Theme: THE GAME

TEDxYildizTechnicalUniversity event will be with you this year with the theme of "THE GAME". With this theme, we are getting ready to open the door to all the games in life. Thanks to games, we learn, have fun, and prepare ourselves for reality by imitating. Our esteemed speakers, who are the playmakers of their lives in many fields such as the business world, sports, art, music, and education, will tell about their success and their struggles that will set an example for us.

YTU DAVUTPASA CULTURE AND CONVENTION CENTER
Cifte Havuzlar, Esenler/Istanbul
Istanbul, İstanbul, 34220
Turkey

Aydan Üstkanat

Chef,Photographer

She prepared the gastronomy page in a national newspaper between 2005 and 2019. She has 18 years of journalism history. She is currently the editor-in-chief of Lezzet Magazine and the editorial director of Food Online Aydan magazine. She takes all the photos of the articles she writes herself. She had to stop eating her favorite chocolates and jams when she had Reactive Hypoglycemia. She wrote her book, creating a sugar-free gourmet cuisine. She was among the best in the world by Gourmand in 2014 and was one of the 3 Best Chief Writer selected. With the UN history recipe book she published in 2017, she was ranked among the best in the world by Gourmand as the best food photographer. She received the World's Best Writer award from Gourmand in 2021, which is given to a single person every year in the world and is not able to Turkey and many other countries.

İsa Turgut İnci

Deputy General Manager

Isa Turgut İnci, who started his career as an architect, continued with his master's degree in Construction Management at Yıldız Technical University and then his doctorate program at Murcia University (UCAM, Spain). He completed his Digital Strategy and Leadership training at Sorbonne University. He was accepted to the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford - Strategic Projects Management Program. At Yıldız Teknopark A.Ş., where he currently serves as Assistant General Manager, he leads many innovative projects with a high-added value in order to strengthen the national R&D and Entrepreneurship infrastructure.

Kıvılcım Pınar Eğilmez Kocabıyık

Founder and Chair, Yuvam Dunya Association

Kıvılcım has been involved in civil society activities focused on the environment and social benefit since her childhood when she was intertwined with nature. After her experience in corporate life, she became the General Manager of farm and open-air art valley 38-30 Farm with his interest in sustainable-regenerative agriculture. Kıvılcım Kocabıyık, who continues to work as the Chairman of the Board of Yuvam World Association, is one of Turkey's leading green restaurant chains, Founding partner and sustainability leader of AkkoBrand Group operating in 9 countries... Investment board member, impact investor and entrepreneur at Techone Venture Capital... KAGIDER board member... Married and mother of 2 children, amateur bird, and nature watcher... She studied Statistics at Yıldız Technical University and Geography at Istanbul University. Today; She continues her studies on the climate crisis, injustices, and gender equality.

Meliha İsmailoğlu Diken

Volleyball Player

Meliha İsmailoğlu Diken (born 17 September 1993) is a Turkish national volleyball player of Bosnia-Herzegovina origin. She currently plays as a spiker in Fenerbahçe Opet Women's Volleyball Team and Türkiye Women's National Volleyball Team. She started her sports career at the age of eight with the OK Kula Gradačac team in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She was named volleyball player of the year in 2009 and 2011. She came to Turkey at the age of 16, then continued her sports and education life here. She transferred to Fenerbahçe in May 2014 and showed many successes and won trophies. She played in Turkey's indoor and beach volleyball jersey, despite being born in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She transferred to Eczacıbaşı in 2017 and later to VakıfBank SK in 2019 and achieved many successes with this club. Then she was transferred to Fenerbahçe again in May 2021. In the process, she appeared in tournaments with the Turkey Women's National Volleyball Team and achieved success.

Özkan Öztürk

Commentator, Presenter

He was born in 1985 in Samsun's Bafra district. While he was a student in the Radio & Television department in 2004, he took his first steps in his career with Best FM. During his radio career, he made many interviews, live match commentary, and sports programs. During his term as Best FM Sports Manager, he prepared and presented the daily sports program called Futbol Vadisi. After ending his radio career in 2013, he was transferred to Lig TV in 2014. He continues to be the voice of the Super League and European matches in his beIN SPORTS Türkiye career.

Özlem Tokgöz Özsoylar

Psychologist, Trainer

She graduated from Ankara University DTCF "Psychology" in 2000. She completed her master's degree in Marmara University "Human Resources Management" and also completed the "Pedagogical Formation" program at Istanbul University Hasan Ali Yücel Education Faculty. She has participated in numerous training and workshops related to her field. She has worked as an expert, consultant, and manager in the sales, psychological support, and education sectors in her business life of about 25 years. She has been giving training to institutions on personal development and psychology since 2010. She produces and presents videos on personal development and psychology on her Youtube channel. She is the author of "Help Yourself: Effective Techniques for Coping with Challenging Emotions and Increasing Resilience."

Reha Özcan

Actor

He was born in 1965. Graduated from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Theater Completed in the Department. After starring in more than 40 works at the State Theater until his retirement in 2016, he founded the Reha Özcan Company in pursuit of his dream of making a contemporary and universal theater. He played the first production of the theatre, Ruki, in English at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He continues to stage Bir Garip Orhan Veli Musical, which is the second production of the company, and won the Best Painting Play Award at the 2022 Direksiyon Theater Awards, in Turkey and Europe. Reha Özcan, who was deemed worthy of the Most Successful Actor of the Year awards at the Afife and Sadri Alışık Theater Awards in 2011 for his performance in the Istanbul State Theater's Bodiesless Woman, continues his work in TV series and movies intensively.

Sabri Can Onay Yontar

Chess Youtuber

He was born in 1993 in Istanbul. After completing his high school education at Pertevniyal High School, he continued his university education by studying Aerospace Engineering at Istanbul Technical University. After being in Greece with the Erasmus exchange program between 2015-2016, he graduated from ITU in 2017 and got a job as an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer in a private jet company. In 2017, he opened a Youtube channel to spread the game of chess, which is his hobby, and in 2019 he started to do this as a full-time job. He became the Turkish Language Manager at Play Magnus Group's chess24 company in 2020, and then the Youtube Content Manager globally in 2021. Currently, he continues to work as the Youtube Content Manager at chesscom, the largest company in the industry, while at the same time producing content in Turkish for Youtube and other social media platforms.

Şennur Demir

National Boxer

She was born on August 10, 1982, in Bartın. She graduated from Bartın University, Department of Physical Education and Sports Teaching. She has a master's degree in Physical Education and Sports Education with a thesis. She is Physical Education and Sports teacher at Ülkü Ahmet Durusoy Secondary School Ankara. She started sports at the age of 25. She dealt with Far East sports for 3 years. After 3 years, she started boxing. She became a national athlete in boxing at the age of 29. She entered the university in 2011. She became a Fenerbahçe Sports Club athlete in 2016. She became the world champion in Kazakhstan at the age of 34, the second in the world in India at the age of 36, and the world champion in Turkey at the age of 40. She was the captain of the national team for 8 years. She ended her active boxing career as a world champion. She is still actively coaching the Olympic boxing national team and the Fenerbahçe sports club. She is also a state athlete.