The evening opened, fittingly, inside a cinema. Following welcome words from IDFA, guests were drawn into The Game (2023) by Roman Hodel, a gripping documentary set in the high-stakes world of professional referees, where every split-second decision can change the course of a match. The parallels to marketing leadership were impossible to miss: navigating pressure, making the right calls in real time, and earning trust in a fast-moving arena.
From film we moved to the first keynote of the evening. Tisha van Lammeren, Chief Commercial Officer Mass Market and Executive Board member at Odido Nederland, took the stage to share her perspective on leading at scale. With full P&L responsibility across Odido, Ben, and Simpel, and more than two decades in telecom behind her - including landmark innovations such as Datavrije Muziek and affordable unlimited data at T-Mobile Nederland - Tisha spoke with the authority of someone who has made the hard calls. Her reflections on diversity, digital inclusion, and what it takes to lead commercially while leading responsibly set a grounded, candid tone for the conversations that followed over dinner.
Between courses, the room turned its attention to Melati Wijsen, founder of YOUTHTOPIA and one of the most compelling voices in global activism today. Melati co-founded Bye Bye Plastic Bags at the age of twelve, driving the movement that helped ban single-use plastics in Bali. Recognised by TIME and Forbes, she has addressed the UN, TED, and the EU Parliament, and starred in the Cannes-premiered documentary Bigger Than Us. Her keynote was a quiet provocation to the room: responsible leadership is not a destination but a practice, built on bold action, resilience, and a willingness to share power with the next generation. Every guest left with a signed copy of her book, Change Starts Now.
As the evening drew on, conversations spilled from the tables into the corridors over walking desserts: the kind of unscripted exchanges that have always been the real currency of a NEXT Dinner. By the time the event closed at 22:15, one thing was clear: the appetite within our community for a more principled kind of leadership is not a trend. It is a direction.
A warm thank you to everyone who joined us, to our speakers for their generosity, and to The Documentary Pavilion and IDFA for hosting us so beautifully.
