Theme: Tapestry

Join us at TEDxYangon 2017 and experience a uniquely inspirational day like no other. Engage with brilliant speakers and fellow attendees to exchange stimulating, challenging and thought-provoking ideas.

The 2017 event with the theme “Tapestry” will be held on Sunday, 21 May 2017 at The Rose Garden Hotel and aims to share ideas that inspire, open minds and spark dialogue about Myanmar’s past, present and future. The talks shared at the event will explore the threads that bind the people of Myanmar together, stories woven throughout the country and showcase the myriad of textures, layers and colours that make up the tapestry of Myanmar.

Book now via shop.com.mm at http://bit.ly/2nqktP7. Ticket price of USD 100 (MMK 135,000) is inclusive of all talks, lunch, coffee breaks, snacks and evening drinks and supports the great cause of ideas worth spreading for TEDxYangon talks to be shared online.

Rose Garden Hotel
171 Upper Pansodan Road
Yangon, Yangon, 11110
Myanmar

Data Segment

Data miner

David Madden

Tech ecosystem builder

David is the Founder & CEO of Phandeeyar (“creation place”), a tech hub that is spearheading the development of Myanmar’s technology and innovation ecosystem. Phandeeyar invests in startups, trains founders and developers, supports civic and social entrepreneurs, and helps change agents use technology to increase their impact. Phandeeyar also runs an open data platform, a Makerspace for hardware hackers, and a co-working facility. Before moving to Myanmar, David was the co-founder of Purpose, a digital strategy agency in New York. He also played leading roles at several tech startups, and co-founded the internationally recognized social movement GetUp.org and the global action network Avaaz.org. In 2016 David was named one of 11 “Agents of Change” by the Nikkei Asian Review. David holds a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where he was a Fulbright Scholar, and has degrees in Law and Arts from the University of New South Wales.

Emilie Röell

Anthropologist, social entrepreneur

Emilie Röell is a development consultant and social entrepreneur based in Yangon since 2013. An anthropologist by training, she is interested in creating solutions that make use of and preserve cultural and natural capital while creating sustainable community impact. Emilie is the founder of Doh Eain (“Our Home”), a social enterprise aimed at heritage conservation and urban renewal, and of Yangon City Growers, an urban farming collective aimed at stimulating local and organic food production. She is the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network’s representative in Myanmar, and previously worked for the EU, UNDP, WWF, IUCN and a number of other organisations in Myanmar, the Pacific and Tanzania. She enjoys climbing, hiking, (motor)cycling and meditation. Emilie studied at Leiden University, University of California at Berkeley and University College Utrecht, holding Masters degrees in Anthropology, Philosophy and Religion Studies, and a Bachelor degree in Development Studies.

Ewan Lamont

Agriculturalist

Ewan Lamont is Chief Operating Officer of Myanma Awba, the leading group of companies in Myanmar focused on agriculture. He is a strong proponent of agricultural technology and education, and the role they can play in transforming rural communities and accelerating economic improvement across the country. Prior to the world of agriculture, Ewan spent seven years in Beijing helping foreign investors find their feet in the frothy pre-Olympics days and navigating the world of finance with Chinese characteristics. He left China through the ‘back door’, conducting field research into the ancient Central Asian trade routes for rhubarb seeds – a more lucrative, and delicious, commodity than silk. Originally from the UK, Ewan has lived and worked in a scattering of cities across Latin America, Europe and Southeast Asia and holds an MBA from INSEAD and an MA from Cambridge University. He is based in Yangon with his young family and speaks enthusiastic, limited and wildly inaccurate Burmese.

Htar Htar

Founder and Director of Akhaya Women

Htar Htar is the Founder and Director of Akhaya Women, an organization dedicated to the empowerment of women. Through her work as an activist, Htar Htar works to bring education, justice, and advocacy for women and children. She is particularly interested in addressing social and cultural barriers that hold women back from participating in decision making in the family, community and national level through innovative strategy: women empowerment through sexuality dialogue. Her innovation in addressing gender norms is now widely spread accepted by development organizations including government, police task force, private sector and religious institutions. Through sexuality dialogue in a Myanmar context, she and her team help women develop a positive relationship with their body, build self-confidence and recognize the right to exercise ownership over it. This enables freedom from discrimination in the home and in public, and support for women to participate in decision making.

