First TEDx Gulshan held in city

Country's first TEDx Gulshan was held on Saturday at a convention center in the city amid inspiring talks and reflective interactions of 14 esteemed speakers that featured the intriguing theme 'Innovation Enabling Social Change'.

TED is the world's most respected speaking platform featuring leading thinkers and doers starting from Bill Gates to UN Secretary-General to Shahrukh Khan as host/curator of TEDx in India.

President and Curator of TEDx Gulshan, Ashfaq Zaman, CPA  inaugurated the first TEDx Gulshan in Bangladesh- followed by a speech on Social Change by Vice President UN Global Compact Bangladesh & Vice President Bangladesh Centre for Fourth Industrial Revolution Syed Tamjid -ur- Rahman,.

Oxford Scholar & Faculty Bobby Hajjaj, and International TEDx speaker, Retd Major Mohommed Ali Shah, who is also an Indian Army Veteran & Bollywood Actor, were the next two speakers.

Mohommed Ali Shah focused on how to get to a good idea and said the trick is to come up with lots of ideas and eliminate the bad ones.

Adviser to the  Prime Minister Salman F Rahman shared about the world of freelancing and how it emerged in Bangladesh.

He highlighted the challenges that caused a hindrance towards bringing money from abroad & how freelancing can be institutionalized to solve the prevalent manifold problems in this sector.

Country Director & CEO, Kazi IT Centre Ltd Zara Mahbub took the floor, followed by, Prof of Dept. of Physics of Shahjalal University of Science & Technology Dr. Yasmeen Haque who shared her breakthrough research in low-cost early-stage cancer detection.

Founder & Managing Director of Sohoz Maliha M Quadir spoke about 'Gig Economy' and focused on how it is addressing socioeconomic problems related to unemployment and underemployment especially among the youth who are the quickest to adapt to technology.
 
Group Director Rahimafrooz Bangladesh Ltd Niaz Rahim focused on how people should think big not only for themselves but also for others because that is the only way to strive.

Anir Chowdhury, Policy Advisor, a2i, PMO took the floor and shared with the audience the experience of 'Empathy Training' to civil servants in order to make them understand what normal people face at different institutes.

He pointed out how this has changed the mindset of civil servants and made them more empathetic towards the civilians and come up with ideas to ease the services.  

Other speakers were CEO of  10 Minute School Ayman Sadiq, Director, Office of External Affairs, North South University Dr Katherine Li, Vice Chairman Rupayan Group Mahir Ali Khan; Sausan Khan Moyeen of Enchanted Events & Prints; and Bibi Russell of Bibi Productions Fashion for Development.

Key partners of the event were Charity Right, Daraz, Mutual Trust Bank (MTB) and Rupayan Group. United News of Bangladesh (UNB) was the online news partner of the event.

TEDx Gulshan is true to the format of TEDx events is a platform for the people to spread their story that will be thought-changing for the attendees and creating a bridge connecting the thought leaders, academics, change-makers & entrepreneurs to bring about a social change.

TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.

These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x means 'independently organized TED event'. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.