Theme: On the edge!

Our Universe is “On the Edge”.

On the one hand, phenomenal and beautiful things are happening in this lifetime. It is an exciting time to be alive. Overall, health and wealth have never been greater. It as the age of opportunity and transformation, where billions of people work tirelessly and eagerly in their own way to establish their piece of the universe. On the other hand, our earth and society are steadily been pushed closer and closer to the edge. With wars, discrimination, inequality, and hatred rapidly seemingly spreading across the globe in unprecedented speed and violence.

From the stories of scientific progress and social change to the transmission of culture between generations. These are the projects, people, and tales that need to be conveyed and shared. We are a living and moving entity that tells the narrative of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we are going. There is no limit to our civilization – unless we step off the edge!

So how far would you go to right the wrongs? And transform the bad into good?

What have you learned? What can you share? What difference will you make?

Leonard Paris
6 Place du Colonel Bourgoin
Paris, Île-de-France, 75012
France

Alaa Abi Haidar

ALAgrApHY (a.k.a. Al or Alaa Abi Haidar) is a Paris-based artist (painter, filmmaker and photographer) and scientist (data scientist and artificial intelligence expert with a PhD in Complex Systems) who has been teaching machines to make art for the past decade. ALAgrApHY uses algorithms to generate mosaics composed of thousands of unique faces (of non-existing people) of all ages and diversity, inspired by his non-profit project of 1001faces.org. He has exhibited at the Grand Palais in 2018 and 2019 and his AI-generated artwork "D'ame(s) Souriante(s)" has received the digital art award at the Salon d'Automne. ALAgrApHY is an “artivist” who believes that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and tries to express this through his art. A motto that is very present in his work is expressed by the African UBUNTU, meaning “I am therefore we are”. ALAgrApHY has engaged in several non-profit projects such as 1001 faces, Pass a Smile, and currently in exhibition "the Collective Brain X", ALAgrApHY strongly believes that we are all stardust and tries to express it in his episodic feature documentary: "The Art and Science of Traveling". ALAgrApHY did his PhD at Indiana University and PostDoc at the University of Pierre and Marie Curie. Currently, he is an artist/scientist-in-residency at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência in Lisbon, Portugal. For more information: www.alagraphy.com

Christian Clot

For the past twenty years, French-Swiss explorer-researcher Christian Clot has devoted himself to exploring the most extreme environments of our planet. He has completed long-distance journeys and projects on all terrains, from seas to mountains, forests to deserts, examining the interaction between these environments and human adaptation capacities, with several world firsts to his credit. In 2005, he set up a project to study real-time crisis situations, which he expanded in 2014 by developing an international research group on Human Adaptability: Adaptation. The flagship project, the 4X30-Day program, examines the mechanism of human adaptation when facing changes, using an integrative approach in a really extreme environment. The next phase as the aim of bringing a group of 20 people (10 women and 10 men) to the same territories for a large-scale study. He has won several awards for his work and shares his experiences through books, films, and conferences, either for companies or for the general public, and is the French explorer’s society Vice-president.

Magali Lahourcade Siccardi

Magali Lahourcade Siccardi est ce qu’on appelle une « corporate hacker ». Son rôle, en s’inspirant de la culture geek, est de disrupter, d’apporter des idées neuves, de penser hors du cadre, de «hacker» les organisations pour les aider à innover et à se transformer, vers plus de performance et de bienveillance. Consultante en marketing et communication depuis plus de 15 ans dans le secteur du digital et des nouvelles technologies, experte sur les sujets de change management et de transformation des organisations, Magali enseigne et interviens aussi en tant que conférencière depuis plusieurs années auprès d’écoles, de PME et de grands groupes, pour partager ses convictions et ses expériences sur nos vies de bureaux contemporaines. Profil hybride, de formation littéraire, elle est aussi passionnée d’histoire de l’art, et working mum enthousiaste. Elle illustre parfaitement le monde du travail de demain, polymorphe, flexible, ouvert, agile, créatif. Ses sujets de prédilection sont la transformation des organisations, la qualité de vie au travail, l’expérience salarié, l’innovation RH, la transformation managériale, l’importance de l’empathie et de la collaboration, et la nécessité d’introduire plus de plaisir, de liberté, d’audace, et de créativité dans nos journées de travail.

Marianne Syed Le loup

I grew up in a large family, with six siblings in a context where community life was very much emphasized and valued. I always wanted to contribute to society trying to reconcile pro bono work and volunteering during my studies and subsequent career as a business lawyer. One transformative moment came when volunteering for the Salvation Army in Paris, participating in nightly soup kitchens for the homeless and subsequently by providing legal advice to people in need at one of the Salvation Army centers. I realized that society makes us believe that marginalized people are different from us, which provides a justification for not treating them the way we should treat others. Later on, at the first opportunity to visit a refugee camp, I went with my 2 years old son and watched him playing football with the other kids. It was just the way it should be: tiny humans playing together, regardless of their skin color, culture, economic situation or religion…. This experience, as well as the increasing urgency to act in face of the increasing number of refugees arriving at our shores, provided the motivation to start The Odyssey Project, which promotes positive initiatives of migrants in Europe and in the Middle-East. After four years in London, is the Executive Director of Positive Planet UK, a charity that helps people empower themselves through entrepreneurship projects around the world, I recently moved back to Paris where I am launching my own law firm, specialized in asylum law. I also volunteer for charities that support refugees. I have also been lecturing at the Sorbonne University for 7 years and often speak in public on the refugee cause.

Odah & Dako

Odah & Dako se rencontrent au lycée à Maisons-Alfort et ont pour passion commune la musique et la langue française. Après avoir achevé leurs études (Master en marketing pour Odah et Master en géopolitique pour Dako), ils s’engagent dans des carrières dans le secteur de l’informatique. Mais ils sont vite rattrapés par leur premier amour : la scène. Très vite, ils montent un spectacle d’un nouveau genre qu’il jouent au Point Virgule, au Palais des Glaces et au République. Ils sont actuellement en tournée dans toute la France et seront à La Cigale en janvier 2019. Parallèlement à la scène, les acolytes aiment performer en télévision et à la radio. Ils ont ainsi été pensionnaires du Jamel Comedy Club sur Canal + ou encore de Vendredi tout est permis sur TF1.

Sandra De Bailliencourt

Managing director

Pendant les 20 dernières années, Sandra a développé différentes entreprises dans les secteurs de la communication et du digital tout en préservant une vie de famille active avec 3 enfants et connectée à la nature par la pratique régulière de sports nautique et de montagne.Depuis 3 ans, elle dirige Sparknews, entreprise dont la mission est d'accélérer la transition écologique et sociale par des programmes de sensibilisation à travers les médias et des parcours de transformation pour les entreprises.En mettant en lumière des "change makers" qui inventent, à leur échelle, des solutions aux grands enjeux de notre époque, Sparknews montre que construire ce monde meilleur auquel nous aspirons est l'affaire de tous. Par l'exemple concret sur le terrain, par le partage d'histoires inspirantes, Sparknews restaure la confiance et redonne envie d'agir.