Theme: Who We Are

Pictures of the event can be found on Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/TEDxKhartoum

An article on TEDxKhartoum in the Sudan Vision newspaper (English).
http://www.sudanvisiondaily.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=73769

TEDx Africa Organizers Interview: Anwar Dafa-Alla of TEDxKhartoum
http://tedx.tumblr.com/post/5876403072/tedx-africa-organizers-interview-anwar-dafa-alla

TEDxKhartoum Talks can be accessed on Youtube via this address:
http://bit.ly/lDl3jC

Spark City
Burri, East of Khartoum airport
East of Khartoum airport
Khartoum
Sudan

Mustafa Khojali

Mustafa Khojali 's background in management, has helped him launch several cultural and artistic projects that involve channeling youth's creative energy into areas of art and culture. One of these projects is the Open Mic which started as a platform for young poets to recite their poetry, it quickly evolved from a small gathering into widely attended event in Bait Al-finoon, Bahri. Having many young artists participating in the event paved the way for other projects such as SPACE and Studio One. Parallel to these projects 'In the city' magazine, a guide to Khartoum, the city of many cultures. Mustafa’s most recent project is “MAKAAN arts & Culture” a community and youth development centre which should be ready by April 2011. When asked about his passion and interests, 'Travelling, Exploring Cultures, Learning, Playing and teaching percussions, Sufism, Business, Art, Youth and Community Development and more'.

Hisham Elzubair

Hisham Elzubair :Coming from a diverse education background which led to a diverse working background as well..starting from working in the the University of Texas labs, to a performing/recording musician, guitar tutoring, bookstore sales, audio engineer to research director, traveling between Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Cyprus, the States, Dubai, and recently Sudan. After moving to Sudan in 2009, he founded Almawja in June 2010.The company focuses on media productions/services for Sudan in general and Sudanese organizations in specific. It is at the heart of a movement; to bring about new and elevated internal and external images of Sudan. The company comprises of various teams of talented/skilled Sudanese 'creatives' and media practitioners, whose goal is to improve Sudan's image, provide a platform for those talents and be a contributor to the betterment of Sudan through various forms of media productions. Almawja produces professional world-class media products, ranging from documentaries, animation series, music videos, TV series, children's books and short films, independently produced and backed by sponsorship from various organizations.

Khalid Mansour

Khalid Mansour, is a Sudanese Award winning marketing professional with 12 years marketing experience working across four continents and in six countries. Khalid studied industrial design, communication and holds an MA in Business Design from Domus Academy. Mr. Mansour is particularly interested in Brand management, innovation and CSR, and has been working with several international brands mainly as brand manager or consultant.Mansour worked in fields ranging from Retail, FMCG, Hospitality, luxury, Telecommunication & Corporate Communications. Khalid Mansour has also been involved with building MTN Foundation in Sudan, a corporate CSR fund that supports in the fields of Health, Education and Entrepreneurship. In 2009, Khalid, was nominated as one of 21 people who will change business, by BusinessWeek, in relation to launching the first privately managed Micro finance project in Sudan.Khalid Enjoys language learning and speaks, English, Arabic, French & Italian .

Balgees Badri

Anthropologist and Feminist Professor Balghis Badri is an anthropologist and feminist. A pioneer in introducing women and gender studies and training in Sudan at undergraduate and graduate levels and in some Middle Eastern countries. She is also a fighter for abolishing Female Genital Mutilation, for ratification of CEDAW, Women's Rights, the quota in the electoral law, engendering peace and development. She initiated the first master program on Gender and Development at Ahfad University for Women and promoted a small women's studies unit teaching a university requirement course on Gender and Development and Women Studies of the university to become the Regional Institute of Gender, Diversity, Peace, and Rights. It became the first would wide Institute that offers these combinations of programmes whereby about 150 graduated with master degrees and more than 15 thousand studied gender and women studies at undergraduate level. She lived in Sudan struggling not only for women's rights but also for democracy and principles of good governance. She worked at grass roots levels by opening ten integrated service and training centers in rural areas and informing youth and grass roots organizations. Being in Sudan did not stop her from connecting with global bodies through; NGOs and UN agencies, research, publishing books, writing at newspapers, You-Tube, producing films, simple printed materials and engaging with media. She is the grand daughter of the pioneer of women's education in Sudan and daughter of the founder of the first women university in Sudan and Africa. She has two daughters and four grand children.

