By: Lloyd M’bwana
In a bid to enhance innovative talk in the areas of technology, entertainment and design daubed as TEDx for the country’s social-economic transformation, mHub is gearing to host live screening for sharing insights and ideas.
TED which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less) and its being organized for the third time since 2013.
TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages.
In a press statement made available to The Maravi Post on over the weekend, the flagship TED Conference which is held annually on the North American West Coast and therefore this year it’s taking place from the 15th to the 19th of February in Vancouver, Canada.
The breadth of content includes science, business, the arts, technology and global issues. Eighteen-minute talks are interspersed with shorter presentations, including music, performances and comedy.
“TEDx Lilongwe organizers alongside mHub have organized a live screening of the TED talks on the 16th and 17th of February at mHub offices. The office is located inside Corporate Mall along the Paul Kagame Highway. This is a free event, starting from 18:30 and aims at allowing people to open their minds to ideas that are being developed all over the world.
“TED is all about sharing ideas; we hope you’ll join us to hear from some of the world’s most inspiring minds and to share your ideas and dreams for the future. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.
TEDxLilongwe has organized TEDx talks for two conservative years and is providing a platform for people to view the international TED talks of this year which has the theme of “Dream”, says John Cass, TEDxLilongwe organizer.
Echoing on the same, Vincent Kumwenda, Community Manager for mHub, observed that TEDxLilongwe brings ideas, theatre, thinkers, innovators and enjoyment to the region with some of the country’s most interesting presenters taking the stage to deliver their “ideas worth spreading.
“mHub is Malawi’s first technology hub; it is an incubator for technology startups with a special focus on building young technology entrepreneurs through training, skills development and mentorship. With similar goals, TEDxLilongwe and mHub are working together to try and ensure that Malawian ideas are given an opportunity to grow locally and internationally.
“mHub is proud to host the TED live streaming and associated with the quest to share ideas for global development. As an innovation hub we are happy that some of the speakers for this year’s event are using technology to solve various community challenges. We look forward to the networking and interactions that will follow this live streaming”, delighted Kumwenda.
At TED, the world’s leading thinkers and doers are asked to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Benoit Mandelbrot, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
TED has created a program called TEDx and TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxLilongwe, where x = independently organized TED event.
Malawi hosted the first ever the TEDxLilongwe, Malawi’s first ever on 25th May 2013 at Crossroads which packed an auditorium whereby 13 inspiring individuals share their ideas and experiences while the second TEDx event took place on 25th November 2014 at Crossroads Auditorium and later another the first ever TEDxYouth event in Malawi took place in the same location targeting youth inspiration.
