TEDxAUBG 2014: Recipes for Inspiration




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  • 2014-03-24 16:53:01
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For a third consecutive year the TEDxAUBG Club organized a memorable event that gathered students and professionals from all around the world to talk, laugh, and share ideas together. The conference took place on Saturday, Mar. 22, in the ABF Theater and was an inspiring adventure for everybody who had the chance to become a part of it. After the quick introduction of Milos Vukicevic, the host of this year’s talk, the first speaker who had the chance to “break the ice” was Georgi Kamov. “We should start changing our minds about social change. But there is something even more important than that and it is that social change itself is about changing our mind and it doesn’t start with the square or the people that are protesting there, it doesn’t start with the government… It starts with you! It starts with your own understanding of the world around you…” was his appeal to the audience. The second guest was a physicist from CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research. However, Rob Knoops is definitely not the typical scientific worker. Contrary to what people may expect, he is a highly charismatic person with a very strong sense of humor. In his talk, he presented the String Theory and proved that science can actually be fun.
The first part of the event was closed by the captivating speech of Philip Altman, currently a history teacher at the American College of Sofia. The topic of his presentation was teaching - problems and solutions in the 21stcentury. Altman used his personal story to prove that “only through the interaction of two minds that true teaching and true learning can occur.” The inspiring message he sent to the audience was that “we [teachers] need to teach lessons that do not just teach our students how to survive in the 21st century, but how to prevail.” After a short break, the stage of the was conquered by Hugo Pereira, who managed to convince the public that only “powerful questions drive social change”. “Questions that drive us to do something beyond ourselves – only they matter,”he concluded. [caption id="attachment_19804" align="alignleft" width="142"] Hugo Pereira[/caption] By a mere coincidence, or maybe not, the next two speakers happened to be two enthusiastic and empowering ladies both from Serbia. The first one was Marija Draskic. She is an architect with various interests. Animation in particular became an important part of her personal and professional growth. That’s why Draskic chose to present to the audience her theory about how animation could be used to present ideas in a powerful way. Next to take the stage was Milena Milevic, an alumnus of Cambridge University. She focused her talk on the idea that it is high time for us to change the social paradigm about education and to provoke the desire of people to learn. She concluded her speech with the words of a French delegate she met in 2009: “It doesn’t matter where you are coming from, but where you are going.” The final part of TEDxAUBG began with the inspiring presentation of David Pearl, the creator of the “Street Wisdom” project, whose main idea is to turn the streets around the world into “invisible universities.” According to Pearl, there are three stages of learning from the street: to tune our senses, to ask our questions, to share our learning. Whatever your question – remember; answers are everywhere,” he noted. [caption id="attachment_19806" align="alignleft" width="285"] David Pearl[/caption] [caption id="attachment_19805" align="alignright" width="285"] Prof. Veneta Andonova[/caption]                 Prof. Veneta Andonova was the eight speaker who became part of this year’s event. She explained her belief that each country is developing and progressing, but not each is properly credited for this. “Build your country’s story to celebrate progress,” because “nobody else will,” was the main message she tried to convey to the audience at the ABF Theater. Yordan Agov, the co-founder of Kinematograf Media NPO, was the last guest invited to share his ideas with the AUBG community.  He talked about how to inspire a faithless society and why doing so is so important. “Try to have faith,” he appealed at the end of his talk. The event was closed by Roman Sorocan, the President of the TEDxAUBG Club, who expressed his gratitude to the speakers, the sponsors, and the members of the Club that organized the conference. For those who missed the talk, it will soon be available online. Photos courtesy of Martin Georgiev.