We first started TEDxCapeTown in 2011 to provide a platform for critical engagement, new conversations and to create a neutral space conducive to idea sharing. Since then, the annual event and our TEDx community has grown tremendously, with the event and simulcast viewings selling out each year and attracting an international audience from around the globe participating via live-stream.
But this is not enough. The great journey that our speakers go through in distilling and sharing their most important idea to the world in the format of a TEDx talk has immense value, both for the speaker and for the audience, but we want to take this one step further. We need deeper engagement around these ideas in order to realise greater impact. And this is where we see the greatest opportunity for TEDx.
We believe that the next step for TEDxCapeTown - to focus on further engagement and deeper conversations around the ideas shared by our speakers - is both the natural and also necessary step to take in order to see this greater impact.
Hosting in-person workshops that explore the ideas shared by speakers is an effort towards this.
TEDxCapeTownWomen is a community based in Cape Town which uses the powerful TEDx platform towards greater exposure and inclusion of women in the innovation and entrepreneurship space that is flourishing in the City.
TEDxCapeTownWomen and its team is re-defining the model of citizen engagement by not only spreading good ideas, but building a platform for collaboration and community, a catalyst to inspire action. TEDxCapeTownWomen is about women, women’s issues, and women’s inherent potential, both locally and on a
global scale.
In 2010, Sheryl Sandberg’s talk on “Why we have too few women leaders” attributed this challenge to too many women leaning out, and the corporate sectors inability to retain female staff in a corporate space. Today women face the hard choice between professional success and personal fulfilment, or spend copious amounts of energy trying to find the perfect balance between the two.
Her talk, and subsequent book, coined the phrase Lean In, and encourages both women and men to evaluate the current systems that reinforce a scenario where women are substantially underrepresented in leadership positions, politically, socially and in the workplace.
To contextualise this debate and provide a space for dialogue around the inherent challenges preventing women from leaning in, we will host a TEDxCapeTownSalon event for the TEDxCapeTownWomen community. The conversation will not focus in on women in the workplace alone, but open up conversations about the challenges inhibiting women from taking hold of or participating fully in any opportunities that inspire and excite them.
Not only will ideas be shared about addressing the inherent gaps women and girls in Cape Town encounter, but we will also provide a platform for some personal stories of women who are leaning in, and blazing the trail for others to follow. The diverse line-up includes award-winning directors and healthcare innovators, to social workers and social entrepreneurs. Become part of the conversation by buying your ticket at Quicket, or following us on twitter @tedxctwomen in the lead up to the event.
Organizing team
