Martijn van Essen

Martijn van Essen is a keynote speaker and the face behind Op Eigen Grond. He worked in education for many years, including in a leadership role, and gained experience in policy, project management and organisational development. There, he saw how much people’s behaviour and day-to-day interactions shape the atmosphere and culture within organisations. In his keynote, Martijn takes the audience into the world of attention through personal stories, humour and relatable situations. Why do we naturally give some things priority, while other important matters receive hardly any attention? And what does that mean for how we work together, listen to one another and dare to speak up? Martijn shows how our everyday choices about where we direct our attention, often without realising it, determine what becomes the norm within a team. His central question is simple: what really deserves our attention?