Book keynote speaker Maarten van der Weijden

A keynote speaker is the main speaker at your event. Workshops and breakout sessions go into depth; the keynote sets the theme of the day with one story that reaches everyone in the room. A keynote usually opens or closes the programme and lasts 30 to 60 minutes.

A good keynote speaker does three things: tells a story people remember, connects that story to what is going on in your organisation, and gives the room something to act on the next day. Maarten van der Weijden has given more than 1,000 talks. He knows how to take a room of eighty people with him, and a room of eight hundred.

For more on the role of a keynote, how it differs from a workshop or an event chair and what to look for when choosing a speaker, read the guide what is a keynote speaker.

A keynote speaker sets the tone for the day. Maarten van der Weijden opens or closes conferences, kick-offs, anniversaries and annual meetings. His story works for a room of eighty and for a room of eight hundred. He adapts the pace and structure to the size of the group.

Maarten speaks for companies, healthcare, education, government and sport. A keynote by Maarten fits moments when an organisation is looking for direction: after a reorganisation, with a new strategy or at the start of a year. It also fits an anniversary, when you want to look back and look ahead in one story.

Popular moments:

Every keynote by Maarten is built around one of three topics, or a combination of them.

The content is always based on what Maarten has lived through himself. He leaves theory and models to others. What the room hears really happened, and every example ends with something your audience can do themselves.

Many organisations ask for a keynote on leadership. Maarten shows that leadership starts with ownership: choosing a goal, getting the details right and bringing the people around you along. That is how he won Olympic gold, and how he swam the Elfstedentocht with a team of specialists and hundreds of volunteers. As a financial manager at Unilever he saw the same mechanism in a very different setting. More on leadership speaker.

If you are looking for a keynote on enjoying your work, you can ask Maarten to put the emphasis there. He then builds the talk around your theme, with his own story as the thread.

Teams that are afraid to fail do not last long. Maarten's message: big goals take hard work, clear thinking and a lot of luck. When something fails, it does not automatically mean you did something wrong. People who understand that are kinder to themselves and to their colleagues, and keep enjoying their work, even when things go against them.

For his talks Maarten visits a lot of different organisations. What strikes him: it is not the size of the company or the budget for wellbeing programmes that determines how much energy there is in the workplace, but how colleagues treat each other when things get busy. During the Elfstedentocht swim he saw how that works. Everyone saw him swimming; far fewer people saw the team that made sure he ate on time, got rest and stayed sharp. In Maarten's view, vitality comes from health, enjoyment of your work and a safe working environment reinforcing each other.

What your audience takes away on enjoying their work:

Suited to staff days, annual meetings and wellbeing programmes. Maarten also wrote the blog post wellbeing at work.

At the heart of every keynote is Maarten's own life. At 19 he was diagnosed with leukaemia. After that he started swimming again, while many people thought elite sport was no longer an option. In 2008 he won Olympic gold in the 10 km open water race in Beijing.

After his sporting career he worked as a financial manager at Unilever from 2009 to 2015. He then went back into the water, this time to raise money for cancer research. In 2018 he tried to swim the Elfstedentocht, 200 km through the Dutch province of Friesland. He did not make it. In 2019 he swam the full distance.

In 2023 he completed the Elfstedentriatlon and raised more than €3.7 million. In December that year he swam non-stop for 45 hours, a Guinness World Record, in honour of a friend who died of cancer. In total his foundation has raised €18 million for 45 cancer research projects.

Maarten tells all this in a dry, sometimes funny and often vulnerable way. From all those moments he picks the stories that fit your event and your audience.

Briefing. After your request you have a short call with Maarten. You discuss the purpose of the event, who will be in the room and what should be different afterwards. The slot in the programme matters too: an opening needs a different rhythm from a closing.

Length and format. You choose 30, 45 or 60 minutes. With a Q&A the audience gets room for its own questions. A tight keynote without interruptions is possible too. If you want more interaction, a workshop of 60 to 90 minutes is an option. Maarten speaks in Dutch and English, and comes to your venue or gives the session online.

On site. Maarten needs a microphone, a screen and a clicker. There are no other special requirements.

What you prepare. The sharper the goal, the better the keynote lands. Decide beforehand what should be different afterwards, who will be in the room and what is really going on, even if that is difficult. Schedule the keynote at a time when people are still alert, and make sure the sound is good and the screen is visible from every seat.

Booking. Send a request with the date, location and audience. Within one working day you get availability, a proposal and the terms. Afterwards you receive photos and short feedback. Organising a conference: read more about Maarten as a conference speaker. All formats are on talks.