The [tag]TEDGlobal2007[/tag] conference is days away, it starts June 4 – smack in the Tanzanian resort town of Arusha.
When I applied for a fellowship to avoid paying the four-figure gate-tab, I didn’t think much of the event. Even though I won the one of the 100 fellowship slots, it won’t be of any use to me: I won’t be there. But I have to stay back in Minnesota and earn my pay-check – by untangling some critical mess I know nothing of. Uhhhhh!!!
When I saw the list of conference attendees and the speaker lineup last week, my jaw dropped, and I knew there and then that I had missed one of the greatest events in Africa this year. I regret tying up and wasting a valuable fellowship slot – there are several others that would have jumped at the opportunity to visit Arusha and network with some of the best minds in world and some fellow African bloggers.
As long as I’m not self-employed, it is most likely I will be missing more engagements. Thank goodness I made New Delhi last December – even if I could only stay for some 3 miserable nights!… I just need to be calling my own shots. I really do. I will only see Arusha in my dreams! Links
“Negative images of Africa dominate the news: famine and disease, conflict and corruption. But Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former Finance Minister of Nigeria, says there’s a less-told story unfolding in many African nations: one of reform, economic growth and business opportunity.”
If you are an African blogger, or passionate about African affairs and don’t know what “TED” is then you need to play catch-up and see if you can be part of the 100 lucky fellowship winner, that is if its not already too late.
Nigerian blogger Emeka Okafor (in picture, blogs: Timbuktu Chronicles/Africa Unchained) is the Program Director of the conference that will see some 1000 paying participants who are “thought-leaders, in business, science and the arts, as well as in the three areas from which TED got its name – technology, entertainment and design”. In addition there will be about 100 sponsored invitees who “will be people actively involved in creating Africa’s future and who could not afford to attend on their own.”
The availability of fellowship is a sweet departure from the mentality commonly displayed by organizers of events of this magnitude. It is commendable that the organizers don’t want a “closed elitist circle” and have realized the need to “open up” the event to the general African/Afrophilic audience. The onus of this – the desire to ensure that “what happens inside the sessions is available to people who can’t be there” – will rest mainly on the Tanzanian media and other Africa-affiliated media outlets – including blogs.
Visit TED.com to access the blog and other media content. I have come to love the video clips of past TED presenters. Awesome!
“The program line-up of 50 speakers — like all TEDs — includes inventors, business-leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers, artists, writers, activists, musicians and mavericks. But they have this in common. They are all doing something valuable for Africa’s future. Their voices will inspire. And their ideas will spread.”
The [tag]TEDGlobal2007[/tag] conference is days away, it starts June 4 – smack in the Tanzanian resort town of Arusha.
“‘This Is Africa’s Turn’ – Technology Conference Convenes Creative Thinkers and Doers”