Gada Kadoda

Activist Academic Kadooda is an activist academic who is a founding member of Mehen (a women training centre in Khartoum), and works with community-based organizations on development-related projects. Currently, she is involved in solar electrification of two villages in South Kordofan that she helped start in 2008 through INAT and the Barefoot College in India. Her work experience started as programmer and system analyst after graduation at local software houses. After obtaining her postgraduate degrees she held research positions at Bournemouth University (1998-2001) working on prediction techniques and data mining; and at Imperial College (2001-2003) working on data analysis and visualization. She moved to the University of the West Indies,Cave Hill Campus in Barbados, as lecturer in computer science until 2005. Since her time at Imperial College , she developed research interests in multidisciplinary study areas of knowledge management and appropriate technology. Today Gada Kadoda is an associate professor at Garden City College for Science and Technology, and teaches part time at the departments of Computer Science and Information Technology at the Universities of Khartoum and Kassala. She is consultant for the Epidemiological Laboratory in Khartoum as well as works with national and international organizations offering her Software Engineering and Knowledge Management expertise to areas such as health service improvement and rural development.

AbdelKareem Badri

Young Sudanese Inventor Abdelkareem Bedri was born in Sudan 1987. He earned his BS.c of Electronics Engineering from University of Khartoum in 2008. In his graduation year, ElBedri decided to utilize his talent and help the deaf to engage in the society. Therefore he invented a glove that could transfer the deaf signs into a form of speech. Upon his graduation ElBedri proceeded to develop his invention further by participating in five exhibitions and competitions all over the world ; Kenya, Lebanon, Jordan, Netherlands and won many prizes for his invention. One of the most recognized prize was was “King Abdullah Award for Youth Innovation and Achievments” which granted him a fund to develop his invention further and turn it into a product. ElBedri spent six months in Germany to develop his project. After his Graduation ElBedri worked as research assistant in Electronic Systems Research Center- Sudan University of Science and Technology 2008 – 2009 .Parallel to that he also worked in Electronic Engineering Department- Faculty of Engineering University of Khartoum as Teaching assistant. Abdelkareem ElBedri is also the founder of “Speko” Company developing technology that enables the deaf to communicate. ElBedri hopes to accomplish real change through his research and System Development.

Nasr Mohammed

Researcher in Genetic Association Studies was born in Abri,North of Sudan 1973. Graduated from University of Khartoum in major of Clinical Chemistry, Medical Laboratory Science (1997). He then obtain a Higher Diploma in Clinical chemistry Medical laboratory science from College of medicine, University of Juba in 2000. He was awarded his M.Sc in the same field in 2004. His PhD in Pharmacokinetics of Warfarin Therapy in Adult Sudanese Patients was from Sungkyunkwan University, school of medicine, Department of Laboratory medicine and genetics, South Korea. He has been working as a lecturer and assistant professor in Al-Zaeim Al-azhary University. Nassr eldin is a model for young Sudanese researchers. His research interest is in Genetic association Studies, Pharmacogenomics studies mainly warfarin pharmacogenomics , and Human & population genetic.

Elfateh Hussain

Musician, Guitarist Occupation- Associate Professor , Faculty of Music &Drama (SUST)Khartoum Specialized in Classic Guitar Academic studies Elementary school, Intermediate and high secondary school Wad Madani. Post graduate studies Sent in admission as a member of the teaching staff of faculty of Music and Drama to the Russian Academy Of Music in Moscow in 1990 where he had received his master degree in 1995 and his PhD in 1997 Moscow Academy Of Music. Participation and memberships Member and establisher of an instrumental musical Trio with his fellows Meragani Elzein and Ahmed Osman . Participated in many musical festivals in the Arab region and Europe . Founder of Al Samandal musical group which had achieved big success. A composer and Orchestrator. Has many recorded playing in different Radio and TV stations (Köln, Moscow. France Omdurman Radio and Radio and TV's in some of Arab countries. Composer of music for many dramatically series and theatrical plays. Participated in many conferences , workshops, and seminars presenting many specialized papers in the Sudanese Music matters in Lebanon, Egypt,Jordon,Frankfurt,and Moscow. Member of the National Council For Culture & Arts . Director and conductor of The National Sudanese Group for Music & Traditional Folk Music instruments 1998-2002.

Abdel-Rahman El-Asha

Doctor Doctor Abdel-Rahman El-Asha is a Sudanese doctor, who is putting his all to make Sudanese community a much healthier one. His love to help cure Sudanese, led to the search for all means which can help cure and ease the pain of the Sudanese people, this time it was in the form of research in the nutrient substances (and spices) which can be used for... treating some chronic disease conditions .The outcome of their research was encouraging, the doctors could see substantial improvement in some chronic disorders using different combinations of the nutria substances and spices. Doctor Al-Esha studied Medicine in University of Khartoum in 1984 , he worked in the health sector for about twelve years and became the Health Services Manager in Bahri ,Khartoum in 2001 .He became the director of the Research Department in Sudanese Ministry of Health from 2002-2007.And now he is part of the Directorate Research in the Sudanese Ministry of Health from 2007 till this day. He holds two master degrees in Community Medicine and Social and Preventive Medicine. http://tedxkhartoum.com/speakers/94-abdel-rahman-el-asha.html

