Jan-Jaap In der Maur

Jan-Jaap (Jay-Jay to friends and participants) In der Maur has been moderating international events for 25 years and has trained & coached close to 5000 people worldwide in the past 15 years.

He is known for introducing a new way of moderation to stages around the globe: truly interactive, changing meetings & events from mainly speaker-driven to more participant-centric.
Jay-Jay was the founder of the first agency, fully dedicated to the art of the profession: Masters in Moderation. After stepping down in 2025, he is now fully dedicated to his role as mentor & coach to moderators, MC’s and meeting designers.

Q1: For which meeting would you like to design the program?

Any meeting where people find new perspectives, by exploring options, listening to each other & to themselves.

Q2: What was your proudest moment as a meeting designer or trainer?

Seeing people grow, take next steps and change worn-out habits. Both as a moderator and as a moderator-mentor/-coach, this makes my heart sing.

And the more ego-centric answer: many moments that I’ve found that moderator principles I’ve introduced have now become mainstream.

Q3: What is something most people don’t know about you?

I’m probably the most introverted MC in the world. And crazy enough, the best moderators in general are the ones not full-out extroverted.

A great moderator/MC is not on stage because of the spotlights. She/he is there because of the urge to help make things better and to connect people.

I’ve always been the one who found a way to mean something to others, without being in the centre of the group: goalkeeper in my football team, the one being the BBQ at garden parties, the moderator at conferences.

Q4: Poor meetings are the cause of what, exactly?

So many opportunities are lost. Moments that could have made a difference, but did nothing more than upset, frustrate and bore people.

They are the cause of the standard answer to the question ‘how was your day’: ‘Ugggghhhhhrrrrr, I ran from one meeting to the other’.

Q5: Who is the person you learned the most from?

My autistic son, who taught me to take everyone as they are, and to love everybody for who they are.

He showed me that every contribution — to conversation, gatherings and life in general — has value, if you’re willing to see it.

Q6: Describe a meeting during which (or after which) you witnessed a profound change.

In a preparatory meeting for an upcoming event, I challenged everything they had been doing for over 10 years. At some point, the (potential) client said: ‘Can I make a quick call’?

He got on the phone with his event manager and said: ‘Three things… cancel the venue, cancel the keynote. And hold the invite for another week, because we’ve been inviting the wrong people so far’.

The next event was something completely new, and brought real change for the first time.

Where Jay-Jay has planted seeds of change

MC-Moderation trainings and personal coachings to a wide variety of corporate and governmental organisations and individuals (close to 5000 people in total). To name a few:

European Union
Eurocities
European Central Bank
Bolt
Best Event Awards
Several Dutch ministries and cities
ABN AMRO Bank
Deloitte
Med-El
Dubai Chamber of Commerce