Kitty Leering

Kitty Leering

Owner at DutchBlend
Amsterdam, Netherlands

About me

My passion is to create unconventional meetings of minds, organise mash-ups of ideas, and shape environments to design for social impact. Under the name of DutchBlend, I work with artists, designers, scientists, visionary thinkers, philosophers, corporations, governments, NGO's, entrepreneurs, technologists, and preferably with all of them at the same time, on a shared interest. I am interested in exploring and acting on opportunities to improve our lives, our society and the world at large. Domains I have been working on are for instance food & agriculture, maker education, social innovation and urban developments.
I am based in lovely Amsterdam, but not bound to it for my work.

Positions

Program Advisor (freelance)
Netherlands
September 2018 - Present (6 years 2 months)
Curator Main Stage
TEDxAmsterdam
Netherlands
September 2018 - Present (6 years 2 months)
Member of the 2018 program team, focused on the main stage program.
Event Director & Strategic Advisor, Thought For Food (freelance)
Thought For Food
Netherlands
November 2017 - Present (7 years)
Project management and all-round event consulting of the annual global summit, build around the award ceremony of the Thought for Food challenge. Tasks also include the co-development of the creative concept of the summit, support on sponsor-acquisition and marketing. In addition I serve as a strategic advisor for the overall direction and business development of TFF Foundation.

https://thoughtforfood.org
Program Coordinator, MakerEducation.nl (freelance)
Waag Society - Maker Faire NL
Netherlands
October 2017 - Present (7 years 1 month)

Inspire educational institutes, teachers, pupils, students and policy makers to adopt 'maker' principles in education through a maker faire, special masterclasses, workshops, lectures and much much more.

www.makereducation.nl www.eindhovenmakerfaire.nl

Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Fiber
Netherlands
November 2015 - Present (9 years)
FIBER is an Amsterdam based organisation, dedicated to present and initiate artistic productions at the intersection of audiovisual art, digital culture and electronic music. The team works year round with a vibrant network of artists, designers, technologists, researchers and organisations to reflect on the influence of technology and realise immersive artistic experiences across many creative disciplines. Special attention goes out to the support of up- and coming makers by connecting them with shared knowledge, organisations, networks and audiences.

FIBER works on a diverse range of activities; from the curation of events, exhibitions and audiovisual club experiences; the commissioning of performances and site-specific installations, to the exchange of knowledge within artist talks, workshops and showcases. The team is responsible for the recurring FIBER Festival, the Coded Matter(s) event series and the online FIBER Podcast series. Furthermore, FIBER cooperates with partner organisations, cultural institutions and companies to produce unique events.
Advisor
NewTechKids
Netherlands
March 2015 - Present (9 years 8 months)
NewTechKids is a technology education academy in Amsterdam dedicated to igniting the problem-solving capabilities and innovative spirit of children. Our programs, taught in Dutch and English, teach primary school children computational thinking and the fundamental concepts which power technology, programming and information in the digital age. Gadgets, applications, software and hardware change continuously, the core concepts don’t.

Our staff of computer science teachers and innovation specialists guide kids in acquiring knowledge and skills related to designing, programming, testing and creating stuff that matters to them. The future belongs to NewTechKids. Watch out, Silicon Valley. We’re coming for you!

http://newtechkids.com/en/
Member of the Board of Directors
Stichting Pleinmuseum
Netherlands
2014 - Present (10 years 10 months)
Stichting Pleinmuseum (Public Square Museum Foundation) is an organisation that uses public space as a museum without walls, making art more accessible for everyone.
Owner
DutchBlend
Netherlands
June 2005 - Present (19 years 5 months)
Program Advisor BedTalks Florence and Barcelona (freelance)
The Student Hotel
Netherlands
November 2017 - June 2018 (7 months)
BedTalks is a unique freethinking event, that connects through dialogue. We facilitate conversations (BedTalks) in hotel rooms between unconventional minds, who haven't met before, and have vastly different backgrounds, but share an itch to save the world (or pieces of it).
At the end of the day people leave inspired, with new ideas and a concrete commitment to improve life as we know it.

www.bedtalks.nl
Programmer, WeMakeThe.City 2018 (Freelance)
WeMaketheCity Foundation
Netherlands
January 2017 - June 2018 (1 year 5 months)
Responsible for the international keynote program, and the program lines on 'Healthy ageing' and 'Religion and spirituality in the city'.

