
Making your guests leave with more energy than when they came in; that is the goal of fakespeaker Otto Wijnen.
His playful fake speech starts like any other speaker. He has prepared a neat slidedeck and at first his story seems to match the topic of the day flawlessly. But after a few minutes his listeners notice the first weird remarks and slowly the story takes a strange turn. However; there is an underlying message: changes are happening at lightning speed and it is important to keep up! By consciously taking them out of their comfort zone, Otto creates a shared experience, which means that the next part of the program or the closing drink has a different, more energetic character. What distinguishes Otto even more is his multimedia knowledge, quick humor and playful use of language. Moreover, he likes to look at the whole event together with the client: why is the event being organized? What is the purpose of his contribution? How do we achieve the desired effect?
Otto Wijnen was born in Amstelveen in 1968 and completed his University Education in Cultural and Social Education in 1995. Many performances (children’s theatre, actor, presenter) and wanderings later (head of recreation, multimedia producer, website company), he decided to focus entirely on his fakespeech about innovation and change in 2006. He has been a professional fake speaker for since. In 2018, Otto wrote the book “Help! I need to speak”; a practical guidance for speakers. He is a certified presentation coach, – Virtual Event Meeting Manager, – presentation trainer, -speaker coach and the father of two daughters.
Otto likes to contribute to social causes by presenting benefit auctions and by guiding do-gooders with their presentations. He has a great interest in environmental issues and is an electric car enthusiast.
"Janine had the whole room enthralled - her story is undeniably epic, and her delivery is animated and engaging. She clearly had a message to give which was relevant to all of us in both our personal and working lives: Go ahead and do what you want to do - never let anyone tell you never, never let the odds dissuade you from trying, and learn to love the challenge. There were tears and laughter, and we loved every minute. I will definitely be reading her books!"
"On December 10, 2009, the Dutch Central Bank organized a symposium in view of the introduction of Solvency 2; a new European framework for risk management within the insurance industry. The symposium was attended by 400 participants and key speakers from the European Commission, DNB, the Dutch Association of Insurers, from the industry and from the Ministry of Finance, gave their views. The end of the morning was filled in by Otto Wijnen who professionally fooled the entire room with an energy boost of the highest order in the form of a fake speech. It was unprecedented fun. In high tempo, with a lot of humor and by unexpected turns, the audience was confronted with the past of insurers and the need for change. After about 25 minutes, the audience collectively sang a tune at the top of their voices provided by Otto. His presentation was followed by thunderous applause as proof of his skill as an entertainer."
"On behalf of the colleagues of the merchant bank, I would like to thank you for your participation in our offsite. Your presentation was to say the least different from the others. All agreed that it was very funny and a great way to end the formal part of the preceedings. Laughter and humour is a great bonder and that is something you clearly achieved. We will all remember some joke or quip. Please feel free to use NIBC as a reference for your future speaking requests. Once again congratulations for the excellent performance."
"As organizer of the jubilee congress 60 years Radboudumc Dentistry on May 20, 2022 at the Stadsschouwburg Nijmegen, I asked Otto Wijnen to provide a playful contribution in the form of a fake speech. Afterwards I received nothing but fantastic feedback about his presentation! It was really great.
Many thanks to Otto for his contribution to this super fun day!"