TEDxAUC Returns to AUC, Goes “Off the Grid”

By: Farah Rafik

@frhrfk

Student community development organization Mashrou’ Kheir partnered with TEDxAUC on March 16 to discuss issues such as mental health, what it means to be happy, and finding purpose in life.

The TEDx on March 16 leaned towards creating a dialogue on topics that are not often discussed.

Suzanna Hanafy, one of the speakers at the event, shared her battle with social anxiety and depression, a tough battle she fought and overcame.

“One of the reasons why I decided to apply as a speaker was because I saw it as more of a step to self-development  rather than just a talk. I was always this shy person, and this was one of the ways I came out of my comfort zone,” Hanafy told The Caravan.

This may have been the event’s purpose all along. Titled “Off the Grid,” the topics were themed to pull people out of their comfort zones. Held both globally, regionally, and nationally, TEDx is an independently organized event that offers a chance for speakers to share their personal thoughts, ideas and experiences in engaging talks which often leave audiences inspired.

“Disconnect to reconnect was how some people viewed the theme,” said Salma Ehab, Mashrou’ Kheir president.

Haidy Zakaria, founder of the Word Project, the slam-poetry community in Egypt, chose her talk to be about the impact of words and poetry.

“I have my own troubles, and I have dealt with issues of public speaking and self-image. But after I would speak about those things, I’d find someone come up to me at the end of slam [poetry] about how they went through similar situations,” Zakaria said in her talk.

The event also included live performances and guest-speakers who added more color to the event.

Guest speaker Aya Sharkawy used the stage to deliver an original poem about sexual harassment.

She said that she chose this specific topic because she felt like it had a correlation to the theme, “Off the Grid”.

“It was an extremely vulnerable and emotional piece so I needed the space and time to practice before hand, which was extremely easy seeing how professionally organized the event was,” Sharkawy told The Caravan.

Before the event was held, the speakers were coached on maximum effectiveness of their delivery.

“What I tried to do as a coach was to dissect my feedback into categories. One category involved content creation, the second was presentation and ability to have an impact regardless of the topic,” Ahmed Mahana, a voice coach, explained.

Mahana was himself a TEDx speaker in 2016. He said that TEDx talks are built on the basis of human interaction and adopt a more conversationalist style compared to public speaking in general.

TEDx has been absent from AUC for some years, but Ehab explained that the process of bringing it back happened in collaboration with Integrated Marketing Communications Junior Farah Korayem who holds the license to hold the event at AUC.

Korayem has been wanting to organize and bring TEDx back to AUC and so she applied for the license last semester and managed to get it.

Previous TEDx events at AUC were often held at Bassily Auditorium, but this year the choice of venue depended on the type of license issued.

“There are two licenses to host TEDx events: License A and B. License A allows for 100 attendees in the event but license B has an unlimited number of attendees. In order to pass from A to B, I have to organize an event with 100 people and travel to attend an official TEDx conference alongside some workshops. So, my plan was to at least organize this one event,” Korayem told The Caravan.

“I chose to do it with Mashrou’ Kheir because I am a community development-oriented person. I had a team with committees and members who applied to be part of this specific project,” added Korayem.