Theme: Invent the Future

Hosted by AStA Paderborn University, in the heart of Germany, this event will feature local experts in their respected fields and others from afar. An overarching theme for this event will be ‘invent the future.’ Talks will fall in the following categories: (1) breaking barriers, going against the norm, as we hear from people stepping out of their comfort zone, (2) sports and esports, featuring athletes and coaches making the connection between mental-health, physical health and development, (3) personal growth, with experts presenting strategies for ways to invent your future self.

G-Hörsaal Universität Paderborn
Warburger Str. 100
Paderborn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, 33098
Germany

Dani Koenig

Dani Koenig and Sarah Barakah are the founders behind Chinkilla: a women’s fightgear and athleisure brand whose sales go towards female empowerment events around Germany and Europe. The two women originally met in a kickboxing class in 2016 and have since grown from friends to business partners. They’re vision for Chinkilla and their Femme Fight Camps is to encourage girls and women to be the most badass version of themselves, amplify their voices, and share their strength with other females through martial arts. Dani is a media design graduate and documentary director of German-Russian descent. Sarah is Arab-American and worked as a web content editor in the startup scene for 8 years before shifting to self-employment.

Dave Nash

My first memories of sports go back to the time when I started playing soccer at the age of 6 years old. My performance was mostly dominated by building little piles of dirt instead of joining the game. Nowadays that looks quite different. After finishing my Bachelors in Sports & Recreation Management at Tiffin University, Ohio, I quit my active career playing American Football after 10 years and focused on coaching athletes. Today my day starts and ends with CrossFit - often I coach a class, give Personal Training or train myself. To satisfy my thirst for knowledge I invest my time in workshops, seminars and projects that help me learn how to seize and maximize athletic potential. This does not limit to competitive sports, yet aims to support any human on optimizing their skill level. I now own my own sports facility, built an amazing team of employees and receive the opportunity to serve my clients on a daily basis, helping them to change their health and lives for the better. Besides being a natural workaholic I enjoy spending my leisure time with my family, my son and watching TV shows or reading books about self development and lifestyle habits.

Dilara Ülker

My name is Dilara Ülker, I’m 26 years-old and an astrophysicist from Germany. I’m a natural scientist with passion love to observe the universe. I graduated 2017 in Astrophysics at TU Berlin and continue my second study in mathematics at Beuth-Hochschule for Technik Berlin. I am working as a software developer in a company and working as an astrophysicist in private for now. My life mission is to become an astronaut but not a usual one - I want to be the first Muslim astronaut with hijab in Germany.

Eric Russell

Eric’s work and passion is seeking, cultivating and practicing a life of serenity. He has found that the Practice of Stillness or Stillness Practice not only establishes a sense of serenity, but also brings coherence between our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual states. Stillness connects us deeply with our body’s wisdom, calms and quiets the mind, enables us to tune into our felt experience and learn from its sensory genius. Eric coaches, trains and mentors in Stillness Practice. He is a certified coach, a C.O.R.E. Practices Master Coach and has been coaching since 1982. Eric is a graduate of Brown University and holds a BA in Organizational Behavior. He is also a grandfather, arts advocate, avid walker, non-profit leader, teacher and former corporate executive.

Joe Danis

Joe’s mantra has always been about increasing the capacity of those around him to live a life of passion and purpose. To do this, he focuses on the intersection of people, experiences, and opportunities with a great sense of intentionality. As a wellness advocate and personal mentor/coach, his concepts and programs help people develop healthy, sustainable habits through self-discovery and a more holistic approach to overall well-being. His programs, systems, and concepts are simple, tangible, and authentic. Committed to living out his concepts, he uses his passion for building community and personal well-being to inspire others to create lasting, positive changes for themselves and those around them. In early 2020, prior to the peak of the pandemic, Joe quit his job as vice-president of the largest and most successful student housing company in Canada. After eight years of dealing with the pressure and stress of a job that was no longer fulfilling, he made the decision to become an entrepreneur and pursue his life’s work full-time. He did so at one of the most chaotic and uncertain times in our history.

Julia Eyre

Julia is a sport scientist and psychologist in Gießen, Germany, who talks loudly about athlete development, speed, pain, menstruation, stress, LGBTQIA* issues, and athlete mental health. Before founding White Lion Performance Group, she coached at the collegiate level in the United States and researched stress, pain, and athletic performance in the field of clinical neuropsychology in Germany. She supports clubs and federations worldwide as a performance consultant and athletic coach, and serves as an adjunct university professor for neuropsychology in Hamburg, Germany and Cairo, Egypt. She prioritizes healthy humans over everything.

Tim Rodenbröker

Tim Rodenbröker is a designer, educator and community builder from Germany. He is specifically concerned with teaching basic skills in creative coding and sees this as a valuable approach for a courageous, critical and reflective approach to digital technologies. Since 2019, he has been developing his own e-learning platform with a variety of course modules, which aims to simplify the entry into the subject. As a designer, he has worked for many notable clients in recent years, including The New York Times, Julia Stoschek Collection, Onformative, and Holo Magazine. He has given workshops and lectures at prestigious, international universities.

Yanni Gentsch

This is Yanni. She’s asking questions for a living. Her passion has always been a matchbetween communication, design and psychology. Today she is the founder of &duso - adesign card game with 90 questions and little challenges for more courage to love andconscious self reflection with others. This is on how to embrace a love of communication bothvisually and rhetorically. Besides that she started freelancing as a creative copywriter andconceptionist after gratuating her BA in architecture and interior design.