Maarten leyts

Fintech is about more than convenience. The sector has the opportunity to create social value, and that’s exactly what resonates with Millennials. Part I: Fintech is about more than convenience Aaah, Fintech. Making our Western-daily-lives even more easy and more efficient. We don’t need to go to our bank branch around to corner to pay our bills, and why bother leaving your house for some shopping when everything can be ordered and paid for online? Thank God, we’ve got Fintech. But Fintech is about much more than convenience and first world problems . The Indian government has used Fintech on a massive scale to make financial services available for the previously unbanked. Platforms and technology such as Aadhaar (digital identification), Jan Dhan Yojana (payment banks which hold money but don’t do lending) and India Stack (store and share personal data online) allow citizens to open bank accounts, transfer money instantly and lend wisely. By mid 2016, 270 m...

They’re worried about their finances, they crave control, they’re used to quantify their lives, and they love to learn. Add up these four elements, and you’ll understand why financial education for Millennials is a thing. One third (34%) of Millennials, queried by Bank of America last year, graded their overall understanding of personal finances a C, D or F, and 41% of Millennials confess they are “chronically stressed” about money.   Much of the stress has to do with the friction between wanting to become and stay financially healthy, and not knowing how to get there. Millennials have seen how their parents struggled when the economy went sour, and very much want to avoid that. Lots of youngsters refrain from credit cards , for instance, because they don’t want to endebt themselves. According to Bank of America, Millennials prioritize saving for the future over having enough money to live comfortably today (71% vs. 60%). But most Millennials simply ...

Human beings are like computers. We have our body, which is the hardware.We have our brain, which is the CPU, where all the action happens. We have our thoughts, which are our source code, the programming. We have our life experiences that are dictated by our source code, our thoughts. Let�s take this analogy one step further.  If you are on your computer looking at a web page and you see a typographical error, you can make a change on your screen and feel better instantly. This is a temporary change, however. As soon as you pull something else up on your screen, those changes disappear. When you return to that web page, you see the edits did not occur.  The real, permanent change comes when you go back to the source, the source code that creates what you see externally. Our lives are like the web page. It�s what we see and what others see.  Our lives are the reflection of our thoughts.  Thoughts become our reality. When someone says thoughts are things, that...

De Kanselarij van de Eerste Minister is de federale overheidsdienst die afhangt van de eerste minister. De dienst ondersteunt de eerste minister bij de coördinatie van het regeringswerk. Hij bereidt de reglementaire bevoegdheid van de eerste minister voor en voert ze uit, meer bepaald op het gebied van de overheidsopdrachten. Daarnaast ondersteunt hij de eerste minister op logistiek vlak en vervult meer en meer de rol van verkeersknooppunt tussen de federale staat en de deelstaten enerzijds, en de Europese Unie anderzijds. De Kanselarij informeert over de beleidsbeslissingen van de regering en promoot het imago van België in de wereld.

Wij, West-Vlamingen, niet verstaanbaar? Grapjes dat we de 'g' en de 'h' niet uit elkaar kunnen houden? Opmerkingen dat we onze woorden inslikken? Goedkope kritiek lijkt ons, want toppolitici en -bedrijven smeken om West-Vlaamse woordvoerders. En dat is niet toevallig, zeggen ze.  Barend Leyts is mogelijk de belangrijkste woordvoerder van het land. Immers, de gewezen journalist is de Nederlandstalige spreekbuis van premier Charles Michel, die zelf aandrong op de komst van de Pannenaar. "West-Vlamingen kijken met een open blik naar de wereld, gebruiken hun gezond verstand en staan met beide voeten op de grond. Dit zijn belangrijke troeven voor een woordvoerder", zegt Barend Leyts. "West-Vlaams is trouwens een goede basis om je standaardtaal te verbeteren. Dat weet ik als germanist. Het is een zeer homogeen dialect: je kan het spreken van De Panne tot Knokke-Heist, van Roeselare tot Kortrijk. Dat zorgt voor een sterk gemeenschapsgevoel.

A good keynote speech should inspire and unify an audience with a common purpose. He or she should also provide direction for the conference purposes and goals. This sets the tone for the event; which can launch a conference with clarity or, at its worst, move it forward with non-existent or muddled ideas.

Some say it is the port to Asia, but last week Singapore was definitely the port to the Future as LaFutura hosted their annual trend event in the vibrant city. While the first participants flew in over the weekend, to discover the city and their co-participants, the real party started first on Monday afternoon. A bus full of enthusiastic future addicts , that could not wait to get their forthcoming journey going. That is how we kicked off LaFutura in Singapore, a trend journey hosted by TrendONE & Klubhaus , mainly organized by Brian Tiong  from B-side . What a journey it was, from a lecture regarding smart cities and smart resource systems at the Future Cities Laboratory – Create Centre , to meeting human robot Nadine at the Nanyang Institute for media Innovation , it was a day full of highs that is for sure. Talking about highs, before a lovely traditional Singapore diner, the journey led us all up into the sky with the famous Singapore Flyer, the second highest...