Posts Tagged ‘session 3 of TEDxBeirut’
Session 3 of TEDxBeirut: Any follow-up session to wrap it up?
Note: You may read detailed info on 8 speakers on this post https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/mostly-a-hoax-from-limitation-to-inspiration-slogan-of-tedxbeirut/
You would assume that the third session, after lunch and no siesta, is usually doomed to be more on the dosing side, regardless of how inspirational a speaker is. Sort of the speaker must learn clowning to attracting attention first… The auditorium was still packed and buzzing.
Najat Rizk spoke at 2:50. (Read link for further details) The story is how Najat turned from “Bent el Ashrafyye” (Christian East Beirut) to an open-minded person and investigated the Moslem Shia of Dahieh, headquarter of Hezbollah. She entered the lion’s den and had the guts to visit all regions and cultures by breaking through stereotypes and delving into the other side fo the fence.
Halim Madi took the stage at 3 pm. Halim examines the internet to feel what are the needs and wants of the world community and discover trends. We are into web 3.0 where you start searching internet for medical information before you visit a physician. We have more confidence in the internet “intelligence pieces” and what it disseminate in knowledge than textbook materials…Halim explained the process of how the Flying Spaghetti Monster God got so popular. A single person has now the power to trigger changes.
Hala Fadel spoke at 3:13. (Read link for further details). In order to have a successful enterprise, she commended: “Work like a slave, lead like a king, and create like a god”.
Andrew Bossone appeared at 3:30. He said that a wolf trust his companion in the group, and thus, he has no fear, and can howl to the moon as long and as hard he wishes. He participated with the Egyptian mass upheaval on Jan. 23 in Tahrir Square. Andrew gave the butterfly example for drastic transformation: At its second stage before turning to a butterfly, it just dangle from a branch and is an easy prey to all kinds of danger.
Andrew likes to predispose friends to noticing changes in their life. For example, he tells a person: “Expect to see a butterfly soon”. Obviously, butterflies are everywhere, but we fail to see them, unless we are forwarned to expect their existence soon in our life…
Hassan Aziz spoke at 3:43. Let us not take shadows for granted: We used to be fascinated by shadows in our early years. I failed to note down this speech: I was outside for an urgent need.
Arne Dietrich expounded on the theory that what people claim as “higher level consciousness” is in fact a far reduced level of consciousness. In a transcendental phase, the brain fails to compute properly and differentiate your body from the environment. This state of merging with the surrounding and becoming ONE with the universe is a state of brain failure. The world is happening in your own mind, an onion of different layers of consciousness..
Ziad AbiChaker spoke at 4:08. (Read link for details). He shared his enthusiastic hate-love story with waste and garbage. That guy is the recycling monster in Lebanon, and I’m not quite done with him. Stay tuned for updates from his side as well..
The event practically was wrapped up at 4:23. Tania Saleh was slotted to sing, but she could not deliver at last-minute invitation.
William Choukeir and Patricia Zoghaib took the stage and introduced the volunteers, and the speakers joined to a round of applause. Huge thanks and appreciation to TEDxBeirut team from a grateful audience to this monster organization that required 9 months in preparation.
I met with speaker Ziad AbiChaker and I learned that the Hariri clan, monopolizing the waste disposal contracts in the last 20 years, has tried to buy him out for $5 million. I also learned that, in order to getting rid of small insects and flies in the composted waste, all you have to do is using the water of diluted Mexican hot pepper…
We were supposed to have cocktail drinks to celebrate the big event: It never happened!
All TED talks will be posted online!
Note 1: In the first session, TEDx displayed the speech of Kankwamba in one of TED events. This African young guy from a remote and poor village put together a functional windmill from whatever material he could gather around the village. This installation generated enough electricity to transfer water, and for the neighbors to recharge their cellular phone…I guess words of cell calls led Kankwamba to being selected a TED speaker. Sort of TED company needed to diversify the range of limitations and exotism…? Most probably, TEDxBeirut realized that the slogan “From Limitation…” was to be desired and speakers’ limitations were lacking in the selection process. Consequently, TEDxBeirut was implicitly extending apology?
Note 2: Miscellaneous posted on Sept. 25, underTEDxBeirut was yesterday and it was amazing
(With slight editing to abridge the post) “In the days leading to the event, I had wondered if the event would be worth an entire day. I walked into the theater thinking that I was one of the first to walk in after all the ushers were saying that people should start going in. Boy was I wrong! The theater was packed up and I barely found a place in the first session (in later sessions I opted for a seat on the stairs for it felt more natural). 685 people were sitting there waiting for the event.
The stage looked amazing: Simply decoration of various luminescent boxes (in the form of file boxes?) in an elegant testimonial to what was about to begin. Our host Sara was well rehearsed and so were all of our speakers. The talks alone were not the cause for success. The success came from the well-timed breaks, allowing people to mingle and to bring forth discussions, to linger in conversation, as speaker Mahomoud Natout had so hoped.
And to my surprise and happiness those discussions during the breaks were not about people selling their products or their companies, it was about knowing other individuals in such a short span. But the greatest testimonial for the event’s spirit and success came from the audience.
During the sessions, you would be hard pressed to hear side conversations taking place. People were listening, and dare I say reflecting. More importantly, after lunch, I came back to a theater that was still packed. You might not grasp the significance of this immediately, but in Lebanon (or elsewhere) I have yet to see a little less than 700 people stay the whole day for conference.
Yes, yesterday’s TEDxBeirut event was well worth the day and much more. It was worth it thanks to the hard work invested by the TEDxBeirut team who volunteered to make such a great event, and to the speakers who volunteered their stories. To both of you a great thank you for the wonderful even you did. As for me, I think speaker ‘Arne Dietrich’ put it best when he said that “It was the most fun he had in a single day in Beirut”. Do visite TEDxBeirut“.
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