Theme: Transitions

What we are currently living is a time of change. Some changes very obvious, some others are more latent. The traditional equilibrium is changing with a speed that threatens to overwhelm our lives. New forces have come into play. It is a constant movement that grows and develops by creating a network of possible roads on different levels. In this scenario there are many uncertainties, but there are also multiple opportunities. It all depends on how and how much we will be equipped with the flexibility required to face the transitions in progress.

TEDxVicenza 2019 will draw a course to help us deal with changes and barriers in a conscious way. We will start from the people, uncovering the transitions they experienced and that shaped them as the individual. We will continue to spread ideas. But on more courageous, bolder topics. The need is to talk about the big changes towards which we are heading. The era of transitions is coming and it is not waiting on us to adapt to it.

The speakers and performers will express their visions and their ideas in a multi-directional comparison. The partners will bring the point of view of the companies. All together we will become part of this network. Because transitions need to start, first and foremost, from inside ourselves.

Our challenge is launched. Welcome to TRANSITIONS.

Teatro Comunale Città di Vicenza
Viale Giuseppe Mazzini, 39
Vicenza, Vicenza, 36100
Italy

Andreas Søgaard

Entrepreneur & Rain lover

Andrea is a Danish entrepreneur with a professional gamer background. Today his mission is to create “better” rainy days. In the last five years, he worked on an umbrella sharing economy project. Inspired by a trip to Taiwan, where he noticed people leaving umbrellas out of stores, he decided to apply sharing-economy principles to a simple and concrete need in everyday’s life. From possession to accessibility. To own something belongs to our past, our future lies in sharing and making property accessible, not to mention the amount of plastic we could save. About 1 billion umbrellas are produced every year. By putting them all in line we could go around the world more than 18 times. The new umbrella sharing system is simple, inexpensive, and is spreading in Europe. Because happiness is having an umbrella when it rains (and not having it when it doesn’t).

Bowland -

Iranian Music Band

BowLand is a musical project that started in Firenze from an idea of three friends (Lei Low, Pejman e Saeed) that met in Teheran in high school and moved to Italy for study purposes. The name BowLand in Farsi means ”high”, “strong”: they choose it in an hour and a half, doodling Lon a pile of paper. BowLand’s musical roots find space between fluctuating atmospheres, unusual and alternative sounds mix with ethereal voices and groovy rhythms. In 2018 they show and fascinate the Italian audience with their experimental personality and their original colors, making it to the final of the 12th edition of X Factor. In December 2018 they published the EP Bubble Of Dreams, anticipated by the single Don’t Stop Me, a new song that already had over 1 million streamings on Spotify. In their performance they deliver their transition through talent: the key to change in music is through a hypnotic sound, unique atmospheres, and new dimensions to enjoy.

Dan Iversen

Vice President Marketing & Strategy

Dan created an innovative program of social responsibility to spread awareness on water usage as a collective resource in his job at Xylem. Dan is also Founder of Aqua Semper, a no-profit organization that supports international companies to support social investment projects. The last five years of his life have been completely dedicated to solving the water challenges, build towers and water intake systems in the Philippines and in Cambodia. Today, still over 600 million people don’t have access to potable water. The objective of the Watermark social model is to reach 100,000 volunteering hours, a valuable amount of time where Xylem employees can help communities all over the world. A transition between the business vision, geared towards making a profit, and the creation of values coming from the employees. A virtuous case that created a strong and catching social value through volunteering included in working hours. Every drop matters and has the power to make change happen.

Davide Dal Maso

Social Media Coach

Davide is a Social Media Coach for about 100 companies and a guest lecturer in schools. He learned on the job. He studied web and the social media mechanisms and worked at Cardiff as social media team manager after winning a European competition. He founded the Movimento Etico Digitale to spread awareness on the potential and the risks of the web. With a group of over 150 volunteers, he created a national movement that shares digital ethic in schools. His dream is to create a school subject, “Civic-digital education.” As parents teach everything to their children, today digital education has become essential. From digital reputation to privacy, from cyberbullying to sexting and the loss of self-esteem; these are just a few of the social aspects to consider so that the web doesn’t become a Far West with no rules.

