Thomas Nijhuis

When I was thirteen I wanted to be a rapper. My best friend's dad was a teacher at the Music Academy of Utrecht. He had his own home recording studio. We basically lived there, recording rap music, heavily inspired by the Beastie Boys.

After graduating from high school I moved to Amsterdam to study Communication Science. I remember my first class. The professor asked the five hundred attending students why they had chosen to study Communication. Crickets cricketing. In retrospect my choice perfectly matches my genuine interest in inspiring, activating and empowering people through the infinite forms of communication.

During my time in University I worked at Kriterion, a movie theatre completely operated by students. Here I saw every movie that played, organized a lot of crazy events and worked with about two hundred awesome people who all ended up in a wide range of mostly cultural professions in Amsterdam. So did I.

I've been organising events professionally for nearly seven years now. I'm specialised in developing inspirational and educational programs. "Success" is a central theme in my work. I believe that becoming successful starts with a clear, personal definition of success. In many ways my definition of success still boils down to being a Beastie Boy.