Stijn's professional career started as a founder and producer of a global marketing conference. He created partnerships with several large organizations to support the event with financial contributions and in-kind donations valued at €100K+, which allowed him to collaborate with some of the world’s most prominent brand experts (e.g. Kevin Roberts – Saatchi&Saatchi, Sasha Strauss – Innovation Protocol) to inspire the event’s guests.
After the conference, Stijn continued his studies in Bordeaux, France at the INSEEC Business School. While still studying, he started working in Cannes during the Film Festival and the Cannes Lions, co-organizing successful brand experiences for global brands such as Lionsgate, Publicis Groupe, iHeartMedia, CBS, MediaLink, and the New York Post.
In his role as brand experience strategist, Stijn ideated the Story Sparkers concept. Story Sparkers are multi-sensory elements put in place along the brand experience journey that generate on- and offline word of mouth. Stijn successfully used Story Sparkers for many of his clients and presented this topic to numerous professional organizations and universities around the world.
Once graduated, Stijn pursued a job at Innovation Protocol, a strategic brand consulting firm in LA/SF/NY that serves clients such as Google, Disney, and PayPal. Working from the Los Angeles headquarters, Stijn consulted clients across industries and around the world on how to strategically communicate to their target audiences. Some of his clients included Universal Studios, NXP, PayPal, Qantas, and Sony.