Marco te Brömmelstroet is Speaking at DDD Europe 2027

Posted on 2026-10-01 - 2 minute read

With the opening of our very early bird, we are happy to announce our first speaker Marco te Brömmelstroet for DDD Europe 2027. Marco holds the chair of Urban Mobility Futures at the University of Amsterdam. He is also the academic director of the Lab of Thought.

His talk asks a deceptively simple question. Why was John Lennon in bed with a bicycle?

The Talk: Why was John Lennon in bed with a bicycle?

In 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono travelled the world on their honeymoon. They used it to protest for world peace, with their famous bed-ins. In Amsterdam, one of the iconic pictures shows the newlyweds in bed with a white-painted, rickety Dutch bicycle.

Why was that bicycle in bed with them? And why does it matter when we think about systems and transformative change today?

We will not spoil the answer. It is a story that starts with a photograph and ends up somewhere much bigger.

Why This Matters

Marco's research and teaching looks at the values, worldviews, and assumptions that shape the systems we live in. His focus is our streets. Streets look like fixed infrastructure, but they are the result of choices, and those choices rest on ideas we rarely question.

Software is no different. Every model we build carries assumptions about what matters and who it is for. Changing a system starts with seeing those assumptions clearly.

That is why we welcome Marco on our stage. DDD Europe is returning to Amsterdam in 2027, so it feels fitting to announce the first speaker with a talk rooted in the city's most famous way of getting around.

Grab your ticket at and join us in Amsterdam.