Enrico Letta

Dean Paris School of International Affairs

Since 1993 Enrico has been AREL’s Secretary-General, he teaches and does research at S. Anna high school in Pisa since 2015 and he is a dean of the Paris School of International Affairs of Sciences Po University, in Paris. He hasn’t been active in politics for about four years and founded the Scuola Politica in Italy. He is a published author. He strongly believes in the Chinese proverb: “When the wind of change blows, some people build walls, others build windmills.” In his talk, he will make an appeal to unity and the need to take the challenge that global change imposes us. When things change we are all scared, we tend to get to safety where and with whom we know. But, with a good dose of faith in the future and thanks to a constant discussion with new generations, we can draw the strength needed to react positively and actively to transitions. An encouragement to all to come out of the torpor. Because each one of us can make a difference.

Gabby Tan

Student & W.O.D Youth Council Member

Gabby is a member of the Youth Council of the World Oceans Day (W.O.D.), which shares the mission to protect our oceans in schools, to mobilize younger generations and adults with its ecologic message. Gabby wants to launch a call to action. Today we can’t leave only in adults’ hands the power to decide for the future. The ecologic disaster is urgent, it’s happening, now, advances inexorably and will not spare anyone. The efforts made until now are not enough. We can no longer wait. From now on, we will have to accept the challenge and do our part. To fight this emergency has to become a priority for each one of us. The World Oceans Day is a call to action for all the generations that will have to face a world where seas and oceans are invaded by plastic. Gabby is well aware of the fact that change starts from the ground up, from everyone, from everyday acts, especially from the new generations that claim the right to grant themselves a better future.

Giulia Blasi

Journalist & Writer

Giulia 's last book “Manuale per ragazze rivoluzionarie” is aimed at young generations, proposing a form of feminist fight that is cheerful and persistent. In 2017 she created and launched #quellavoltache, the anti-harassment initiative that preceded by just a few days the launch of #metoo. Are leaders born or made? Why are there few women in important roles? In her talk, Giulia will help us understand how feminism can help us change things. A call to action to create a new leadership style together: let’s restart from collaboration, from collegiality, and from sharing knowledge. Feminism can’t just be defensive, it has to build us up: we need feminist politicians, feminist engineers, economist feminist, feminist entrepreneurs. Without fear, without hesitation, without letting anyone underestimate women’s minds as it happened in the past. It’s time for a radical transition in the way men and women think. A feminist exercise will be helpful to all.

Irene Dionisio

Director & Visual Artist

Irene is a director, screenwriter, and artist. She is dedicated to subjects related to the evolution of the individual’s identity in relation to social and economic changes. She was the director of the Lovers Film Festival for three years, the historic LGBTQI festival in Turin. Her latest feature-film “Le ultime cose” won a Nastro d’Argento and was running for the Globi D’Oro and the David di Donatello. She is working on her next fiction film, “La voce di Arturo” selected at the Berlinale Talents 2019. Her talk walks us through the imagery of cinema born between social spaces in transition, where there are roots of achievable utopias. A reflection on the importance of the film movement, an alternative and transversal way to face topics like integration and gender issues. A digression in rare examples of the seventh art that anticipated historic social changes. To live today’s cinematography will help us anticipate the future.

Leonardo Dal Zovo

Data Scientist

After an experience as a software developer, three years ago Leonardo and his girlfriend founded the startup Studiomapp. He is specialized in Data Science applied to the analysis of images obtained from satellite monitoring systems. He works to extract information that can be helpful about the territory, to find answers to environmental and industrial necessities. He was awarded by the Pentagon and recently also by the NATO for optimizing images acquired through artificial intelligence. In his talk, Leonardo will let us discover new solutions for national security with special attention to natural disasters and catastrophes management. The Geo-Intelligence and satellite images are among the main resources to improve national security. From rescuers to this who intervene to restore areas affected by natural disasters, these tools will become our fundamental means to save human lives.

