“What pushed me was to improve the society I’m living in, because I think that to give the exposure that TED gives to the individuals who are living in Dubai and the UAE, it improves the overall quality of the community” – Giorgio Ungania (curator of TEDxDubai)
TEDx by definition was created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading”.
The TEDx program is actually designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level – where x=independently organized TED event.
Recently, I was fortunate enough to have a sit down with Giorgio Ungania, curator of TEDxDubai, who along with James Piecowye co-created the event in 2009.
Giorgio also mentors many of the TEDx conferences in the region (TEDxAjman, TEDxAlAin, TEDxAUS), was a speaker at TEDxMuscat, a TEDYou speaker at TEDGlobal 2010 and TED Active 2011.
If that’s not enough, he is currently working on the production of TEDxTehran|Kish 2011 and the upcoming TEDxDubai 2011.
At each annual conference, Giorgio attempts to build on the previous by introducing something new.
This year’s TEDxDubai will include 3 major innovations
1) Three speakers will be selected by the community:
There will be a few mini events where anyone can pitch their “Talk” ideas. The videos of these pitches will be placed online where everyone can vote on their favourites. The top 3 will receive the honour of speaking at TEDxDubai 2011.
2) Participate in (TED Prize winner) JR’s InsideOut project:
With a wish to “Use art to turn the world inside out”, JR (a semi-anonymous French street artist, uses his camera to show the world its true face, by pasting photos of the human face across massive canvases ) has encouraged others to join his initiative. TEDxDubai will be participating in JR’s InsideOut project. To learn more, check out JR’s TED talk
3) Innovation with sponsoring partners:
Giorgio will be giving sponsors an opportunity to create their own mini TEDx lounges, where attendees can watch the event live, outside of the main theatre. Since the theatre (inside) is controlled acoustically due to live streaming, the main audience doesn’t have the chance to talk to the people around them and share their views. These mini lounges will allow them to do so, in turn adding a new dimension to the event’s experience.
Get Your Invite & Stay Connected
Fair warning for anyone wanting to attend, in order to participate in the event you need to receive an invite. This is to ensure that everyone attending shares in the common vision of “Ideas worth spreading”.
That being said however, the process to sign up is simple – when registration opens, head on over to the TEDxDubai website and fill out the standard form about yourself.
My advice would be to follow TEDxDubai on Twitter or join them on Facebook to keep a pulse of what’s happening in the TEDxDubai community and to stay aware of opportunities to participate.
What Giorgio has done for TED in the Arabian region is phenomenal
Considered by everyone to be mission impossible, not only has he brought TEDx to the Middle East on a massive scale, but he’s also made it possible for others to do so themselves.
Personally I encourage everyone to attend atleast one TEDx event in their lifetime. You’ll have the chance to refresh your perspective, connect with thoughtful individuals and will simply be inspired.
I was fortunate enough to attend last year’s TEDxDubai 2010, which quite literally “blew my mind” by its sheer size and the enthusiasm around it, and am certainly looking forward to this year’s event - “the beauty of small things”.
To give you an idea of what to expect, check out the amazing opening sequence (that won two gold awards at the recent Promax Arabia awards for best Opening Sequence and best Audio) from last year’s event – “REBOOT” (created by Andrea from METAphrenie), followed by people’s reactions of the event.
If you’re curious and would like to learn more about TED the organization, check out my article on our other site The Socially Conscious Blog - Inspirational Talks from TED
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