TRUST THE SIGNAL,
NOT THE NOISE.
Wim Vermeulen
Social Norms Researcher | Strategist | Author | Filmmaker
How businesses navigate a world of silent majorities, loud minorities, political polarisation and planetary urgency.
FEATURED IN
KEYNOTE PROGRAM
Trust the Signal, Not the Noise
Keynotes and workshops with Wim Vermeulen
Ask what drives our future and you will hear technology or policy. Indeed, technology changes what is possible. Policy changes what is mandatory. But social norms decide what is tolerable. Tolerability is the gate. Every policy, technology, product innovation, communication program, or political program must pass through it before it produces lasting change.
The gate is dynamic, and never more so than today, because change now moves on every front at once: economic, financial, geopolitical, and technological. Uncertainty follows. And uncertainty keeps shifting what people find tolerable and what not.
So how do you read the room? In a world where the majority stays silent, the loud minority sets the tone, and AI models repeat that minority until the echo sounds like a majority. Most leaders read the echo. They mistake it for the signal. They get the room wrong.
The result is campaigns that speak to no one. Reforms that stall. Trust that drains before anyone notices. Product launches that fail.
In the keynotes, I separate the signal from the noise. You will learn why the gate of tolerability is dynamic, how it works, how to know what can pass through it, and what happens when you fail.
The workshops go one step further. We zoom in on the noise in your market, your category, your organisation, and learn how to read the signal and what it means for your strategic and implementation plans.
(Every keynote and workshops is based on data from the 2027 European Social Norms Survey, a research project of myself and Prof. Dr. Verleye carried out with Ghent University).
KEYNOTE
The new operating system
The norm system is the operating system of society. Every strategy, product and policy is an app that runs on it.
Technology changes what is possible. Policy changes what is mandatory. Norms change what is tolerable. Every product, law and campaign must pass the gate of what people tolerate before it lasts.
Our social norm system is the operating system of our society. Nobody owns it. Everybody writes code for it. Break its rules and the app crashes, however brilliant the code. Musk kept building the same cars, and Europe stopped finding his brand tolerable. De Beers taught us a diamond is forever, then a lab grew the same stone. This keynote helps you tell signal from noise, and how to test any move before you make it.
KEYNOTE
Trust the machines?
In an uncertain world your reputation is your first line of defence, and the machines are now writing it
When everything shifts at once, reputation is your first line of defence. And reputation rests on trust. What is changing is where that trust is now won or lost. People no longer meet your brand first. A machine meets it for them. They ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot what to buy, and the model answers in a line. If it repeats an old story, mistakes what you stand for, or leaves you out, it wears down trust before you speak. You need to know how the machines talk about you and how to measure that.
KEYNOTE
Reading
the room correctly
Is today more difficult than we think.
Leaders have always read the room. They felt what people would accept and what they would refuse. That instinct is failing now. Change comes too fast and on too many fronts at once: economic, financial, geopolitical, technological. Uncertainty hardens people. They take sides. A loud minority grows louder until it sounds like everyone, and the majority goes quiet. A silent majority is one you cannot hear, so you read the room wrong. Across eight countries and 12,000 people, Wim’s research finds private belief beating perceived belief in 99 of 100 cases. He shows you how to read it again.
ABOUT ME
Wim is an award-winning strategist, author and filmmaker, and a partner at Bubka, and a guest lecturer at Vlerick Business School and has held leadership roles in London, New York, and Moscow.
His work has earned wide recognition, including the Silver Marketing Leadership Award (2023) and AMMA’s research award for Bubka’s NCS framework. In 2024 Bubka was named Agency of the Year in the Positive Impact category. He is also a sought-after keynote speaker at events such as the Sustainable Brands Summit.
He writes the LinkedIn newsletter Trust the Signal, Not the Noise, and speaks in English, Dutch and French. He holds master’s degrees in political science and communication science from Ghent University, with executive studies at Cambridge, Oxford and London Business School.
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Wim Vermeulen is the greatest authority on the business case for sustainability. His strategic thinking is massively insightful, inspiring, and 100% necessary. If you want to understand how to develop competitive advantage in the age of sustainability, just listen.
Wim Vermeulen is a captivating speaker who instantly engages any audience. He reads the room with precision, delivers with warmth and confidence, and pairs striking visuals with deep expertise in sustainability, leaving listeners inspired, compelled, and energized.
Wim delivers inspiring keynotes to our executive audiences. Whether addressing students or seasoned sustainability professionals, he captivates with a compelling narrative, shared with enthusiasm and conviction, illustrated by real-world examples and grounded in solid research and data.
Wim understands how brands are built and uses that insight to guide ecopreneurs toward credible, sustainable growth.
His keynotes inspire purposeful communication that earns trust and drives impact.
BOOKS
Wim Vermeulen’s books collectively paint a compelling vision for businesses in a world undergoing a profound transition.
They reveal how credibility, data, and responsibility are key to driving growth and earning trust in a time of climate and social challenges.
De Duurzame Belg examines how Belgians see sustainability and what they expect from brands, while Net Credibility Score offers a practical, data-driven framework for building credibility in responsible communication.
Speak Up Now! challenges marketers to lead with integrity in the climate crisis, and Marketing for the Mad (Wo)Men of Tomorrow underscores the power of brands to drive positive change.
His next book The Future in Us will be published in 2027.
DOCU & PODCASTS
The Decade of Action
The Decade of Action is a documentary on why businesses need to put sustainability at the top of the corporate agenda, featuring Paul Polman (ex-CEO Unilever), Frans Timmermans, Pia Heidenmark Cook (Ikea), Prof. Dr. Johan Rockström, Ilham Kadri (CEO Solvay), Ryan Gellert (CEO Patagonia) and others. Enjoy watching!
We, The Hopeful
The project We, The Hopeful creates short films to help scientists get their transition messages across.
ACADEMIC RESEARCH
The 2027 European Social Norms Survey is a study of the European social norm system. Twelve thousand Europeans in eight countries, from south to north, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, the UK, Germany, Poland and Denmark, were presented with 64 social norms.
We measured their responses across five domains: democracy and society, economic priorities, corporate responsibility, ecological pressure and planetary boundaries, and technology and the digital society. To those we added 23 product and service categories.
This large-scale survey was funded by Ghent University as project BOF.BAF.2024.0982.01, with Prof. Dr. Gino Verleye as research methodologist. The research will be published in 2027 together with two academic papers one on the shift in ecological norms, and one on norms in the context of democracy.
CONTACT & BOOKING
To book Wim in Belgium, fill in the form below.
For bookings in the rest of Europe, please go to Speakers Academy