Theme: "The west-eastern Divan"

“The West-Eastern Divan”, a work of Goethe, inspired by a persian poet, is the theme of TEDxMarrakesh – as metaphore for a stimulating positive exchange and mixture between Orient and Occident. Marrakesh itself is a symbol for open-mindedness - different religions and cultures have always lived here peacefully next to one another.

Riad El Fenn
Marrakech Medina, 40000
Morocco

Pinky Lilani

Pinky Lilani OBE was born in Calcutta India and came to the UK after a whirlwind courtship of 3 weeks knowing no one and totally lacking culinary skills. She works in the differing areas of food and the empowerment of women – bringing them together at every opportunity. Founder and Chairman of THE ASIAN WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS, THE WOMEN OF THE FUTURE AWARDS, THE AMBASSADORS PROGRAMME and THE GLOBAL EMPOWERMENT AWARD. A firm believer in the importance of interfaith dialogue she is cofounder of the WOMENS INTERFAITH NETWORK. A Food guru she has advised supermarkets, written cook books and runs motivating and team building days for major corporations based around Indian food. She is Patron of several charities and was named as one of the 100 most entrepreneurial women in the UK as well as being on the 30 most powerful Muslim women's list.

David Chipperfield

David Chipperfield was born in London in 1953. He studied at Kingston School of Art and the Architectural Association. After graduating he worked at the practices of Douglas Stephen, Richard Rogers and Norman Foster. David Chipperfield Architects was established in 1984 and the practice currently has over 200 staff at its offices in London, Berlin, Milan and Shanghai. The practice has won numerous national and international competitions and many international awards and citations for design excellence, including the Stirling Prize 2007 and the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2011. David Chipperfield received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 2011. David Chipperfield has taught and lectured worldwide.

Clive Stafford Smith

Clive Adrian Stafford Smith was born in Cambridge, England in 1959. He studied Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Further Mathematics in Oxford, Political Science at Chapel Hill, NC, and obtained a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School, NY. He is a British lawyer who specialized in the areas of civil rights and the death penalty in the United States of America and is now the Legal Director of the UK branch of the human rights not-for-profit Reprieve. In 2005 he received the Gandhi International Peace Award.

Redha Moali

Redha Moali is founder of Dar Al-Ma’mûn and Fellah CEO After several years as Deputy General Manager of Exan-BNP Paribas in Geneva, Redha Moali with his wealth of humanistic beliefs and intellectual aspirations, puts an end to his career in market finance for the Fellah Hotel project: based on the principles of responsible tourism promoting local development. Since the beginning, the concept of the Fellah Hotel project included a generalist and specialized library. His encounter with Carleen Hamon and Julien Amicel gave dawn to the birth of the Dar Al-Ma’mûn, International Residencies for Artists and Translators, Marrakech, confirming his vision, giving it strength and reinforcing the social investment.

Elisabet Sahtouris

Elisabet Sahtouris (PhD) is a Greek-American internationally acclaimed evolution biologist, futurist, author and speaker living in Spain. With a post-doctoral degree at the American Museum of Natural History, she taught at MIT and the University of Massachusetts, contributed to the NOVA-Horizon TV series, is a fellow of the World Business Academy, advisor to Ethical Markets and member of the World Wisdom Council. Her venues include the World Bank, UN, Boeing, Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, South African Rand Bank, Caux Round Table, Tokyo International Forum, the governments of Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, Sao Paulo business schools and State of the World Forums. She is author of EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution; A Walk Through Time: From Stardust to Us; and Biology Revisioned with Willis Harman.

Thiemo Gropp

Thiemo Gropp (PhD) was born in 1969 in Pforzheim, Germany. He studied physics and obtained a Ph. D. in biochemistry at the Universities of Karlsruhe, Tucson (AZ) and Frankfurt/Main He also holds a Diploma and Ph.D. Thesis at Max-Planck-Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt/Main For more than ten years, Dr. Gropp has been a manager, founder, managing director and board member of various biotechnology and consulting companies. In 2009, he co-founded the DESERTEC Foundation and became an active member, and, in 2010, the director of DESERTEC Foundation.

