Meet our Speakers
On 9 October 2026, seven bold voices will take the red dot at HAL4 aan de Maas for TEDx Coolhaven Women: The New Builders.
Across leadership, technology, investment, mental health, parenting and women’s health, our speakers bring original ideas shaped by research, lived experience and the decision to act.
This year’s line-up also marks a return to the red dot for Kimberly Fuqua, Fiona McDonnell and Varinka Bouma. They are joined by María Bordallo, Vassia Sarantopoulou, Laurie Lancee and Dr. Dominika Repcikova – four new voices challenging us to reconsider who gets to build, what we choose to change and how a more responsible and inclusive future can take shape.
The future is being built – by design or by default. Meet the people choosing to build it differently.
2026 Featured Speakers
Author of The Way You Love Is The Way You Lead, Varinka brings more than 25 years of experience and over 2,500 hours coaching leaders, teams and couples. She returns to explore how self-awareness, connection and the way we relate influence the leaders we become and the future we create.
An international executive, author and award-winning advocate for inclusive leadership, Fiona has spent more than three decades working across organisations including Booking.com, Amazon, Nike and Kellogg’s. She returns with a clear perspective on how trust, clarity and authenticity shape the future we build.
Laurie is an entrepreneur, angel investor and co-founder of AtVenture Platform. Through investor education, community and curated deal flow, she works to close funding and wealth gaps by expanding who can invest, who can access capital and who gets to build, own and influence the future.
Kimberly explored leadership, transformation and how organisations
can turn ambition into meaningful impact.
Vassia is a psychologist, speaker, entrepreneur and community builder with more than 20 years of experience in mental healthcare. Through AntiLoneliness and The Therapy Business Circle, she builds spaces that strengthen connection, support therapists and help people imagine a more human and sustainable approach to mental health.
María is a Certified Aware Parenting Coach, advocate, has a Masters in Psychology and a pilot. Through Mamamaria, she helps parents and parents-to-be prepare emotionally for family life, break generational patterns and build secure, connected relationships with their children. Her work asks us to consider how changing the future begins with our earliest relationships.
Dominika is a scientist and founder working at the intersection of women’s health, biology and data. As founder and CEO of The Iron Bar, she is confronting one of women’s most normalised health crises: iron deficiency. Her talk will explore how the problem became so widely accepted and what building a better solution actually takes.
Barbara is an Executive Speaker Coach and Senior TEDx Coach who has coached more than 200 TEDx speakers worldwide, helping speakers communicate their ideas with confidence, clarity and impact.
Ready to Meet The New Builders?
Join us 9 October 2026, HAL4 aan de Maas, Rotterdam
Past TEDx Coolhaven Women Speakers
Since launching TEDx Coolhaven Women, we’ve welcomed entrepreneurs, artists, academics, executives, technologists and changemakers to our stage. Together they have explored resilience, leadership, innovation, digital transformation, wellbeing and the future of human connection.
Salon 2026
Leadership Redefined
An intimate TEDx Salon event exploring how leadership is evolving in today’s world. The event challenged traditional leadership models and highlighted more inclusive, collaborative and courageous approaches to leading.
Featured Speakers
October 2025
Finding Balance
The 2025 event explored how we find balance in a world increasingly shaped by technology, digital connection and rapid change. Topics included AI, leadership, financial empowerment, cybersecurity and wellbeing.
Featured Speakers
November 2024
Resilience & Renewal
The first TEDx Coolhaven Women brought together Rotterdam’s diverse community around the theme Resilience & Renewal, exploring how we recover, reinvent ourselves, and create new possibilities through change. TEDx Coolhaven Women marked the return of a community-focused TEDx experience to Rotterdam after several years, bringing ideas worth spreading back to a wider local audience.
What began as an idea only months earlier grew organically into a sold-out event, with a waiting list and a community of speakers, volunteers, partners, and attendees coming together to make it happen. The stage featured women connected to Rotterdam and Coolhaven, sharing ideas across science, entrepreneurship, leadership, identity, creativity, community, and personal transformation.
More than anything, 2024 proved there was a real appetite in Rotterdam for a dedicated space for ideas worth spreading from women in the community. It created the foundation for TEDx Coolhaven Women to grow from a first experiment into an annual platform.
FAQs
How are TEDx Coolhaven Women speakers selected?
Speakers are selected based on the originality of their ideas, the relevance of their message and their ability to inspire meaningful conversations. After careful vetting from the team based on a set criteria speakers will be interviewed and follow a selection process.
Can I apply to speak at TEDx Coolhaven Women?
Our applications for 2026 are now closed. Stay tuned for 2027 recruitment.
What topics are covered at TEDx Coolhaven Women?
Topics include leadership, technology, innovation , entrepreneurship, creativity, equality, sustainability and social impact.