Wilbert van de Kamp
Wilbert van de Kamp is a creative and entrepreneur with a special interest in (local) food, sustainability, and social, collective solutions. He makes things practical. No abstract long-term visions, short-term campaigns, or think tanks—he prefers to get started as soon as possible. With the right people, a solid plan, and “in it for the long run.”
He has started several companies to make the world a bit better. For example, he is the founder of Omapost, an app that allows you to send personal postcards by mail. He started it for his own grandmother and added the “adopt-a-grandma” feature for people who no longer have a grandma. In this way, he aims to help young people stay in touch with older generations in an easy and accessible way. In 2020, he launched juiststraks.nu, which helps people stick to the good intentions they started during the Corona crisis.
Wilbert participated in the Slow Food Youth Network (SFYN) Academy and joined the organization after completing the program, where he organized the Food Film Festival. He is involved with local food and also programs and cooks at Wongema, a work retreat in Groningen.
He presents various (self-created) programs on themes such as local food, sustainability, rural life, and degrowth, and is one of the hosts of the talk show De Linkse Mannen lossen het op (“The Leftist Men Solve It”). Together with Mette te Velde, he created the podcast Who saves Wilbert (and the rest of humanity)?, in which he and Dutch celebrities explored how to keep taking action despite setbacks.
Wilbert strongly believes in building collectives; only when you organize can you truly change things. In a country where people are increasingly divided, we need to do more together.
Besides hosting his own shows, he is frequently asked to be a moderator, especially for programs about food, sustainability, rural issues, or degrowth. He writes a sustainability column for *Dagblad van het Noorden* and is featured in the Duurzame Jonge 100 (Sustainable Young 100) and the Food100.
His lectures generally focus on sustainability and entrepreneurship, both for small and large organizations. A few examples:
Activist Entrepreneurship
Activism is essential—because the way we treat the planet right now simply isn’t sustainable. As the founder of Omapost and juiststraks.nu, Wilbert uses his businesses to help make the world a better place. It’s not just better for the world—it’s also more fun for your employees and your customers. How can your company help improve the world?
Vulnerable Entrepreneurship
For many entrepreneurs, business looks like a feel-good story. But you often learn the most from your mistakes. You overextend yourself, mismanage your team, get depressed, or burn out. What can you learn from this, and how can you deal with it in the right way?
How Do You Make a Difficult Topic Sexy?
How do you engage people who have never heard of a rain barrel in climate adaptation? And how do you keep people awake when they hear about circularity? Wilbert shares the lessons he learned by focusing not on problems through campaigns, but on solutions.
