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Saturday, January 8, 2011

Forgotten Renaissance - TEDxLusaka

About six months ago, I was sitting in a friend's living room discussing various development related issues when the conversation turned to ideas and thinkers etc. Eventually, we moved on to talk about TED, an organisation I thought I had never heard of. But, by the end of the evening, we had watched several of his favourite TED talks and discussed some of the ideas put forth. It was at this point that I realised the video of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie giving a talk on The Danger of a Single Story was actually a TED talk. I made a point to learn more about TED and went on their website to read up about it and download some more of the talks.

It was inevitable that the idea of organising our own TED conference in Lusaka would soon rear its head. Fast forward to January 2011 and we are about 8 weeks away from TEDxLusaka to be held on Friday, 4th March 2011 at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre under the theme, Forgotten Renaissance.

About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

In 2009, TED created TEDx, 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 connections. Our TEDxLusaka event is not organized by TED Conferences, but is operated under a license from TED.


About TEDxLusaka
TEDxLusaka is being held under the theme ‘Forgotten Renaissaince’. The objective of TEDx Lusaka is to:
1.    Inspire people to change and to know what to change in their lives, communities and spheres of influence
2.    We want our TEDx Lusaka event to be: Entertaining, innovating, interesting and propose solutions
3.    TEDx Lusaka will bring about paradigm shifts. Participants should discover something new about themselves and their environment.
4.    TEDx Lusaka moves beyond emotions or motivational talk, but will change how individuals perceive their future in Zambia and their role as professionals who have the power to change our future.
5.    TEDx Lusaka will ultimately bring people together to promote ideas worth sharing

Target Audience
We especially want a select group of young professionals that are committed to being change agents.

Speakers
Our speakers come from the fields of leadership, social development and science:
·         Martin Kalungu-Banda
·         Sara Longwe
·         Kazhila Chinsembu

More detailed information on can be found on the TEDxLusaka website.

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