Htet Myet Oo

Restaurateur and food diplomat

Htet is a Myanmar-born, 27 year-old restaurateur and managing director of RTH Group Ltd., a restaurant group focused in the emerging sector of local cuisine. Htet is a graduate of City University London, where he received a Bachelor's in Economics in 2012. After 18 years in the UK, Htet moved back to Myanmar and initially worked as the Public Relations Officer for the Yangon Heritage Trust. In December 2014, Htet opened his group’s flagship restaurant, Rangoon Tea House, a casual dining restaurant inspired by the century-old institution that is the Burmese tea shop. The restaurant has gone on to feature in various international publications and in February 2017, the restaurant was named one of CNN’s 11 Best Tea Houses in the World. Htet was also chosen as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia 2016 for Arts and Culture and has ambitions of opening what would become one of the first international chain of Burmese restaurants and globalise the country through its cuisine.

James Erskine

Founder of Shakespeare Schools Myanmar

James Erskine used to work as a producer for Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, touring the works of Shakespeare to over 20 countries. In 2012 James moved to Myanmar and immediately fell in love with the country. He continued to share his passion for theatre setting up Shakespeare Schools to deliver drama classes and produce performances. At the end of 2013 he had the opportunity to create a youth production of Macbeth with 250 children from diverse backgrounds. Since then he has continued to create projects that bring together people from disparate strata of society. He works regularly with a network of international schools, monastery schools, orphanages and education charities from around Yangon. Shakespeare Schools’ receives no funding. Income generated from the classes at international schools subsidises the work with monastery schools and orphanages.

Jimmy Ko Ko

Dancer

Jimmy started breakdancing when he was 14 and was hired by a commercial dance company to perform for events and shows after just two years of learning. He was a full-time dancer at Uranium Dance School in Myanmar from 2010 to 2012. He continued to push himself to achieve greater heights through various competitions like the "San Francisco Hip Hop Dance Competition" in 2009 ( 2nd and 3rd place), "Giordano Dance Competition" in 2009 (2nd Place), " Wayzayandar Dance Competition" In 2010 (Solo 2nd Place) and " Champion of Dance" in 2010 (1st Place). Despite his busy schedule. Jimmy was involved in organizing annual street dance competition in Myanmar, including "The First Jam", "The Jam Down", "Yangon BBoy City" and "GWAVE". After graduating from NAFA (Diploma in Dance) in 2016, Jimmy Continued to shine on stage and was recently crowned the winner of "Myanmar's Got Talent 2016". And also he is the manager of a famous boy band in Myanmar called "Project_K".

Lamin Oo

Story teller

Lamin Oo is a partner at Tagu Films and works on documentaries and short films as a producer, director, and editor. In 2014, he produced an award-winning documentary film, "This Land Is Our Land", which captured the plights of farmers in Myanmar. Since then, he has collaborated with local and international filmmakers on an array of stories about Myanmar and its people. His work has been recognized with awards locally and internationally. In 2016, Lamin received The Power of Film Humanitarian Award given by FilmAid Asia for his documentaries. Lamin has also fostered outreach with new filmmakers to help develop their storytelling capabilities. His main interest is in telling personal stories that paint a fuller picture of life in Myanmar as illustrated in works such as “Homework”, a small family moment of a father, who works abroad, video chatting his family, and “The Special One”, which tells the story of a fishmonger from Yangon who is passionate about football.

