TEDxCairo: A summary and a podcast

May 13, 2010

The following post is contributed by my friend and colleague Ahmed Zidan, the editor of Mideast Youth Arabic:

Mideast Youth Arabic has attended the first TEDxCairo on May 8th 2010 in the American University in Cairo.

The event was a great success, and the Egyptian youth showed spirit and commitment to this international event which was held locally for the first time, under license from TEDGlobal.

The speaker list was fully loaded with creative Egyptians and foreigners living in Egypt who are working in various fields, like Dr Ibrahim Karim, an architect and the founder of BioGeometry, Mr Wael Al Fakhrany, regional manager of Google North Africa, Dr Sahar Al Mougy, a renowned novelist and a lecturer of American poetry, Omar Samra, the first Egyptian to climb Mount Everest, Erma Manoncourt, UNICEF representative in Egypt, among 17 other successful entrepreneurs, scientists, athletes, business men, and artists.

The show was hosted by Khaled Abol Naga, an Egyptian and international actor, and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2007. It was attended by a vast number of attendees, who were very well selected through a tough selection process run by the Organizing Committee, who are Engineering students studying at Ain Shams Univeristy in Cairo, throughout online applications, that closed one week prior to the big event.

According to many TEDsters whom we've spoken with, the experience was unforgettable, and many of them were very optimistic about it, as one of the OC has told us, "May 8th was my first time to experience a live TEDTalk, after years of watching it online and dreaming about it," according Bahy Abol Ezz, an Engineering student and TEDxCairo co founder. Others have perceived the first TEDxCairo with a different approach, "This is the greatest organized event I've ever attended in Egypt. I feel there's a hope in this generation to inspire the great reform that we're all looking to for Egypt." Mr Wael Fakhrany.

About future events, the OC have confirmed on their official website that they'll announce soon the date of the next event. And when we've asked Khaled Abol Naga about the event, he responded by quoting TED famous slogan, "TED was created to spread worthy ideas, but the fact is that TED itself has become an idea worth spreading."

In this episode of Arabicast, a portmanteau of Arabic-podcast, we speak to Khaled Abol Naga, the event host, Mr Wael Fakhrany, one of the speakers, in addition to Bahy Abol Ezz, one of the OC and co-founder.

Arabicast is a podcasting project that started in 2009, as the MEYArabic official podcasting service.

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TEDxCairo: A summary and a podcast

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