INSPIRED CHOICE

MOTIVATION

As a small town outside Amsterdam prepares to host the world’s most inspirational event, we catch up with PINC conference founder Peter van Lindonk to learn more.

PEOPLE, IDEAS, NATURE, CREATIVITY – PINC IS a business conference unlike any other. “People who are interested in just one field would not fully understand the PINC concept,” says Peter van Lindonk, founder of the world-famous conference that is now in its ninth year. “PINC is not a business conference where you learn new tools and techniques that can be used back in the office the next day. PINC offers a shower of creativity and inspiration. It’s more of a catalyst.”

Attracting top-class speakers from every conceivable discipline, PINC’s unusual approach is based on the passion and excitement generated in the meeting of new ideas. By taking a deliberately eclectic approach to its speakers, PINC is able to assemble a group of people who have very little in common with each other, the only requirement being that all of them should have fervour for what they do, and complete confidence in the power of innovation and creativity.

In its first year, the off-beat congress attracted more than 200 delegates, including academics, business people, artists, writers and journalists.

As the event has aged, though, so word of its left of field agenda has spread, and PINC.9 will welcome 500 guests in May, reflecting its niche but loyal following.

Educator, researcher and writer for The Times Higher Education Supplement, Tim Birkhead, who attended Pinc.5, found the concept sheer genius. “PINC was a one-day university with all its doors open, allowing a blast of fresh inspiration to engulf us,” he says. “I came away greatly enthused and with a stronger conviction than ever that we should fight uniformity and the mediocrity it engenders... the experience inspired my teaching, my research and the way I organise conferences.”

“In principle every interesting man or woman with a story is a potential PINC speaker,” says van Lindonk, who came up with the idea for the conference when working as a publisher of corporate books and craving a more creative input. After attending environmentalist Eckart Wintzen’s Information Day in the Netherlands and five TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conferences in California, he realised there was a gap in the market and began working on PINC. He still selects every speaker himself to ensure the personal atmosphere, and is adamant that PINC can, and does, have a profound effect.

Asked which of the speakers has impressed him most, he refuses to be drawn. “Never ask a father which of his children he loves most,” he laughs, “there is no ranking. We offer a bouquet of beautiful flowers; we hope to present the most beautiful bouquet – the individual flowers are less important than the result of arranging them.” This year’s conference is no exception, and will once again see a varied group of individuals coming together to think in a different way. With an underwater architect, a nano technologist, an iceberg hunter and a humanoid robot researcher on board, it will be an ideal opportunity for broadening horizons and taking a fresh look at life through more enlightened eyes.

THE NINTH PINC CONFERENCE TAKES PLACE ON 20 MAY AT THE FIGI HOTEL IN ZEIST. www.PINC.NL

A FORMER BOOK PUBLISHER AND CIRCUS RINGMASTER,

WORDS BY KIM CHANDLER