Wim Smets

Speaker
Dutch
French
English
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Who is Wim Smets?

Wim is an ambitious man who loves challenges. He is from Antwerp and earned a first class honours degree in Applied Economic Sciences at UFSIA. With this achievement in hand, he entered the IT world in 1990 while simultaneously completing his studies for an MBA at the Vlerick Business School. He has added new specialisations to these degrees and now visits IT companies all over the world. He tackles the highest mountains in the same way, with an impressive record on all 7 continents.

As a speaker, Wim leaves a lasting impression on the audience in his own modest style. Although not many people in the audience will have climbed an 8000-metre peak, he is able to fascinate them with very recognisable stories, about rising to challenges, working extremely hard on projects, dealing with change and resolving problems. Besides offering lectures to the general public, Wim Smets is also perfect at captivating an audience of managers.

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    The only way is up

    Mountain climbing is about pushing yourself to the limit, and that requires a great deal of perseverance. Wim Smets shares lessons that he has learned during his climbs and clearly describes how these lessons can actually be implemented on the work floor and in our daily lives.

    Wim also shows how he uses his experience as IT manager during climbing expeditions and vice versa. The two careers reinforce each other, and you can take a front-row seat to learn lessons from the experiences of this passionate speaker. During this lecture, he adopts a unique approach to offer you life lessons and new insights.

    Everyday life: mountaineering

    Mountaineering is about more than just walking on suddenly very steep paths. And not every mountain climb is accompanied by life-threatening snow storms on dangerous cliff edges However, every expedition is about working together in a multicultural team, sometimes in extreme conditions, with a single objective: to reach the top.

    People who don’t fancy going on an expedition themselves, can still gain first-hand insight into what goes on several thousand metres from the ground. How you get started; the preparations; life in camp; the cold and deprivation; unexpected events: Wim Smets is an experienced speaker and gives you the feeling that you were actually on the mountain. He will also put you on the road to climbing the ‘mountain’ that you have always wanted to climb.

Everything went very well; the final-year students were completely silent during the lecture by Wim Smets… that’s something we’ve never experienced. So, a real success! It was an eye-opener for many of them, now that they are about to enter the world of employment; this represents an important and radical change in their young lives.

Leo Schoeters

Thomas More

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I would like to thank you once again for being part of the Club Wallonie Export evening: your presentation, as well as your personality, was appreciated by all. Not to mention your journey, which aroused great admiration. It was a genuine pleasure to share these moments with you.

Monique Oger

Communication manager - Club Wallonie Export

Everything went perfectly. Our organisation is currently undergoing a major transition and, in that context, Wim Smets presented a really fascinating and infectious story to our employees.

Sofie Questier

HR Manager Belgian Institute for Road Safety

Impressive keynote from mountaineer Wim Smets during the Showpad Sales Kick-off. How to bring a team from the base camp to the summit, and how to develop a pre-nicorn into a unicorn with a great team. Thanks for the inspiring session!

Mario Heneca

Showpad

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Thanks for the fascinating presentation. It was impressive to see what humans are capable of (with the right approach and effective preparation). I learned a great deal, which I will be able to use in my personal and professional life.

Thomas Coorevits

Accountmanager Dumaplast

Wim Smets presented a good, captivating story. He was rated highly during our evaluation!

Martijn de Groot

Canon Business Services