“Lars Duursma is a highly-visible expert on rhetoric and persuasion, appearing often on tv and radio shows. The energetic entrepreneur has leveraged his skills into a thriving consultancy that teaches politicians and corporate leaders how to communicate better.”

Commencement Address at Erasmus University

International keynote speaker

As an award-winning entrepreneur and former world debating champion, Lars Duursma knows how to truly engage and inspire people — both on stage and online. He is an expert on story telling, framing and persuasive communication.

Moderator / facilitator

At events and conferences throughout Europe, Lars Duursma has moderated debates with 1.000+ participants — getting everyone involved. He’s also an expert on Microsoft Teams, teaching organisations — including Microsoft — on how to organise effective and engaging online meetings.

Executive coach

Lars Duursma helps leaders across the globe to close big deals, launch successful initiatives and inspire their people to act with conviction. His clients include CEOs, political leaders and EU Commissioners.

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About Lars Duursma

“People will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
—Maya Angelou

A leading expert in persuasive communication, Lars Duursma has built a solid reputation as a keynote speaker and moderator at events and conferences throughout Europe. As an award-winning entrepreneur and former world debating champion, he knows how to truly engage and inspire people. Lars has coached hundreds of CEO’s, political leaders and TED speakers in preparation for career-defining moments.

For over a decade, Lars has helped leaders across the globe to close big deals, launch successful initiatives and inspire their people to act with conviction. As an international keynote speaker, he knows how to ‘wow’ his audiences with his trademark mix of education, inspiration and entertainment, teaching people how to be at their most persuasive when it truly matters.

As a volunteer for the Barack Obama presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012, Lars gained valuable insights which have helped him to translate the secrets behind the American president’s success into a set of skills that anyone can master.

Check out his CV

  • International keynote speaker

    At events and conferences throughout Europe, Lars Duursma gives keynote presentations about persuasive communication. He also moderates refreshing and thought-provoking debates.

  • World debating champion

    For many years, Lars Duursma competed in prestigious debating competitions around the globe. After winning two European titles, in 2006 he became a world debating champion (ESL).

  • Award-winning entrepreneur

    Lars is founder of Debatrix, a thriving consultancy that helps international leaders to persuade and inspire. BusinessWeek magazine praised him as one of Europe’s most promising entrepreneurs.

  • Persuasion & presentation expert

    Lars Duursma published over 400+ articles on persuasive communication and regularly appears on radio and tv to analyze important speeches, presentations and political debates.

What others say about Lars Duursma

I am working as the Head of Communication for the corporate learning department of the European Commission in Brussels. Our learning community comprises 30.000 colleagues from 28 different nationalities and very good academic/professional background. Our staff is very knowledgeable and skilled, yet often the Commission is criticized as not being able to connect with citizens and other stakeholders. We have hence often worked with many communication consultants.

But the impact has never been greater than with Lars Duursma who has prepped many colleagues including Senior managers to understand their audience, their needs and how to adjust  their message so that one can inform and inspire. I have witnessed real transformations in the delivery styles of colleagues preparing talks for big corporate events with courses such as ‘TED like talks’, ‘communicate and inspire’ and ‘influencing and advocacy skills’. The feedback in both events (with audiences of more than 1000 people) was excellent, Lars being rated in both cases as best speaker.

Since then I have been approached by various services and institutions to give his contact details. I can recommend him without the slightest doubt for anyone looking for someone to transform the way an organization communicates: it works and it is immediately applicable!

I have experienced the impact of a keynote session by Lars Duursma for the first time at a Randstad top 70 Finance leaders gathering I organized. Audience: CFO’s from around the globe. Theme: how to convince your (internal) clients. Awarded a 9,2 out of 10 score, the highest of the event! As some participants summarized: ‘very effective and memorable’, ‘premium profile and rare experience’, ‘fired up and ready to go’.

Since then, I have involved his organization for a variety of learning goals and settings in smaller and larger audiences, such as ‘pitching your value’, ‘truly listening’, and ‘negotiation skills’. Down to earth, actionable and significant expertise. Great pleasure to do business with Lars Duursma, and fun to work with!

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