Nieuwe Helden, de Baak, and the international training organization Semco Style Institute bv, where he remains closely involved as a co-founder, shareholder and ambassador.

To share his entrepreneurial knowledge and help other entrepreneurs grow, Arko has served on the supervisory boards of organizations including Keizer Culinair, A New Spring and Pelosa. He also sits on the advisory boards of organizations such as ACE, Nederland ICT, YAG and UWV.

Author

Arko has also shared his expertise in four books: Nieuwe Helden (New Heroes), about developments in the new economy; Iedereen Ondernemer (Everyone an Entrepreneur), about an entrepreneurial approach to life as a key to success in today's communication-driven society; and Ondernemen met Lef (Entrepreneurship with Courage), about how entrepreneurship can become a way of life.

His latest book, Ondernemen met Impact (Entrepreneurship with Impact), explores why our planet needs more entrepreneurial people and innovative decisions. All the ingredients for a livable planet that supports both prosperity and well-being are already available. The challenge is knowing how to put this knowledge into practice. That is what entrepreneurship with impact is all about, and Arko's mission is to help you achieve it.

Themes that Arko van Brakel focuses on

Sessions

Work hard, play hard and rest hard. Achieve the optimal work-life balance. Do you feel like you have too many balls to keep in the air? Are you struggling to meet your own expectations and those of others? Is your organization under unhealthy pressure? Restore well-being by working smarter, setting better priorities and adopting healthier working habits with Arko’s “100 Points for Life” principle.

How to foster an innovative mindset within organizations. Has your organization become stuck in processes, patterns and procedures? Is the fear of failure holding you back from innovating? Or is there such a major obstacle in your way that you have lost sight of your goal? Start by asking yourself a few new questions, making new mistakes and truly daring to trust your colleagues. Innovation starts with you.

How to create happy customers and happy employees. What value do you offer your customers? And how can you truly make a difference? Create a culture that puts your people first, and the customers will follow.

How to stay in control without micromanaging, turn hierarchy on its head and reduce bureaucracy. Turn your organisation upside down. Restore trust, speed and innovation by making the most of your team’s knowledge, creativity, diversity and talents. Put people before processes to build the organizations of the future.

Arko van Brakel is an energetic event host who brings out the best in his guests and audience through his relaxed, natural moderating style. He knows how to put his guests at ease while actively engaging the audience. Arko listens attentively to both his audience and the people he interviews, and is unafraid to ask surprisingly candid questions. Although he prepares thoroughly for every situation, as an event host he prefers to focus on the subjects that fall within his core areas of expertise: entrepreneurship, leadership, innovation, e-business and well-being. One thing to bear in mind: his passion and specialist knowledge of these subjects can sometimes get the better of his objectivity. Never a dull moment with Arko on stage!

How to navigate uncertainty and change. Our brains struggle to understand non-linear trends, while exponential developments increasingly shape our living and working environments. It is becoming clear that yesterday’s mental models cannot answer tomorrow’s challenges. But how can you and your organization prepare for emerging trends and developments? How can you secure your role in the future? Arko provides practical tools to help audiences navigate complex challenges such as sustainability, an aging population, artificial intelligence, robotics and disruptive technology.

Exploring the digitally connected world of social media, co-creation, external stakeholder alignment and the power of working towards a purpose beyond profit. Making money while doing good for the world: that is the WEconomy. Whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur, discover your purpose and combine a meaningful life with professional success.

Arko van Brakel’s lectures, workshops and inspirational sessions focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. With boundless energy and almost encyclopedic knowledge of his field, he takes his audience on a journey through both the strategic and human aspects of entrepreneurship. He combines anecdotes with scientific facts and refreshing insights. He also shows a surprising degree of vulnerability and is unafraid to share the lessons he has learned from his failures.

Throughout his entrepreneurial career, Arko has gained an extraordinary range of experience: from internet entrepreneur to director of the leadership institute de Baak, from consultant for a Caribbean hotel and restaurant guide to shadow minister in a shadow cabinet, and from financial ruin to becoming an internet millionaire. Every success and every failure has provided a new learning experience, which he is eager to share with his audience. It is no coincidence that education and entrepreneurship have been the common threads throughout his diverse career.

Entrepreneurship in its broadest sense, for individuals, teams and organizations. Learn about taking calculated risks and making choices, both within and beyond organizations. Arko explores personal leadership, exponential leadership and innovative leadership. Which form of entrepreneurship suits you? How can you empower teams? And how can you make the right choices in your professional life as well as your personal life? Entrepreneurship can be learned!

How do you develop an online strategy? How can you translate success factors and best practices into your own organization? In short, how do you position your organization for online success? The answer starts with Internet DNA: trust, transparency, a willingness to share, smart collaborations, and letting go of hierarchy and control.