Ma Thida

Writer, doctor, editor, activist

Ma Thida is a medical doctor, writer, human rights activist and former prisoner of conscience. She edits a Shwe Amyutay magazine, Info Digest journal, and also volunteers at a local free clinic. In 1993, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison for "endangering public peace, having contact with illegal organizations, and distributing unlawful literature." She was released in 1999 due to declining health, increasing political pressure from efforts of organizations like Amnesty International and PEN International. She won several international human rights awards, including the Reebok Human Rights Award, the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, Freedom of Speech Award and Disturbing the Peace; Courageous Writer at Risk Award. She was a International Writers Project Fellow at Brown University and a Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University, the inaugural elected president of PEN Myanmar. She serves as a board member of PEN International.

May Sabe Phyu

Advocate for gender equality in Myanmar

May Sabe Phyu is a passionate and committed advocate for women’s rights and gender equality in Myanmar. She works actively in the areas of the prevention of violence against women, law reform and women's engagement to bring peace. Her determination in the face of adversity - political opposition, widely held and rigid views about women's roles, and personal risk - inspire others to push for government policy changes and to join collective actions to recognise and realise women’s right to live in peace. She is the Director of the Gender Equality Network, a coalition of more than 130 organizations collaborating to advocate for women’s rights to end discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities. She also co-founded the Kachin Peace Network and Kachin Women Peace Network to raise awareness of the human cost of conflict and to advocate for peace and reconciliation. The US Secretary of the State John Kerry honored her International Women of Courage Award in March 2015.

Melinda Tun

Lawyer and observer of Myanmar legal history

Melinda Thet Tun is a Myanmar-born Australian-trained lawyer. Melinda was a senior lawyer specialising in mergers and acquisitions at an international law firm before transitioning to a career in law, governance and development in 2014. Her career transition was prompted after she started returning to Myanmar in 2012 to witness her own birth country’s rapid transition from military rule. She grew up listening to tales of Burma told by her grandparents, aunts, uncles and parents. She was partly led to a career in law after discovering her great-great-grandfather and great grandfather studied law in the UK, which ignited her interest in the tumultuous legal history of her country. Melinda is a partner at Opade Partners, a boutique consultancy advising on legal and justice sector reforms in Myanmar. She hopes to help rebuild the Myanmar legal system so that laws can be a shield, and not a sword, for the people of her birth country.

Moe Thitsa

Founder of Foggy Spring mobile library

As a child of a soldier, Moe Thitsa moved from Myeik Island, Thanintharyi Division to Daydaye Township, Ayeyarwady Division then to Thanlyin Township, Yangon Division. Though very young, Moe remembered the dire state of houses in Ayeyarwady Division and experienced the struggle farmers go through to make even hand-to-mouth living. Though the houses’ conditions were better in Yangon, Moe witnessed a different set of struggles her neighbors went through. Children were involved in hard labor such as laying bricks. These incidents determined Moe to embark on a journey to make a difference in society. At the age of 16, Moe took a first yet bold step to establish a mobile library called Foggy Spring distributed through physical, online and door-to-door channels. The library boasts about 1,000 books and 2,500 borrowing transactions. Moe is confident that books from Foggy Spring will broaden the readers’ minds and widen their visions to realize that “no one is too small to dream big”.

Phone Kyaw Moe Myint

Sports Manager, Environmental Activist

Phone Kyaw Moe Myint has a great passion for the water and water sports. As a former national sailor with a career highlight that consists of two Southeast Asian Gold Medals, he spent a majority of his life competing all over the world, promoting and advocating the sport of sailing within the region. He is currently the Vice President of the Myanmar Yachting Federation and oversees daily operations from building youth development programs to managing the national team. He has also brought other water sports such as Kite-boarding, surfing, and the popular Stand Up Paddle to the country in the hopes of building a national surf team to compete in international stage. In the middle of 2016, he became the founder and country coordinator of Trash Hero Myanmar. The goal of Trash Hero is to clean, educate and change people's behaviour and mindset of trash disposal by turning everyday volunteers to become heroes and be a part of regular clean up operation within the country.

