Theme: Pogum prevlada (Courage prevails)

This year the event was an amazing success! The theme "Courage prevails" was the perfect narrative to chose in these challenging times and the audience accepted it very well! 13 years of actively organizing TEDx events gave us a special sense of responsibility that we cannot give up despite all the challenges we had this year. We hosted 11 amazing speakers, 6 women and 5 man, combined with 2 musical performances and one dance show. From 16:00 do 20:30 was perhaps slightly too long program, we noted that 10 speakers is more than enough. We had also a completely new location (an empty industrial hall) which we had to prepare from ground up! Very challenging. We also allowed three participants from the public to be chosen and step on the TEDx stage! They had the opportunity to tell their own idea worth spreading in light of the theme "Courage prevails". It was very successful activation :) Participants also had the opportunity to try and eat worm and bugs (properly prepared and certified as food) but stil very scary to eat :D

Hala L56, Litostroj
Litostrojska ulica 56
Ljubljana, Ljubljana, 1000
Slovenia

Aleš Vičič

Business and Sports Psychologist

Aleš Vičič has been a private psychological consultant to athletes for more than 20 years, of which 150 were top athletes who represented Slovenia at the world and European championships and the Olympic Games. Stress management, extreme motivation, complete concentration, mature self-confidence, control of emotions, goal-orientation, and a progress-oriented mindset were constant topics of sports-psychological counseling for athletes. He taught them to change the ingrained behavioral and thought patterns in their heads that make the difference between good and great results. Three years ago, he also focused on advising key personnel in companies who, like athletes, are exposed to extremely demanding circumstances, high goals, good competition, and unpredictability. By education, he is a Univ. B.Sc. a psychologist with a scientific master's degree and a behavioral-cognitive therapist.

Andrijana Bergant

Lawer, EMBA, CCEP-I

Andrijana found her mission and passion in a field that significantly affects the entire society - in ethics. More precisely, in business compliance and ethics. As a law graduate, she has specialized in the field of corporate compliance and ethics for eight years. She is the co-founder and president of the European Institute for Business Compliance and Ethics. In 2021, together with the well-known Slovenian whistleblower Ivan Galet, she founded the Center for the Protection of Whistleblowers. The Center represents an important step towards the elimination and prevention of the consequences of retaliatory measures, which often befall persons who expose irregularities of wider significance. An important support so that those who wish well for all do not carry the entire burden alone. She regularly writes and lectures for many Slovenian and foreign newspapers and conferences, and is also the author of several professional articles and blogs in the field of business compliance and ethics.

Gea Anić

Singer

Gea Anić is a foreign student at the Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana. She uses a special method of learning - music. The first poem is about cyanobacteria and the second about a dandelion. She calls her songs "Silly songs".

Ksenija Benedetti

President of Slovenian Protocol

Ksenija Benedetti je strokovnjakinja za komuniciranje in protokol. Osemnajst let je kot vodja Protokola Republike Slovenije vodila 450 obiskov na najvišji ravni in 120 državnih proslav. Je soavtorica Kodeksa in priročnika ceremonialov v Protokolu Republike Slovenije. Za svoje delo je prejela številne pohvale in pisne zahvale od ameriške Bele hiše do španskega kraljevega protokola. Izdala je dve knjigi: Protokol, simfonija forme in Kažipoti, sonatina o odnosih in kulturi srca. Osemnajst let je, kadar ji je delo to dopuščalo, izvajala celodnevne delavnice Protokolarna pravila ter predavala diplomatom, politikom, gospodarstvenikom, najrazličnejšim javnim uslužbencem in srednjemu managementu v gospodarstvu. Dve leti je kot visokošolski predavatelj predavala na Visoki poslovni šoli B2.

Lohi Ruth Omo-Ezomo

MBA - Branding, Marketing/Business Strategy, Passionate about Women Empowerment.

Lohi is a passionate, proactive and passionate young individual whose courage and loyalty to herself have not stopped her on her way. The exceptional jazz singer by heart comes from Nigeria, where the social and business environment is quite different from the European one. When she decided to study MBA in Slovenia, she had to face a special form of bias as a representative of a developing country. She will tell us at the event how she faced this and what courage she needed to successfully stay in Slovenia and get a regular job here.

Luka Planinc

General Counsel - Lawyer

Luka Planinc je podjetnik in pravnik. Trenutno je vodja pravnega oddelka v tehnološkem podjetju Eligma, ki deluje na področju inovativnih plačilnih metod in direktor sklada tveganega kapitala ABC First Growth, ki se ukvarja investicijami v startupe z vsega sveta. Ko se ne ukvarja z blockchainom, si čas vzame za svojo mlado družino, hokej in kolesarjenje. Diplomiral je iz prava na Univerzi v Ljubljani, magistriral iz prava in poslovnih ved na pravni fakulteti Bucerius v Hamburgu. Študiral je tudi pravo in podjetništvo na univerzi v Oklahomi.

