Soest, Utrecht, Netherlands
I help organizations make AI useful in the actual work, not just in demos. 25 years of practice across emotional design, digital learning, and AI-augmented facilitation. I take on strategic projects and fractional leadership roles where the work is shaping how teams adopt AI, designing learning that holds up, and building the operating systems behind academies, cohorts, and capability programmes. WHAT I WORK ON → AI capability programmes: upskilling, re-skilling, enablement. Designing and facilitating training programmes that move people from "I've tried ChatGPT" to "AI is part of HOW I approach my work." Recent: long term capability program for a digital services department of an international government (under NDA), check for ongoing programs to follow: aicapability.academy. → Fractional learning leadership. Coming in as an interim Learning lead/ director or transformation designer when you need senior depth without a full hire. Typical engagements: 1 to 3 days per week for 3 to 9 months. → Programme design and architecture. Designing the operating systems behind academies, cohorts, and learning ecosystems. Past work includes founding the Digital Society School in Amsterdam, co-founding the Global Goals Jam with the UN Development Programme, and building METODIC, an AI facilitation platform. TRACK RECORD The early decade was emotional design at SusaGroup, translating complex user data into product strategy for Fidelity, P&G, and Philips. The middle was building Digital Society School at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, leading a team of 25+ across transformation traineeships and leadership programmes. The current phase is METODIC and the AI capability work that grew out of it. HOW TO WORK TOGETHER I'm currently available for: Strategic projects (typically 30 to 200 hours) Fractional leadership roles (1 to 3 days per week) AI capability programmes (in-house, single team, or whole-org scale) One-off speaking/ facilitation engagements or workshops Best way in: send me a DM with the rough shape of what you need. If it's a fit, we'll get on a call within the week. marcovanhout.com
Demadera is my solo shop. I work with individuals, teams and organizations as a designer, builder, consultant and keynote speaker, focused on leadership, learning, facilitation and capability development. Twenty-five years of experience sit behind this: co-founded Digital Society School at the HvA, co-founded the Global Goals Jam with UNDP (now in 100+ cities, 50+ countries), designed leadership and learning programs for public institutions, and built products and platforms that put ideas into practice. The work splits three ways. I design and run programs end-to-end: architecture, curriculum, content, e-learnings, workbooks, training materials, and the facilitation on the day itself — leadership days, cohort-based tracks, workshops, keynotes. I advise on capability development: how organizations, not just the individuals inside them, actually learn to work differently. That's the strand most learning teams underestimate. And I build, often with AI in the mix — Metodic is the current one, a facilitation platform for people who design and run learning experiences. Strategy, design and delivery from the same person, not three vendors. More at marcovanhout.com.
I built Metodic to help professionals and teams save hours, boost impact, and design transformative workshops, sessions and meetings using AI. With Metodic, you can design and run transformative sessions faster, save hours of prep time, and engage your teams with professional, customizable resources that elevate every session. My mission is simple: to empower those facilitating change (whether in business, education, or community settings) with the right tools to turn challenges into opportunities for meaningful transformation.
The #GlobalGoalsJam is joint collaboration between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Digital Society School, and is a global two day event consisting of short design sprints. Creative teams of designers, developers and Jammers from the local community work together using a tailored design method toolkit. Together, we create interventions aimed at short term targets in support of the long term goals. Participants join a global community of change-makers, ranging from Rio de Janeiro, Accra, Copenhagen to Amman, Delhi, Fukuoka and many many more. In 2019 we reached over 95 locations and since we have a steady number of around 30 locations participating annually.
As Community Liaison, my mission is to stimulate lifelong learning, design activism and to create a growing community of design activists that learns how to have direct impact on the Sustainable Development Goals as adopted by the United Nations. This work closely relates to the missions of the Global Goals Jam, Design Across Cultures and the Digital Society School. In 2019 the DSS and WDO successfully co-organised the World Industrial Design mini-jams in many locations around the world. The World Design Organization (WDO), formerly the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid), is an international non-governmental organization founded to promote the industrial design profession and its ability to generate better products, systems, services and experiences, better business and industry, and ultimately a better environment and society.
As co-founder and former Learning and Program Director of the Digital Society School (DSS), I shaped the vision, content and learning impact of the initiative. My focus was on building a vibrant global community of learners and changemakers — directing not just what we teach, but how people learn, engage, and grow together. Digital Society School is a global learning community that equips professionals, students, and organizations with the skills to design a more inclusive, sustainable digital future. Through hands-on traineeships, leadership programs, workshops, and online learning, DSS empowers people from all backgrounds to turn complex challenges into opportunities for real-world impact. By working closely with businesses, nonprofits, and governments, we ensure that our programs stay relevant and actionable. At its core, DSS is driven by the belief that everyone has the power—and responsibility—to shape a better digital society.