Purpose Day 2024

Purpose Day 2024: In the eye of the storm

Eindhoven. Sunshine. A building called the Microstad. And a room full of people genuinely thinking about the meaning of life, while simultaneously trying to escape burnouts, SDG checklists and the defining question of our time: are you a bio-robot or an inspired being?

Together with The Present 100, Kyden, BR-ND People, The 23plusone Collective, Let's Play Equal and Blyde, we went looking for oxygen. And we found it.

A day full of people who mean it

Katie Janssen opened the day with a whirlwind of ideas about our place in the world. From earning to serving. From consuming to creating. And let's be honest: if you get to choose between bio-robot and inspired being, that's a no-brainer.

Rutger Bregman addressed the 1% in the room with a smile. Not to shame them, but to fire them up. Because if you have 80,000 hours on this planet, you might as well spend them on something that actually matters. More is more, but in the right sense.

Wim Vermeulen brought the sobering note of the day. Sustainable advertising? Barely anyone believes it anymore. His advice: keep it small, warm and real. No campaigns, but behaviour. No slogans, but people.

Volkert Engelsman (Aosta) made the case for DDD: Dream, Dance, Deliver. And no, that's not a new fitness programme. It's a call to finally turn your dreams into action, even if there are still a few ecological, social and spiritual gaps in the way.

Bas Verhart (THNK) was refreshingly honest about his own personal crisis, which immediately made him the most relatable speaker of the day. AI is interesting, but people are more interesting. Noted.

Christiaan Kromme looked at the future through a rose-tinted lens - and that wasn't greenwashing. With purpose-driven organisations without hierarchy and apps that actually help, he showed that soft skills are the hard currency of the future.

Kim Cramer shone as a panel member at The Present 100, doing what she does best: bringing humanity back into the boardroom. Why do we accept the dictatorship of the board, when companies can just as easily be democratic? Good question. Anyone?

Jaap Korteweg, former Vegetarian Butcher (now Those Vegan Cowboys), still dreams of becoming the biggest farmer in the world. Not despite his rebellious heart, but because of it. Moral ambition as business strategy - it works.

And then Laura Dolrom, the action writer who made the room laugh, think and go quiet for a moment. Her Live Column was exactly the kind of beautiful chaos that makes a day memorable. More of this, please.

The conclusion? We wrote it together.

Purpose Day 2024 wasn't a conference. It was a reminder. That we all have a choice. That a little ambition combined with a little courage can set a lot in motion. And that life really is too short to take without a wink.

See you next year, Eindhoven.