Isam Siddig

Sudanese Productive Inventor Dr. Isam Siddig a Sudanese productive inventor, a notable humanitarian as well as a distinguished entrepreneur, holding a BSc. in Chemical Engineering from University of Khartoum, an MBA from University of London, an MSc. and a PhD from UMIST UK. Dr. Isam is the inventor of Gum Arabic as a natural Prebiotic, he also owns patent ...rights of the electric hot plate for Sudanese Kisra making plate as well as Garraha tapping tools for gum Arabic trees. He is highly recognized for proposing new Daylight Carbon Savings (DCS) instead of Daylight Saving Time (DST) which was implanted in Sudan in 1999. Apart from the above, Dr. Isam Siddig is also the founder of BFFT NGO to plant Prebiotic forests and 3m Baobab trees in order to fight diseases, global warming and poverty, the co-founder of the largest renewable energy factory in Sudan ,founder of Sudan peace forum ,he played a major role in facilitating dialogue between top party leaders in Sudan with achievements (CPA ,DarFur peace initiative , John Garange `s social Peace committee). Dr. Isam is a rare mix of science and humanitarianism; he is currently the CEO of the leading-edge Dar Savanna Ltd.

Eltayeb Farah

Newspapers Columnist and Television Presenter El Tayeb Farah is a PR practitioner, a newspapers columnist and television presenter. Mr. Farah is the writer of popular Keyboard column which is published on goan newspaper and goansport.net , and which deals with key social and sports topics in Sudan. Mr Farah discovered his passion of writing as a young student writing love letters on behalf of his brothers! "Those letters made ladies fall instantly for my brothers" says Farah. El Tayeb holds a BA degree in English Literature, he then started working in journalism where he covered political news for sometime before deciding to move to sports and social topics. "I was more driven to cover sports, political news are always sad news, I felt that sports connects people socially, from there grew my passion to develop a new writing style based on logic, independent thought and key social issues... eventually all this evolved to my Keyboard column, which started in 2004... In 2010, while researching through Google insight, El Tayeb discovered that the most popular Sudanese search was the word "Culture" , from there he has an idea to start a television show. "I have noticed that young people were more interested in social media, the project idea was to provide a TV/Web platform for young people to interact with key social and sports figures and to express their opinions and ask questions live through the Facebook page. The topic and guest name are posted online 3 days before the show, to allow the debate to build up.. the fusion between live television and live social update, created a very unique viewing experience as TV audience are able to be part of a live conversation and contribute directly through the Facebook posts. The last episode of the first season, hosted over 39,000 people on Facebook page. El Tayeb’s work has been a great online and offline success. He continues to lead a new generation of young writers and online Sudanese activist. http://tedxkhartoum.com/speakers/76-eltayeb-farah.html

Fadwa Sa'ad

School Teacher After graduating from University of Sudan, with a BA in Fine Arts and Graphic Design in 2001, Fadwa Sa'ad decided to follow her passion for teaching, and turn it into a career. So she took training courses in teaching methods in England 2002 and obtained a diploma in Language and Translation from university of Juba, in 2008. Fadwa believes teaching is a two-ways learning method, and finds teaching a tool for both her and her students to turn knowledge into achievements. Being a teacher in Unity School- a private British school that takes English as the formal language- Fadwa noticed that Students who come from a foregin background, and are already struggling with poor arabic skills, find Arabic language books dull, unattractive and out of date. Believing that adding some creativity to old education methods, could be the key to this problem. So she decided to take matter on he own hands and use simple visual communication tools, to make Arabic books more appealing to her students and help them not only understand it better but even interact with it! Fadwa hopes her idea would be taken further and implemented in all Sudanese schools, for the whole teaching currcilum.

Rashid Diab

Sudanese Artist Rashid Diab is one of the most influential sudanese artists. He obtained his B.A. in painting from Khartoum College of Fine art in 1978, then proceeded his education in Spain where he received his PhD. in Painting from Complutense University,Madrid and worked there for a decade. He hosted exhibitions all over the world, and wrote many publications.

Ahmed Motasim

Historical and an Archaeology Researcher A former diplomat at the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a historical and an archaeology researcher, also a member of the national Endowment for the arts, Dr. Ahmed is holding a Bsc of Arts in History from University of Khartoum (U of K), Master of Arts in Folklore from the African and Asian Studies Institute from U of K and a Ph.D. in archeology from U of K also. His passion to Sudanese culture plus connecting it to the present lead him to explore old traditions and rituals still affecting Sudan's society today. Being a diplomat in many countries around the world encouraged him to share Sudanese culture by researches and books, he has published lots of articles in both languages Arabic and English in a number of periodicals and journals. Also Dr. Ahmed has published: -(Kingdom of Christian Gates and the Time of Anj) book. -(waking people to honor of Bani Abbas) manuscript. Under the copyright: *(Kingdom of Alawa) book. *(Historical and citizen Culture for Al-Takaki area) book. *(AL-Robatab tales) book. *( The era of the tournament at Sinnar) book, (translating to J- Spoling). http://tedxkhartoum.com/speakers/107-ahmed-motasim-.html