Lahore – In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, Information Technology University (ITU) recently hosted the second chapter of TEDxITU that was held on 16th September 2017 at Arfa Software Technology Park under the theme ‘Afraad Ke Hathon Main Hai. ’
TEDx events are independently organized multidisciplinary conferences licensed under TED. TEDx events help create better communities by bringing together people from different disciplines and walks of life.
The day-long event was generously supported by Inbox Technologies and was curated as a community-based platform where some of the most brilliant minds in Pakistan were invited as speakers to share ideas worth spreading. The event was attended by over 300 attendees that were shortlisted from over 1100 applications from all over Pakistan.
This year’s TEDxITU hosted a diverse pool of speakers that belonged from different professional domains ranging from health, technology, entrepreneurship, arts and music. Divided in to three sessions, the event boasted an amazing speaker lineup from across Pakistan.
Mudassir Sheikha, Co- Founder Careem, talked on the subject of the local advantage while operating in a new market. Danielle Sharaf, CEO Switch ITC, complemented Mudassir’s idea, by emphasized on her lessons learnt in the tech industry. Mohammad Raza, ITU’s 13-yr old computing prodigy brought the theme full circle by talking about his work on Rekhta – a program that slices the time reuired to type in Urdu to half – through intelligent auto completion.
TEDxITU’s theme focused on, among other things, individual actions bringing together great changes in communities. Abdullah Ahmed, shared his vision for CricFlex – what started out as a final year university project is now an exciting startup by helping cricket bowlers maintain a legal bowling action through its patented technology.
TED Senior Fellow Usman Riaz, shared his vision for a thriving hand-drawn animation studio in Pakistan through Mano Animation Studios and his work on Glassworker – their first animated feature film.
The event also featured ideas worth spreading by Ahmer Naqvi, COO Patari, who argued for the importance of music in culture, social causes and identity formation; Nishat Riaz, Director Education British Council who made an impassioned case for places for higher learning not just higher education; Arshad Faruqui and his passion to create better public spaces through Pursukoon Karachi; Neha Mankani and her vision to counter emergency maternal health problems through Mama Baby Fund; TED Fellow Nighat Dad and her drive to create Digital Rights Foundation to counter cyberharrasment; Mariam Paracha’s work with communities to encourage free speech through spoken word; and Amina Rizwan, a metalsmith who shared her work with artefacts and the importance of our role as ethnographers in a heartfelt talk.
TEDxITU was concluded by Ali Hamza from Noori who interwove his talk with pieces of original music as he transported the audience to the journey a musician experiences being wired to their work. Ali Hamza concluded his talk with a beautiful performance of the National Anthem.
Along with the well curated talks, TEDxITU also programmed Action Breaks in between the sessions that were designed to encourage connectivity, curiosity and a sense of play for participants. These Action Breaks were led by different activity partners which include Citizen Archive of Pakistan (CAP) who showcased Oral History Project reflecting a diverse narrative of Pakistan, a community art project by Makeistan, Vanguard Books with a bookspace and readers corner for attendees. Other activity partners included PlanX – technology accelerator, MIT Enterprise Forum Pakistan, MIT Technology Review Pakistan, DIY Geeks, and Alooclan.
TEDxITU was supported by the ITU administration, including Vice Chancellor Dr. Umar Saif and Registrar Zaheer Sarwar and was a volunteer run event.
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