Hans Ulrich Obrist

Hans Ulrich Obrist is Co-director of the Serpentine Gallery in London. Prior to this he was Curator of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris from 2000 to 2006, as well as curator of Museum in progress, Vienna, from 1993 to 2000. Obrist has co-curated over 250 exhibitions since his first exhibition, the Kitchen show (World Soup) in 1991 to 1994; Take Me, I’m Yours, 1995; Manifesta 1, 1996; Laboratorium, 1999; Cities on the Move, 1997; Live/Life, 1996; Nuit Blanche, 1998; 1st Berlin Biennale, 1998; Utopia Station, 2003; 2nd Guangzhou Triennale, 2005; Dakar Biennale, 2004; 1st & 2nd Moscow Biennale, 2005 and 2007; Lyon Biennale, 2007; Yokohama Triennale, 2008 and Indian Highway, 2008-2011. Obrist has contributed to over 200 book projects, his recent publications include ‘A Brief History of Curating’, ‘Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Curating But Were Afraid To Ask’, The Conversation Series (Vol. 1-20.), ‘Ai Weiwei Speaks’ and ‘Interviews Vol. 2’. He is also contributing editor of Abitare Magazine, Artforum, Paradis Magazine and 032c Magazine.

Ralph Wilms

Ralph is a non-dual, spiritual alchemist and social activist. He is bridging many worlds: the business with the ethical, the psychological with the spiritual, the Chinese Zen tradition with Sufism and Yoga. He teaches various forms of meditation and the practical application of eastern philosophy and intuition in business and personal life. For 15 years he has been a member of the Core Faculty at ZFU International Business School Zürich and conducting workshops and retreats for business leaders on "The Power of Mind", "Energy-Management" and "The Evolution of Consciousness" together with his partner Shi Yan Bao, a Shaolin monk from China. Ralph is Founder and President of Care Group AG (founded 1997) – A Sustainable & Ethical Investment company in Zürich and Co-Founder of Adya Management AG, an Life Sustaining, Impact Investment Fund. Adya`s mission is to contribute globally to healthy food, healthy plants, healthy animals and healthy human beings. Ralph holds a Master Degree in Social Science from the University of Bochum, Germany. He is a certified trainer for building visionary ,value-driven organizations with Richard Barrett, and a certified trainer of Spiral Dynamics Integral with Dr. Don Beck. He enjoyed decades of training with various spiritual teachers in Sufism, Yoga, Shaolin Zen Buddhism, and Advaita Vedanta.

Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson is an award-winning writer and documentary maker. He is the author of two previous bestsellers, Them: Adventures with Extremists and The Men Who Stare at Goats, and two collections, Out of the Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness and What I Do: More True Tales of Everyday Craziness and his latest book – also a Sunday Times top ten bestseller – is The Psychopath Test. Jon Ronson lives with his family in London.

Heather Cameron

Heather Cameron is a social entrepreneur and political theorist. She is the founder and CEO of Boxgirls International, a girls empowerment through sports organisation working in Germany, Kenya and South Africa. She is a professor at the Freie Universität Berlin and professor extraordinarius at the University of the Western Cape South Africa. Cameron was named professor of the year in 2009 by the German Association of University Professors. She serves on the advisory board of the women’s rights and sports organisation Women Win based in Amsterdam. She became an Ashoka fellow in 2010. In 2011 Cameron won a Young Leaders Prize from the BMW Foundations. Raised in Canada she now spends her time between Berlin and Cape Town.

Uve Müllrich

Around 1981, "Embryo's Dissidenten" were founded in India by Friedemann "Friedo" Josch (b 21 July 1952, Mainz, wind instruments, keyboards) and former Embryo band members Uwe "Uve" Müllrich (b 7 December 1947, Rügen, bass, oud, guitar, vocals) and Michael Wehmeyer (keyboards,piano). Still in 1981, Marlon Klein (b 13 December 1957, Herford, drums, perc, keyboards, vocals) replaced Wehmeyer, and the band renamed themselves to Dissidenten.[1][2] 1982/83, they founded their own record label Exil in Berlin.[3] Following a one-year tour of Asia, the group decided to stay in India to produce their first album Germanistan, with the help of the Karnataka College of Percussion, female singer R.A. Ramamani and percussionist Ramesh Shotham. The live line-up was joined by Indian pianist Louis Banks and American saxophonist Charlie Mariano. Concerts in Calcutta, Madrid, Casablanca and Stockholm are documented on the live album Germanistan Tour 83.