Pyay Way

Founder and curator of Nawaday Tharlar Art Gallery, ex-monk

Pyay Way is the founder and curator of Nawaday Tharlar Art Gallery in Yangon. Nawaday Tharlar means “A Place for a New Day” in a hybrid of Pali and English. Since its founding in 2012 Nawaday Tharlar has become a vibrant community of painters, sculptors, writers and poets from all around Myanmar and beyond. It is a venue for anyone to come and share stories, art, and perspectives at open mic nights; a home for artists to share and learn with others at workshops and free classes; and a place for community organizers to meet and develop philanthropic programs such as flood relief, trash collection, and health projects for those in need. Pyay Way was previously an ordained Buddhist monk for 20 years. During that time, he studied Buddhist philosophy at Sitagu International Buddhist Academy and Masoeyein monastery, and later linguistics at the University of Hyderabad. Since leaving the monkhood Pyay Way has continued to be captivated by philosophy, poetry, and art of all kinds.

Sonny Swe

News publisher

Sonny Swe accidentally found himself publishing a newspaper in 2000 when he co-founded the Myanmar Times – the first Myanmar-foreign joint venture in Myanmar’s media industry and a leading private newspaper until today. Sonny became a pioneer in Myanmar media, with more than 25 years’ experience in the industry and developed a strong addiction for print media. His love for publishing news led to an eight-year stint as a political prisoner, but the years of detention did little to cure the addiction. Soon after being released, Sonny re-entered the publishing world. He is the former CEO of the Mizzima Media Group, which published a daily newspaper, a weekly English Magazine, news websites and Mizzima TV. He is now the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Frontier Myanmar Magazine and Black Knight Media Co., Ltd. Sonny is a strong advocate for the freedom of press and freedom of expression.

The International School Yangon

Playback Theatre Group

The International School of Yangon (ISY) has had Playback Theatre troupes since its introduction in 2010 by their Performing Arts coordinator, Adam Fraser. Having been president and ensemble member of ‘Sydney Playback Theater’, Adam has witnessed first-hand the cathartic nature of this theatre form. Playback theatre is a unique form of theatre allowing audience members to share stories from their own lives which are then transformed into a performance. Where in traditional theatre, the audience look at performers on stage, Playback Theatre’s objective is for the audience to see themselves on stage. The stories’ ‘Teller’ receives a new perspective that has the potential to be therapeutic, moving, affirming, healing or even empowering. The ISY student performers’ training has had two major focal points: listening to the emotional content of personal stories and performing this with conviction. Performers: Adam Fraser, Boeun Kim, Ella Joicey, Lucca Chortsen, Aiden Cvengros, Zoe Van Lare

The Su Mon

A mother passionate about early childhood education

The Su Mon was born in 1985 in a small beautiful town called Yenangyaung which is located in central Myanmar and famous for the production of petroleum oil. She spent her high school education in Myanmar and continue her higher education in Singapore since 2002. She graduated from SIM University, Singapore with Degree of Information and Communication Technology. She is currently working as IT Project Manager in Surbana Jurong Singapore. She has focused much of her career on developing and delivering IT projects, business requirement analysis and consultation on technology needs for the clients. She started her interest in early childhood education since the birth of her beautiful 4 year-old daughter. She is looking forward to share her knowledge and experience from Singapore and improve the education system in Myanmar.

Vicky Bowman

Transparency advocate

Vicky Bowman aka Ohnmar Khin is Director of Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB) since July 2013, prior to which she led global mining company Rio Tinto's policy approach to transparency, human rights and resource nationalism. She was Director of Global & Economic Issues and G8 sous-Sherpa for the UK from 2008-2011 and Head of the Southern Africa Department in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK Government from 2006-2007; ambassador of the UK to Myanmar from 2002-2006 and second secretary from 1990-1993; Member of Cabinet of European Commissioner Chris Patten (1999-2002) and as press spokeswoman for the UK representation to the EU (1996-1999). Vicky has an MA in Natural Sciences (Pathology) from University of Cambridge and is an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College. She speaks Burmese, and has translated Myanmar short stories, poetry and non-fiction. She is married to Myanmar artist Htein Lin and lives in Yangon with their daughter, Aurora.