Writers: Amira Haytham & Ali Sakr
Even though we all have different pleasures, the satisfaction in attaining a desired outcome is a pleasure we all unfortunately share. Why do we often dwell on perfecting a final result to praised for, and rather forget the reason we started the struggle in the first place? We all have a drive inside of us that ignites a fire to start walking a certain road; whether it’s a project at work, and entrepreneurship, or a simple voluntary essay for a head teacher. During the journey of carving out and dusting off the imperfections from the tip of the iceberg, you get lost in awaiting satisfaction in other’s approving gestures. In 1984, Richard Wurman founded TED with a drive inside him; spreading ideas able to reconstruct mindsets.
Despite his first failed trial, Wurman focused on his reason, and further built an independent TED Conference in 1990. The world was profound with his creation, causing TED to become a growing NGO. However, as TED grew rapidly each year, more people wanted to attend than was possible. This lead to the launch of TEDx in 2009, a chance for local communities to take a more active role in spreading ideas through TED-like events. 2 years later, something very special happened – we decided to take on the same motto -“ideas worth spreading”. Each year, the fulfillment of having reached so many minds is what keeps us going, and has kept us going up till now.
Here at TEDxYouth@Alexandria, we use our own adaptation of Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle with which we formed the structure of our team. The main aim of this structure was to focus not only on the final outcome, but also the community building and all the processes in between our 3 concentric circles – “Why”, “How” and “What”. Starting with the center, our inner core consists of the team’s initiators, the first steps to achieving our “Why”, our Licensee and planners. As we move outwards, the intermediate core serves as a connection between the ideas we empower and the practical application we strive to fulfill, our “How”. Finally comes our outermost the circle, the mitochondria of our whole cell, the TEDx organizers who turn our “Why’s” into “What’s”.
In the process of transforming our “Why” into our “What”, we’ve developed 3 tasks for our final picture, the main event, to come into place as perfectly as possible. For the speakers to be able to reach into the audience’s minds, and shape a specific picture, coaches are needed to guide them through brainstorming and coherently connecting all their scattered ideas into one fully fledged talk. And in order for there to be an event in the first place, our Networking team provides the team with sponsors and partners pushing the event into existence. Lastly, there would be no point in having an event without attendees, and that’s what the Marketing team here for.
In spite of having attempted to develop these circles perfectly for the past 7 years, we have never – and will never – reach a perfectly smooth encrustation. Therefore, we’ve chosen Asymptote as the theme for this year’s event; to symbolize how no matter how close we are to perfection, there will always be a gap we can’t fill. On the 20th of October, the drive we’ve been working for this year will manifest into one final event that, while not perfect, is promised to form a new constellation of thoughts and ideas inside your head.