Bratislava

Confirmed Speakers

• Manj Carthigaser
  Manj is a Fitness and Nutritional Coach in Bratislava. She moved to Slovakia 2.5 years ago and founded her company 'Misfit of Bratislava' under which she runs Bootcamp Fitness (a program based on Bodyweight and Interval Training), conducts Nutritional Coaching and will soon be adding BioSignature Modulation (targeted fat loss via hormonal profiling, and nutrient therapy). Food has not always been her passion and in fact, used to be her worst enemy. Just over two decades ago, she battled with anorexia, bulimia, & even vegetarianism (which was detrimental to HER health). It was a long slow uphill climb to get to today, but she's made it, due precisely to food.
• Michal Cifra
  As a student of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Zilina Michal once read that all that lives slightly shines. He was extremely impressed and fascinated by this idea and he wanted to find the truth by himself. After the student internships in Germany, he came to Prague, completed doctoral studies, so he could personally contribute to this research topics that he was interested in so much. Now he leads at the Institute of Photonics and Electronics in Prague a group that deals with the electromagnetic fields of living cells. The group examines how electromagnetic fields in living organisms occur and which biological functions it fulfills
• Ahmad Coucha
  An engineer by profession, co-founder of TEDxCairo and entrepreneur, Ahmad’s diverse fields of experience provide various looking glasses through which he examines events. In 2010 along with his 3 partners he co-founded TEDxCairo all of whom were then engineering students, serving and augmenting his passion for the exchange of ideas. At the age of 22 he co-founded one of the first social media agencies in Egypt, Kijamii, where his grip on business oriented work grew steadier. Prior to the launch of TEDxCairo, Ahmad was involved in many several international social initiatives such as the International Organization of Initiatives of Change in Switzerland and the CVA organization in Sydney,Australia.
• Jaroslav Dodok
  Jaroslav Dodok visits high school of business in in Banska Bystrica. A few years ago he decided to actively do new things. In the 13 years he did his first important call, by which he became an editor. Now he is the CEO and chief-editor of news portal www.student24.sk. He participates in a youth initiative, prepares various projects and events for young people, such as Press Day. He likes photography and writingt as his hobby and work as well. Full program caused that now he goes to school just to check classmates :)
• Zdenka Homolová
  She works as a teacher at an elementary chool in Prešov and besides the work she is devoted to cancer sick children. Working with children and helping others fills. She therefore decided to engage in charitable activities also her class, pupils and parents. When teaching she uses the latest features, dramatization, experiential learning and game. Zdenka Homolová is co-author of a set of books "From the pockets of the pupil" and Prešovníček CD, which presents the work of her students. Books and CD are written by children and are based on the idea to support cancer patients.
• Peter Káčer
  Born in 1974 in Bratislava, diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Despite everybody claimed he will be a lying patient for the rest of his life, uneducable and incapable of independent life, his parents have acquiesced to this situation and arranged everything so that he can fully live. After high school Peter found out that to find a job is not so easy and if he does not take care of himself, he will remain closed between the four walls. Since he was a kid he was a fan of cars. He decided to organize a project for handicapped children: He organized moto-knowledge contest called Rally - Journey run by an NGO of the same name in Slovakia and Czech Republic. In 2010 he completed studies at the Faculty of Management, Comenius University, and since January 2012, he is the statutory and trustee of the TA3 Foundation.
• Alexander Kutka
  In September 2009 a non-profit organization "Slovak organisation for space activities" was founded. Its main focus is to popularize space research in Slovakia. Such an organization might seem odd in a small country like Slovakia, but the founding memeber Alexander Kutka thinks differently. Through this organization and its website kozmonautika.sk, he is trying to spread information about European Space Agency (ESA) and about the need to cooperate with it.
• Leonard Mlodinow
  As a child, Leonard was interested in both mathematics, chemistry and organic chemistry. His interest turned to physics during a semester he took off from college to spend on a kibbutz in Israel, during which he had little to do at night beside reading The Feynman Lectures on Physics. While a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley and on the faculty at Caltech, he co-developed a new type of perturbation theory for eigenvalue problems in quantum mechanics Later, he did pioneering work on the quantum theory of dielectric media. Between 2008 and 2010, Mlodinow worked on a book with Stephen Hawking, entitled The Grand Design. Apart from his research and books on popular science, he has been a screenwriter for television series, including Star Trek: The Next Generation and MacGyver.
• Jader Tolja
  Jader Tolja is an italian MD and psychotherapist, he teaches Body Conscious Design at the Architecture Department of the Bratislava Polytechnic, at the Domus Academy of Design in Milan, and other universities and design academies. His area of research is the understanding of the specific relationships among body, mind and space. On this topic he wrote many books, of which the most recent is " Body Conscious Fashion".
• Samo Trnka
  Political satirist, satirical poet, internet humorist. Founding member of the Association of the unsuspecting, where he holds the position of the Director of Earth. He is one of the few people in Slovakia paid for inventing and doing internet stupidities. For Sme.sk he does programes Úplne vážne (Quite seriously) and Nová vlastiveda (New homeland science). He also take care of microblogging site Gulas.sme.sk. He is passionate about internet memes and internet creativity.
• Gever Tulley
  Gever Tulley is a world renowned author, TED speaker and founder of Brightworks – a one of a kind innovative school in Santa Barbara, California. Gever is a self-taught computer scientist with no formal education who holds multiple technology patents, Gever's expertise is really in... thinking. He has taught workshops and made presentations to both kids and adults, around the world. He has spoken at TED, twice, written articles for MAKE:, and authored the book Fifty Dangerous Things (you should let your children do). Back in 2005 he founded a summer program called Tinkering School in order to learn how children become competent and to explore the notion that kids can build anything, and through building, learn anything. This experience then led to opening Brightworks in 2011 – a unique school that reimagines K-12 education. By taking the best practices from both early childhood education and hands-on, project-based experiential learning, the school strives to meet students’ needs in a flexible, mixed-age environment that breaks the traditional walls between school and the community outside the classroom.
• Illah van Oijen
  Since her arrival in Slovakia in 2005, Dutch photographer Illah van Oijen has been researching Slovakia's public space. With her project Human Landscapes, which resulted in the books Bratislava, mesto na mieru (2007) and Kosice, Dzivost v srdci (2011), her goal is to map and comment the current state of the public space in Slovakia's cities. The topic of public space is also taken upon in different aspects of her work. With her projects Beat the Billboard, she puts herself in the position of an activist, and as an organizer of Dobry Trh she has created a community project in the streets of Bratislava.
• Gert van der Veen
  Gert van der Veen, born 1965 in Groningen, The Netherlands. Trained as a lawyer he invested the best of his energies in rock climbing and love. After several failures in more mainstream career-attempts he eventually did what felt natural: with a friend, he started a climbing center in Groningen, 500 km from the nearest rock. It is pretty special in its kind, featuring the world's highest purpose-build climbing tower and a complete outdoor facility with real rock.
• GlassDuo
  GlassDuo was founded by Anna and Arkadiusz Szafraniec. Some time ago, being charmed with the glass harp sound, they abandoned their places in the Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra in Gdansk and started to realize their own idea of performing. Today they play in duo and with other ensembles accompaniment including symphony orchestras. They are the only glass music group in Poland, one of a very few professional ensembles in the world. They had several world premieres of musical works composed especially for them. They have made numerous recordings for radio, TV and theatre productions. GlassDuo has been invited to many local and international music and culture festivals all over the world. GlassDuo’s instrument is the biggest professional glass harp in the world; its range covers nearly 5 octaves.