TEDx events are independently organized conferences that seek to create a unique experience by inviting inspiring speakers to share and spread their ideas. TEDxESCPBerlin is entirely organized by students of the ESCP Europe Business School and took place on the Berlin campus.
The event was held under the topic “World of Opportunities”. In a time with increasing global mobility, we experience new chances for progress every day. Be they big or small, be they in a personal or organizational context – we ourselves decide whether to embrace these opportunities or not. They may seem menacing at first and you may have to gather all your courage to take on the challenge. Still, it is worth it!
We aim to provide a platform where the smartest thinkers, greatest visionaries, and most fascinating personalities from diverse backgrounds will inspire others and be inspired themselves. They all have in common that they took on a challenging opportunity they were either given or created themselves. Every speaker is given up to 15 minutes to talk about a project he has worked on or any other insight he has gained and would like to spread.
TEDxESCPBerlin…A recap:
One long journey that began in September 2012 culminated in what was for us one of the greatest days in our lives: TEDxESCPBerlin on February 16th. We would like to thank everyone who participated in this event, if as speaker, sponsor, organizer, or guest. Without each and every one of you this day wouldn’t have been the same and it’s this open-minded and communicative TEDx atmosphere that made it so special.
Saturday, February 16th, 2013 – the big day has arrived
8.00 pm: the team arrived on campus and last details were arranged.
11.00 pm: the technical equipment arrived and first sound checks were made
12.00 pm: our speakers were welcomed to the speakers’ lounge behind the stage
12.30 pm: check-in time for the guests at the front desk
1.00 pm: the light in the festively decorated ballroom got dimmed and the program began
Welcome by the hosts Daniel and Julia
As its tradition at all TEDx events a TED Talks was shown at the beginning of each speakers’ block. There are so many tiny, beautiful, funny, tragic moments in your life -- how are you going to remember them all? Cesar Kuriyama started to record 1 second of every day in his live - cool project! http://www.ted.com/talks/cesar_kuriyama_one_second_every_day.html
Welcome by Marion Festing our ESCP Berlin campus director
Brittany Arthur held the first speech of the day and led us on a motivational journey commencing on a ship wreck at the shores of Australia.
Anthony-James Owen underlined the importance of having and being a mentor in life and had the audience instantly connect by having them face one another.
Maëva Tordo shared with us her personal story and views on social entrepreneurship and made it tangible with a magic trick.
2.30 pm: Our guests can now indulge in our sponsors’ nice little treats during the first break and start to get to know each other.
3.15 pm – Second round!
TED Talk: Ric Elias sat in the plane that landed on the Hudson River - and he shares 3 things that he learned during those seconds. http://www.ted.com/talks/ric_elias.html
Roman Kirsch was our first speaker of the second round and gave valuable advice on how to make the best out of the opportunities you encounter in life.
Till Behnke shared his unconventional life story and how he ended up founding betterplace.org.
Borris Förster took us on a trip across two continents that ended in Tadzhikistan and changed his life.
Jim Geraghty came all the way from Boston and talked about the tough but essential battle against rare diseases.
Right before the second break Matthias Götz blew us away with his amazing beat-boxing performance.
4.30 pm – In the second break conversations continued and the wide range of snacks was explored further.
5.15 pm – the third and last block for the day commenced!
TED Talk: Matts Cutts challenged himself with 30-days challenges and urges us to take the opportunity and try the same. http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days.html
Niko Alm opened the third session with his story of being a political activist and defined an agnostic state.
Arne Krueger touched upon the often circumvented topic of failure in our lives and how to see an opportunity in it.
Dagmar Quentin took us you for a walk to her proper World of Opportunities, starting a long time ago and ending up totally unexpectedly in Palestine now.
Kaycie and Giacomo gave us goose bumps with their great performance including a guitar, drums and an amazing voice.
Prof. Ulrich Weinberg discussed the pressure we are facing today, to change towards a more integrated and holistic way of thinking.
Ole Bischof shared his experiences on how to take on challenges and grab opportunities by telling his story about preparing for that one special moment.
The end of the official TEDxESCPBerlin program had come. Johannes Bittel addressed some final words about the origins of TEDxESCP to the audience and thanked the organizing team for all their effort and hard work that had finally paid off.
7.30 pm – After a champagne reception in the hall the TEDxESCPBerlin Salon was opened with warm food, outstanding wine and a memorable music performance by Jazz artist Kenneth Knudsen.
We enjoyed the ride and hope you enjoyed it with us!
Organizing TEDxESCPBerlin was an opportunity and we took it.
And we will never regret it.
Speakers
Speakers may not be confirmed. Check event website for more information.
