Evelien Acun-Roos
Speaker
Evelien is a passionate advocate for Agile and lifelong learning. As a Professional Knowledge Sharer at Xebia Academy, she brings over 14 years of hands-on experience in Agile environments, having fulfilled roles such as Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Agile Trainer at organizations including Essent, Rabobank, Philips, and Unilever.
She is a Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) with Scrum.org, a certified Training from the Back of the Room (TBR) Trainer, and a driving force behind engaging, brain-based learning experiences. Whether in the classroom or online, Evelien designs and delivers training sessions that are practical, energetic, and grounded in real-world challenges.
Beyond training, she contributes to the Agile community as a keynote speaker, conference presenter, and content creator. She co-developed impactful learning tools like the Road2Mastery, the Scrum Master Playbook, and the Virtual Edition of Training from the Back of the Room (TBR-VE). Her workshops are infused with Sharon Bowman’s brain science principles and structured around the BEARS model to ensure learning sticks.
Her mission is to create learning experiences and team environments where trust can grow, brains light up, and Scrum comes to life – by tapping into brain-based principles, the power of facilitation, and the happy chemicals that drive motivation and connection.
Workshop topic:
Using neuroscience in your Agile Events to make them more engaging
Language: English 
Inspired by Sharon Bowmans’ Training From the Back of the Room’s 6 trumps, this session will explore how Brain Science can keep Scrum Events live, active, and worthwhile.
To get the most out of the Scrum Events, I tried a lot of things. I experimented with formats and setups, did Facilitator training, and looked for interesting games and Sprint Retrospective formats. But I never looked further than that – until I did the Training From the Back of the Room and was intrigued by how the brain works in a training and learning setting.
Learning more about the human brain, I figured out that one could also use Brain Science to keep Scrum Events alive and worthwhile.
For example, research shows that our brain ‘disconnects’ after 10 minutes when nothing changes. In a training setting, you would use this knowledge to change the setting regularly or to make short exercises or chunks of information. In a Scrum event, you could also use this knowledge.
How?
That’s what we will explore during this session. In this session, you will learn about neuroscience and how to use it to activate your brain and make your Scrum Events alive and active. Bring your Brain!