About #WeMakeTheCity
Starting as a combination of the existing, annual Smart Cities Conference and the closing event for the iCapital Award, the idea of an annual CityFest was born. A consortium including Waag Society, Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam Economic Board, Amsterdam Smart City and the Amsterdam CTO Office, are involved in building this brand new city festival that combines a leading gathering of urban professionals from Europe (and beyond) with a public, distributed festival for the citizens of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Region.

Dates: 20-24 June 2018. www.wemakethe.city
Kwartiermaker, State of the Region 2018 (Freelance)
Amsterdam Economic Board
Netherlands
October 2016 - February 2018 (1 year 4 months)
Kwartiermaker, State of the Region 2018 (Freelance)
Nov 2016 – Feb 2018
Develop a new format for an annual conference for Amsterdam regional stakeholders to get together and discuss the economic state of the Amsterdam region and the opportunities and challenges for the coming year(s). Aim: June 2018 for the first edition.
Activities include: format development, engaging financial and in-kind stakeholders... See more

Program Consultant, Economische Verkenningen MRA 2017 (freelance)
Oct 2016 – Mar 2017
Acting as a program consultant to help redesign the annual presentation of the Economic Explorations report to stakeholders within the Metropolitan Region Amsterdam.

Programmer, MRA Catch Up Health (Freelance)
Oct 2016 – Dec 2016
Programming the Catch Up meeting for the health cluster of the Metropolitan Region Amsterdam.
Program Curator, BedTalks Eindhoven (Freelance)
The Student Hotel
Netherlands
January 2017 - April 2017 (3 months)
Place : Eindhoven
BedTalks is a unique freethinking event, that connects through dialogue. We facilitate conversations (BedTalks) in hotel rooms between unconventional minds, who haven't met before, and have vastly different backgrounds, but share an itch to save the world (or pieces of it).
At the end of the day people leave inspired, with new ideas and a concrete commitment to improve life as we know it.
www.bedtalks.nl
Project manager, Launch Human Cities Coalition (Freelance)
Human Cities Coalition
Netherlands
November 2016 - April 2017 (5 months)
Urbanization is a complex and worldwide phenomenon. With global dimensions and long-term consequences that affect everyone. Only if everyone collaborates we can succeed to make the world’s megacities liveable and prosperous places for everyone.

That’s why the Human Cities Coalition, initiated by a group of Dutch companies, has forged a unique coalition that brings together a wide range of partners: international and local, private and public, corporate and grassroots, practitioners and academic, investors and donors. These organizations want to actively contribute their expertise to reduce air and water pollution, introduce flood controls or design new financing mechanisms for large infrastructure projects such as water sanitation and affordable housing.

www.humancities.co
Advisor Open Call International Visitors Program (no renumeration)
Amsterdam, Netherlands
December 2016 - December 2016 (1 second)
Place :Rotterdam
Program Consultant
A Brave New World 2016
Netherlands
June 2016 - November 2016 (5 months)
Place : Leiden
Consulting (without remuneration) on the event format and program for the new event 'A Brave New World' that will take place on 2, 3 November 2016 in Leiden. https://www.bravenewworld.nl/

Education

Higher Vocational Education in Bedrijfspresentatie: Marketing, Communications, Design

1993 - 1997 (4 years)

Senior Secondary Vocational Education in Public Relations

1992 - 1993 (1 year)
Exemption NGPR-A

University Education in Psychology

1990 - 1992 (2 years)
During my study, I started my own restaurant in Amersfoort together with a friend. I left the restaurant in 1992.

Pre University Education

1984 - 1990 (6 years)

Professional Training (Coachend Leidershap)

2-day professional course to develop coaching skills for managers

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