2023 is dead. Long live 2024.

What a year. If it really would be the case that 12 simple chimes from 12/31 to 1/1 could make a real difference, then I would be truly happy that we can finally start 2024 all together.

In between of all the "look what I accomplished" posts from proud people, and congratulations for that, I want to share some remarks from the past year. Just to bring these to your attention, to hopefully start a thought process.

I have seen quite a few people in my LinkedIn network struggle this year, both people with ‘large’ and ‘modest’ careers, both on the professional stage and backstage in their private lives. The struggle is real. This year I had to worry too much about people I love, up close or from a distance, and that has come at the expense of an incredible amount of energy. Energy that I sometimes did not have, as a single mother of a child who is having difficulty at school, with a full-time job as a self-employed person in a country with unprecedentedly heavy processes and taxes and where it is becoming almost unaffordable as a 'single' to have somewhat of a decent life. And I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones. Some people have put a ridiculous amount of unnecessary pressure on me, out of insecurity or some other reason that was not my doing. I'm not complaining. I just sigh on a regular basis. Deeply. And the farmer, he plowed on. #farmersdaughter

I consider my LinkedIn network as a cellar full of promising and recognized class wines, and I hope that everyone can find support and comfort in one’s own social fabric. This year I invested a lot of my free time in entrepreneurs, hoping to catapult them further in live, without receiving any recognition for it. And that's okay. We are (all) going to make it / #wagmi

The use of modern hieroglyphs in the form of emoticons in all kinds of social media posts sometimes gets on my nerves. If you want to add color, structure and variety to your posts, ask a designer to create a solid concept. The creativity of those people has more impact than emoticons. I hope that B2B companies in particular take this advice to heart, after all, you only have one professional digital reputation.

#Sustainability. It's something I've fully immersed myself in over the past few months, and something I hope other people will start doing as well. Getting to the heart of the matter feels like cutting through a prickly forest with a sword, Sleeping Beauty style, but it is definitely worth it. If you book a hotel room, you are supposed to leave it relatively tidy, or at least in a condition where a maximum of one person will need a maximum of half an hour to clean up your shizzle. Planet Earth is my hotel room, hopefully for a while more.

Using #artificialIntelligence is like using make-up: less is more, too much is too much, and it is very noticeable when it is fake. Technology should improve and strengthen, not weaken or undermine. While on that note: I'm also tired of the futuristic spacey purple and pink images of metaverses, etc. An image says more than 1000 words, but these images reduce an entire universe to bots.

Beware of people who were "blockchain evangelist", "metaverse evangelist" and "AI evangelist" respectively 3, 2 and 1 year ago.

Women in the technology sector do not have it easy, Dewi Van De Vyver regularly writes about this, but neither do men. I noticed this here and there during my trip with Agoria to Atlanta and Miami a few weeks ago. Peter De Paepe , Maka De Lameillieure , Mario Schraepen , Kurt Callewaert , etc. have written good reports about this mission on LinkedIn. I have been able to extend my professional wine cellar again with many interesting Belgian entrepreneurs.

Now that I have been wandering around the blockchain space for 10 years, I am happy to see that more and more attention is starting to grow to this technology, but I sometimes get so tired of explaining that this technology is so much more than Bitcoin, NFTs of monkeys and quick cash grabbing. The real traceability, exchange and verification of all valuable data, regardless of whether it is human or machine made, will be done by blockchain, with or without trusted 3rd parties, who will have a different role in the entire value chain. I will continue to spread that message. I just have to dare to speak my voice out loud a little more, but I will work on that in 2024, by starting - yet another - podcast. To be continued.

My wish for everyone is good health, both physically and mentally. More honesty and openness, less every man for himself. More long-term thinking, less disposal of both of things and people. We are all part of the same ecosystem. More empathy for each other, less urge for perfection and control. Self-reflection and critical thinking can be so incredibly enriching.

If someone wants or can run faster than you, let them, and if you feel like it, encourage them. You enjoy your own walk through life.