"Become everything you can be" : Philippe Laurent at TEDxEMLYON

Founder of PROJECT COACHING Associés, Philippe Laurent was born in Lyon in 1963. As he was 19, he decided to start a monastic life. At the same time, he studied philosophy at the St Jean School of Lyon. Fascinated by China, he left France in 1987 when he was 24 to live in Taiwan during 1 year during which he learnt mandarin. Shortly afterwards, he was hired by the ALSTOM Transport company, went back to France to work in the industry. Nonetheless, he kept in mind his strong wish to work in China and after ten years working for ALSTOM, he was transferred there where he worked during five years developing a subway project in Shanghai. After being certified by the Dôjô coaching school from Paris, Philippe Laurent set up a coaching project dealing with happiness at work. Currently he is used to deliver lectures, to teach and to advise companies on this subject.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)