Keynote speaker, moderator, and change expert on AI, work, and talent
Most organizations don't lack talent, but rather visibility into that talent. Laurens Waling shows leaders how AI, skills, and behavior reveal hidden potential and help organizations reorganize work. Accessible to the entire audience, with the sharpness that executives appreciate.
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Laurens Waling is a keynote speaker, facilitator, and change expert who makes the future of work visible and actionable. He shows how organizations can mobilize people and work in an era of AI, labor market tightness, and continuous change. His central message: most organizations don’t lack talent, but visibility into it.
He speaks from experience, not from the sidelines. Laurens has appeared on more than fifteen international stages, from UNLEASH World in Paris to Zukunft Personal and HR Tech Europe. He has guided over fifty talent ecosystems in healthcare, government, education, and business. He has spoken for Netflix, ABN AMRO, Accenture, Achmea, a.s.r., Randstad, Rijkswaterstaat, Defense, UWV, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Amsterdam UMC, Radboudumc, and Center Parcs. He also explained his labor market vision in the Dutch House of Representatives.
Laurens studied public administration and intervention science, combining this change management background with over twenty years of experience in technology and entrepreneurship. He founded Part-up, a pioneering platform for skills-based collaboration, and sold the company in 2021. Currently, he is Chief Evangelist at 8vance, a Dutch-German scale-up in AI-driven skills matching and talent intelligence. In this role, he works daily with organizations on labor market tightness, internal mobility, new entry, and development.
What sets Laurens apart is his ability to always connect technology with behavior and leadership. His lectures are not only about what is changing but especially about how to bring people along. He combines content with interaction, reflection questions, and short work formats. In more extensive projects, he can work with preparatory surveys and a concise advisory report afterwards.
According to Laurens, change doesn’t start with systems but with inspired people who feel seen and start moving. On stage, he is energetic, sharp, and interactive. No abstract future stories, but recognizable situations from healthcare, government, and business, with concrete starting points for the audience to begin with the next workday. He speaks in both Dutch and English, for an audience of hundreds of participants and at the boardroom table.
How AI and skills reveal hidden potential. Laurens demonstrates why traditional job structures, resumes, and job postings only showcase a portion of the available talent. The audience discovers how skills-based organization can accelerate internal mobility, development, and lateral entry, and what this demands from leadership and HR. The lecture combines concrete examples with a clear initial route from insight to action.
What leaders need to understand and decide about AI, work, and talent now. Laurens distinguishes between experiments that mainly impress and applications that demonstrably add value. He discusses opportunities, risks, human oversight, and the organizational choices behind AI. The audience leaves with better questions, practical decision logic, and concrete steps to move from standalone tools to responsible use.
How to engage people when technology, roles, and familiar patterns change. Laurens connects change management with recognizable moments from practice and shows why resistance often contains valuable information. The lecture clarifies how leaders can provide direction without glossing over reality, how to create space for learning, and how teams can truly get moving.
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Laurens combines content with movement. It’s not just a story to listen to, but a session that stirs something within. People recognize themselves, their organization, and their dilemmas, leaving with ideas they can start using the very next day.
AI certainly comes up, but never as a goal in itself. It’s about what AI triggers in organizations: different choices, different behavior, and different conversations. Technology is the starting point, not the end destination.
Yes. Laurens talks just as easily with executives, policymakers, and professionals outside of HR. He avoids jargon and makes complex issues understandable for anyone dealing with change. Spoiler: that’s almost everyone.
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