Marco Ferrari

Biotech Entrepreneur

From Vicenza, with a Law degree, Marco realizes (just in time!) That among the codes he studied his favorite is the genetic code. He then specializes in Health Management at the Imperial College Business School of London and today he faces with enthusiasm the new challenges of Biotechnology as CEO at Anemocyte, Italian company considered excellence in the field of Advanced Therapies. In his talk, Marco introduces us to precision medicine, a new transition where the patient is at the center and Advanced Therapies are its best ally. A type of medicine where the disease is fought with therapies studied for every single case. From the drug created The new frontiers of research and precision medicine are an investment in the future of the generations to come.

Mark Henderson

Section Leader Physicist of the Microwave Heating

Physicist, born in the States, he lives in the south of France where he works for ITER. He works don researches about the nuclear fusion for over 30 years. He is a passionate advocate of the nuclear fusion promises to offer a more clean and plentiful energy resource future generations can count on. He spreads and promotes his message in the schools, in several organizations, at the British Museum in London and also in the movie “Let There Be Light” (EYESTEELFILMS 2017). In his talk he tells us how the future is enclosed in the nuclear fusion, of how it is possible to generate infinite energy from seawater and a fist of soil, drawing inspiration from the sun. Will humanity be able to understand this huge technological challenge? A paradigm shift on the level of commitment humanity has to make to hope for such a reward is fundamental.

Simone Zignoli

Adventure Rider

Known for his striking and unexpected participation to the 2011 biking championship in Copenhagen, thanks to a membership with Albania and then for his incredible travels under the banner of adventure. He defines himself as a “Metropolitan Tarzan,” a wild spirit with a chameleon attitude that allows him to adapt to an environmental or social condition. This is why he decided to join his passion for biking and for adventure. Right now he is under the spotlight thanks to the TV show Le Iene, which shared his motorcycle trip with a drug addict. Simone, in fact, by welcoming the desperate appeal via social media of a young mother, took the responsibility to take e fifteen years old on a long trip away from the temptations of addiction, from Chile to Bolivia, to make him understand that life is an extraordinary trip itself, that deserved to be experienced fully. A difficult journey, sometimes dramatic, with the inevitable downturns.

Veronica Civiero

Social Media Expert & Marketing Influencer

Veronica is constantly in contact with the PMI of the Veneto region, supporting their digital transformation through personal side projects. She teaches digital marketing and social media in the main Italian universities, in an effort to make available to the students her experience and reveal what is not said about the corporate world. In 2018 she started sharing her work approach and her social network experience conveying a new female role model, different from the ones popular online. In her talk, she will tell us about the positive strength of social media, strong carriers of energy, strength, resilience, and persistence. She tells us the story of Andrea Bizzotto, a young dad suffering from an incurable disease that fought back right until the end thanks also to the positive energy he received from social media.

Veronica De Angelis

Real Estate Entrepreneur & Art Enthusias

Veronica De Angelis is a young entrepreneur from Rome that decided to invest in sustainability. She has been working in real estate for 10 years and is passionate about art; after some time spent in New York, she realized that art can be a regenerative tool, both for the society and the city. Five years ago she decided to become involved concretely in environmental issues, and so in 2018 Youban2030 was created, a project where she is involved firsthand, together with her team of professionals sharing the dream to create a strong bond between entrepreneurship and art. One of the most important achievements of this project is Hunting Pollution, the largest green mural in Europe, realized with eco-friendly paint that cleans the air. A visionary initiative that traces a new way to do art and understand social and urban spaces, with the knowledge that art doesn’t belong to museums or performances of bored students, but dedicates its commitment to history.