Founder of Blockchain News, The Hackitarians & global expert on innovation, Richard Kastelein is an award winning publisher, innovation executive & entrepreneur who has guest lectured on innovation at MIT Media Lab, Oxford University, & the University of Koln, sat on the media convergence panel at the 2nd EU Digital Assembly in Brussels & run innovation workshops with global companies such as the ENGIE, the BBC, ABC, CBC, NPO, RTL (DE & NL), Eurosport, NBCU, C4, ITV, Liberty Global, Seven Australia & others. He has assessed, judged & helped fund hundreds of startups for EU H2020 Innovation programme & Innovate UK & has designed & run some of the world’s largest hackathons in London, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Brussels, & Berlin covering topics such as IoT, AI, eCommerce, Automotive, Television, Robotics, Health Energy & more – backed by the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, GM, ENGIE, IBM, INTEL, European Commission etc. Kastelein has spoken (keynotes & panels) on Media Tech & Blockchain in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Belfast, Berlin, Brussels, Brighton, Copenhagen, Cannes, Cologne, Curacao, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hollywood, Hilversum, Gdansk, Geneva, Groningen, London, Las Vegas, Leipzig, Madrid, Melbourne, Minsk, NYC, Oxford, Rio de Janeiro, Sheffield, San Francisco, San Jose, Sydney, Tallinn, Vienna, & Zurich. A successful entrepreneur with a previous exit, he’s the former owner of TV App Market & The Hackfest which were acquired in 2013. Kastelein is a Canadian (Dutch/Irish/English/Métis) whose writing career has ranged from the Canadian Native Press (Arctic) to the Caribbean & Europe. He's written occasionally for Wired Insights, Guardian & Virgin.com & his work & ideas have been translated into Dutch, Greek, Polish, German & French. In his early 20s, Kastelein sailed around the world & wrote, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Seas'​ on how to travel by hitching rides on yachts in 1989. Surviving on the open ocean... It made him who he is today.