American global star Oprah Winfrey is heading to Belgium for a lecture on 23 March. Winfrey is opening the two-day technology event SuperNova that starts a few days later. ‘She wants to come to Belgium because we are the country of chocolate,’ says organiser Jurgen Ingels.
Television host, actress, entrepreneur, producer and podcast host, the world-famous star's CV is impressive and one of the main reasons why organiser Jurgen Ingels wanted Oprah Winfrey to open his two-day technology event SuperNova.
‘Oprah has proved that you can achieve success from a difficult starting point,’ says Ingels. ‘She had a difficult childhood, and now she is a global star. She achieves great things, with an eye on emancipation. That’s the context in which we wanted to invite her.’
Ingels also hopes this will help to attract more female tech entrepreneurs. ‘We want to show that women too can achieve a lot and that they too can be successful entrepreneurs.’
Overcoming obstacles
Winfrey’s lecture will be about perseverance. ‘You shouldn't give up because you experience setbacks. Oprah faced those too, but she persevered and became successful,’ says Ingels.
This is a mindset that is often still lacking among Belgian entrepreneurs, Ingels argues. ‘We often think negatively. ‘It's difficult, it's hard’, you hear. We should really go for it more often; we should dare to achieve things.’
The theme of this year’s SuperNova edition's is ‘Shoot for the Moon’ for a reason. ‘Landing on the moon was once just a dream. Today's technological developments are also pushing the boundaries of what we think is possible,’ the SuperNova website notes.
Ingels too had to persevere to get Winfrey for his event. ‘You can't just call her, but it helps that Barack Obama was our guest last year. Through our network, we kept searching, eventually ending up with Oprah.’
Dark chocolate eventually proved to be the deciding factor. ‘Oprah apparently loves chocolate. Belgium is the land of chocolate, so that helped. We will make sure there is chocolate for her.’
SuperNova was first organised in 2018, as a conference and meeting place for tech entrepreneurs, (international) investors and innovators. New technologies are presented at an exhibition, and well-known speakers share their insights during lectures.