Marko Knez

Stuttering life story

"Mark's life has been marked by stuttering since birth, the condition only got worse during schooling, years ago he could barely speak two words together without stuttering. But now he even dares to appear on the TEDxLjubljana stage. He will present his life story to us. Marko is the proof that stuttering can be so controlled that it is not noticed at all. He now shares his knowledge and experience with others through the media and social networks, but above all he wants to make the public aware of the issue of stuttering."

Natalija Krulec

Singer

Natalija Krulec is a young, creative girl and a solo singer who dreams of big stages and performances. She said she was very grateful that she was a part of such a great story written by great and inspiring people. As a musical guest, she remarked she was able to give a bit of her story to this event.

Natalija Spark

CEO at Naos, Psychotherapist and sing language teacher and ambasador

Natalija is an interpreter of Slovenian sign language. With her dedicated work, she opens new doors every day to the ignored deaf community. As a child of deaf parents, she found herself at the intersection of the hearing and the deaf world, which was too much of a burden for her as a girl at the time. In his work, she encourages deaf people to take advantage of the constitutional right to use their language through an interpreter and thereby allow children to have a childhood. Today, she interpreters in Slovenian sign language and vice versa on television, state events, the health sector and in theaters. At the end of her studies in pedagogy and andragogy, she received the Prešeren Prize for her thesis on the education of interpreters. In addition to working as an interpreter as a mag. of psychosocial counseling works in her private practice. She was chosen as Slovenian woman of the year 2020. At the same time, it may be surprising that silence is invaluable to her.

Nik Šrklec

Actor, TV anchor

Actor, TV presenter and Youtuber. He likes to learn and occasionally break records. In 2016, he memorized 3141 decimal places of Pi, and before that he was the national memorization champion. He has always been a passionate scuba diver. In November 2021, he assembled 10 Rubik's cubes underwater with one breath. He graduated from the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana - majoring in Drama. He was a member of the SNG Drama Ljubljana ensemble, from 2016 to 2021 he hosted the Little Gray Cells quiz on Television Slovenia, and from 2021 he and Nika Rozman host the youth show Krompir. In October 2019, he became a freelance actor, plays in various series and plays around Slovenia, and plans a tour with his new stand-up comedy in the fall.

Plesni studio Polona Poledance

Dancing performance

An energetic performance with show dance elements was prepared by Kristina Sajovec and Tjaša Bergant. In the second part, Sofia Kruglikova presents an emotional performance with acrobatics, choreographed by Polona Gams.

Polona Šafarič Tepeš

Cancer scientist

Polona is a doctoral student in biomedicine at the University of Ljubljana. She carried out research work in the field of childhood cancer at New York's Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, home to eight Nobel laureates. In 2021, she was appointed as a member and professional associate of the Royal Academy of Science International Trust (RASIT), which has consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, where Polona participates in programs to provide credible scientific advice, formulate scientific policy and Gender Equality in Science at United Nations Headquarters. As the head of the Slovenian Women Around the World section at the VTIS association, she actively participates in programs connecting Slovenia and Slovenian organizations and ministries with a focus on increasing gender equality at work. Today, she is one of the most successful and recognizable scientists in Slovenia in the field of molecular biology of cancer.

Samo Rovan

World awarded Destinational Wedding Photographer

"Samo je destinacijski poročni fotograf. Kot umetniški dokumentarni pripovedovalec zgodb je poznan po svojem edinstvenem poročnem fotoreportažnem stilu, ki je strasten, zabaven, svež, dinamičen, a tudi estetski, emocionalen, iskren in topel. Pravi, da uživa v svojevrstnem lovljenju nenavadnih in humornih situacij. Hkrati je mednarodni predavatelj in mentor na področju fotografije. Leta 2015 je osvojil naslov poročnega fotografa leta ameriškega združenja poročnih fotoreporterjev (WPJA), pred kratkim pa ga je organizacija Inspiration Photographers razglasila za najboljšega poročnega fotografa za leto 2020. Po izobrazbi je Samo sicer arhitekt, v prostem času pa tudi ultratekač. Kot pravi, je tudi pri fotografiranju porok pomembna kondicija."

Špela Peternel

Maternity companion

Špela is a birth and postpartum doula as well as childbirth educator. She worked as a researcher in the field of biomedicine for 15 years on the development of new drugs and new treatment methods but after her first birth, she began to shift from biomedicine to the field of supporting women during childbearing years. Because of the disrespectful attitude and unnecessary medicalization during her birth, she decided to become a birth doula and breastfeeding consultant. She is the initiator of the Red Tent women's circles, where women gather, support and help each other heal wounds by telling stories. She is a healer who helps healing emotions. She is a mother of three girls who helps pregnant women and their families make their journey through pregnancy, birth and the early postpartum period as peaceful, safe and gentle as possible. It helps them to trust themselves and their desires.