Roman Kirsch
Roman’s greatest passion is building and growing businesses, and has been ever since he founded his first company at the age of 15. In 2011 he founded and was CEO of Casacanda, the leading European design e-commerce company. Roman sold Casacanda to Fab.com in February 2012 where he worked as Managing Director for Continental Europe. Roman has been named ”Global Shaper” by the World Economic Forum in Davos and we are excited to hear what he has to say about taking opportunities never mind the risk.Jim Geraghty
Jim Geraghty is a former senior executive from Sanofi, and long time senior executive at Genzyme, where he has developed inovative business models to cure rare diseases. Today, he is interested in helping the biotech world grow and tackle neglected diseases. Jim Geraghty is also a big TED fan and great storyteller so we are very pleased to welcome him as a speaker at our conference and listen to his thoughts about realizing opportunities.Niko Alm
Niko Alm is an Austrian entrepreneur and political activist. He is the spokesperson for the Laicism-Initiative that wants to separate state and religion. What others would regard as their main task, Niko sees as leisure activity. Having studied journalism, Niko first worked as a music-journalist and designer. In 2001 he founded his company Super-Fi and since 2007 he publishes the Vice Magazin Alps (Austria and Switzerland). He already spoke at TEDxVienna and TEDxSalzburg and we are now looking forward to welcoming Niko Alm at TEDxESCPBerlin!Brittany Arthur
Brittany Arthur is a Rotary Peace Ambassador in Berlin and currently studies at the School of Design Thinking of the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam. Originally from Australia, she has travelled the world and completed double bachelor studies in International Business and Japanese in Japan. During her Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship in Berlin she founded beliefXchange, which is a company aiming for the mobilization of each person’s motivation with regard to their best resources and strategies for success. Her method is to dignify each person’s craft with an opportunity for service through physical exchange programs.Till Behnke
Till Behnke studied business informatics whilst working for Paybox. Subsequently, he worked for Daimler Financial Services in Europe and North America. 2007, he gave up his job in order to start betterplace.org, which in the meantime has become a multi-million donation platform. Till was awarded the scholarship of the Ashoka-Fellowship. He was named a member of the Top 40 Young Economic Elite by Capital Magazine and joined the Atlantik-Brücke e.V. Young-Leaders-Network. He is council member of the Advisory Council on Innovation, launched in October 2011 by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).Ole Bischof
Ole Bischof is a former Judoka and took part in the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London and was Germanys most successful martial artist. The Olympic Champion, former World Number One and 18-times medal winners at Grandslam and World Cups is also ambassador for the Laureus – Sport for Good Foundation. He is holder of the “Silbernes Lorbeerblatt”, the highest accolade in the fields of sports, awarded by Former President of Germany Horst Köhler. In September 2012, Ole retired from professional sports and now works as Consultant for a renowned accountancy and consulting firm.Borris Förster
Borris Förster is one of the founders and Managing Director of the Adventure Manufactory. A company that set its goal to “making the world a lot less boring and at the same time saving a bit of it, too”. At the age of 25 he decided it might be a good idea to traverse from Europe to Asia in a vehicle with the power of a lawnmower. This incredible overland journey over 18,000 km has marked a turning point in his live and spurred the effort to build an organization that creates opportunities for those who have almost none and kick the butt of peoples comfort zones. Borris has spoken at the Vision Summit and inspires people to reject the ordinary and embrace the extraordinary.Arne Krueger
Arne Krueger, born in 1971 started his entrepreneurial career fifteen years ago. Today he is CEO of sixty employees in his mtc – Moving Targets Consulting GmbH, working in Berlin, living in Istanbul. His passion is service design, enterprise information technology and patent information, he loves speeches, workshops and he blogs daily at herrkrueger.de his dreams, about photography, zen and his experiences in online networks, social communities and about all elements of digital revolution.Anthony-James Owen
Anthony-James Owen was born 1963 and started his career 1987 by first working for Silicon Valley based IT companies like Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics. He founded the European overseas branch of the Guerrilla Marketing Group in 1994 and is helping businesses all over Europe since then to build a broader customer base. Where ever possible he supports the local entrepreneurs and startups to successful build their business dreams. His personal passion is communication and he believes that we have everything in us we need to change our personal destiny in a heartbeat. He supports the local community by serving as an active member of the Rotary Club Berlin International.Dagmar Quentin
„When life knocks on my door, I open it.“ – Dagmar will talk about colorful opportunities she took while thinking out of the box and dropping most reasonable plans for them. Getting great gifts in return, like loosing fear of the unknown, believing in miracles, and many more is the other, adorable side of the coin. Dagmar will share insights into a country that totally unexpectedly adopted her four years ago: Palestine. Currently Dagmar is working as the chairwoman of NIJMAH* a joint adventure, a Palestinian-German “co-production”, supporting Palestinians to realize their dreams themselves.Maeva Tordo
Maëva is head of ESCP Europe Blue Factory, where she helps aspiring entrepreneurs realize the dreams they have to shape the future. She co-founded the Blue Factory, a European accelerator for innovative and sustainable startups, because she strongly believes in the power of startups to change the world, in the necessesity of social innovation, and in European idendity. She is also co-founder of the NOISE and a member of MakeSense as well as other communities dedicated to amplify solutions for the 21st century. Maëva is highly interested in the world that the youth are building, and will share with us her passion for the opportunities that await us.Ulrich Weinberg
Prof. Ulrich Weinberg is a long year professional in computer graphics, games and digital media and one of the first people in Germany doing computer animation. Since 1994, he is working as a professor for computer animation at the Film & Television Academy Babelsberg (HFF) and since 2004 as visiting professor at CUC Communication University of China, Beijing. Since 2007 director of School of Design Thinking at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam. Modeled on the renowned d.school at Stanford University, the academic postgraduate program offers a study track in “Design Thinking”.Organizing team
