Blog - Wednesday 09 April

Employee Spotlight: Sabine Oskamp-Dubbeldeman

Meet Sabine Oskamp-Dubbeldeman, Community Strategist at KickstartAI. From tourism management to real estate to tech community building, Sabine brings diverse experience in connecting people across industries and cultures.

Let's dive into her journey and learn how she's helping build the Netherlands' most engaged AI community.

Hi Sabine, what's your role at KickstartAI?

I'm the Community Strategist at KickstartAI. My focus is to make sure our community remains a go-to hub for AI experts and data scientists. I create and manage our community program. Each month we curate deep dives into themes, such as Healthcare x AI , Autonomous Systems x AI, or AI x Smart Cities. We tie it all together with experiences and content: meetups, guest blogs, workshops, podcasts, and other community initiatives focused on that theme. I also manage our Slack channel and develop collaboration opportunities with other AI communities to create synergies and encourage knowledge sharing.

Can you tell us about your journey to community building?

I studied tourism management. Yes, you heard that right. Then I worked in many different fields — from a brief career as a flight attendant to living abroad and working in sales. I spent about 12 years in real estate. These experiences helped me figure out my strengths and what I enjoyed. Along the way, I realized how much I love connecting people and working with different nationalities and working on innovation.

That's what led me to community building. It was at Spaces, the co-working brand, where I really saw the power of community. Not as a buzzword, but as a strategy. Later at TNW Spaces, a hub for tech companies, I found myself surrounded by founders and tech builders, and I loved the energy. That’s also when I realized AI was really starting to take off, with early adopters already experimenting and building cool stuff. So when KickstartAI came across my path, it felt like a natural next step.

What drives you in your work?

It's about seeing the impact of connecting people. I love seeing new collaborations emerge from people we've connected. One of the best parts of my job is when someone messages me weeks after an event to say, “I met X at your meetup, and now we’re launching a pilot project together.” Or when someone who told me, “I’m an introvert, I’ll just observe,” ends up presenting on stage at one of our events months later. It's those moments that start small and grow into something impactful that make my work so rewarding.

What unique challenges come with building an AI community?

One big challenge is that the AI ecosystem in the Netherlands is still fragmented. We've got brilliant minds in academia, sharp talent in startups, and deep expertise in corporates, but often they’re not talking to each other enough.

Also, the personalities in this field are different. Coming from a startup-heavy environment, I was used to working with founders who were always ready to pitch their next big idea. At KickstartAI, I collaborate more with data scientists, engineers, and researchers, and they tend to be a bit more reserved.

So part of my role is keeping engagement high while scaling, ensuring deep, quality connections instead of just networking.

What do you enjoy most about working at KickstartAI?

I work with an incredibly driven and smart team with a winning mentality. Everybody has this motivation like, "let's go!" There's a lot of space to take initiative — to come up with an idea and execute it. And that inspires me to bring out the best in myself. What's also unique is the collaboration between engineers and the community team. Together, we achieve things that we couldn't do alone.

The AI discussions in the office are also fascinating. You have to imagine Sander and all the engineers; their conversations about AI go super deep. And they often lead to real things.

For example, our podcast. There was a certain moment that we said, "Why don't we just start a podcast and record this?" Thanks to these discussions, plus attending conferences and meetups, I'm constantly learning and developing myself.

How does your work impact the AI industry in the Netherlands?

We’re working to connect the ecosystem through every event and connection.

Our goal isn't just to be the biggest AI community, but to be the most engaged. We collaborate with niche communities like PyData to make sure knowledge flows both ways. And we're working to build connections across the whole country, not just the Randstad. That’s why we’ve made it a priority to go to cities like Groningen, Maastricht, and soon Den Bosch. Talent and innovation are everywhere, not just in Amsterdam.

One of our main goals is keeping Dutch AI experts in the country. Often when someone graduates, they get a nice job offer from the US. Our goal is to make the Netherlands feel like the place to be for AI experts. Not just a place of potential, but that it's accelerating, and there is a real community behind it.

What AI tools do you use most in your daily work?

I use AI mostly for summarising meetings and as a brainstorming partner. I use Claude and ChatGPT for this — I prefer Claude as it feels more precise and natural. Lately, we've started using Google Gemini because it integrates well with Google Workspace, which makes my workflows more efficient. Outside of work, I enjoy using OpenArt to create AI art pieces.

What advice would you give to people interested in working in AI?

You don’t have to be a coder to contribute to the AI movement. There’s a real need for communicators, ethicists, product thinkers, and yes, community builders. I'm the perfect example that AI is accessible to people from all kinds of backgrounds. My advice is to first set a clear goal for yourself — define what you want to achieve in the field. And then: get curious. Join communities. Talk to people. Ask dumb questions (they’re not dumb). Listen to podcasts, go to meetups, hang around GitHub or join Discords. Most of the people building the future are surprisingly accessible.