Our TEDxSãoPaulo event in October 2018 explored the theme “Innovation + Impact” with the goal to attract many social entrepreneurs and people already engaged in social impact. Our events have always included social entrepreneurs and featured powerful ideas for social impact.
We believe that part of our role is to help create new heroes, to help new voices to be heard.
TEDxSãoPaulo is proud to always have at least 50 percent women on stage and our event exceeded that objective with six women speakers and five men. We were thrilled to have strong women who are making a difference in Brazil, like Naiara Tukano, member of the Tukano indigenous community, and Gabz, a young girl who creates disruptive slam poetry from a Rio de Janeiro favela.
We welcomed more than fifty TEDx organizers representing 38 different events from Brazil and one organizer who came from Buenos Aires, Argentina. We spent four days together,including a full-day TEDx organizers workshop. It was a great opportunity to share ideas, lessons learned, and best practices.
A highlight of this event was a special morning activity we hosted thanks to a partnership between TED and the Skoll Foundation around the TEDx project: TEDx Skoll Conversations, where we invited 90 special guests to participate. This partnership connected the Skoll Foundation with TEDx communities in four cities: Lagos, Bangalore, Lima, and São Paulo.
This initiative presented an opportunity to connect local social entrepreneurs with a larger network and audience. It also allowed our local community to enhance their understanding of social entrepreneurship and its development in the region.
In our hosted conversation space, Skoll Awardee organization leaders Paulo Bareto with Imazon and Rodrigo Baggio with CDI share insights to scaling impact in the region. Leveraging technology, these social entrepreneurs enable deeper civic engagement and prevent deforestation. Our TEDx community got a better understanding of the state of social entrepreneurship and of where their organizations and initiatives fit, and most importantly, where they can add value.
Caio Ferreira, twice selected as the best illusionist in South America, opened the event. He multiplied lit candles in his hands and told the audience it was similar to the way ideas get multiplied at TEDx events!
Debora Aladim followed—a young creator of educational content who started making videos to help her classmates study for a test when she was still in high school. She reminded us of the importance of sharing what we know with others, of staying curious, and learning from others’ experiences.
TEDxSãoPaulo community is defined by diversity and endless curiosity and desire to learn new ideas and meet new people. Photographer Bia Ferrer made portraits of the members of the audience to create a mural called “A cara do TEDxSãoPaulo”, which means literally “The face of TEDxSãoPaulo” or “What TEDxSãoPaulo looks like”.
Edson Matsuo, designer and creator, brought more questions than answers— presents he left for us to reflect upon. He believes that creativity can only grow when we are open to the unknown. He urged us to let some time pass between the moment a question appears before succumbing to our impulse to run rushing for the answer.
Mila Motomura tackled the difficult subject of collaboration versus competition. She was one of the first professionals to work as graphic facilitator and she has embarked on a steady mission to train other professionals in her craft. During her talk, we reflected on: how can we collaborate with our peers; how to share knowledge openly, and how can we practice generosity and identify ways to cooperate and contribute to our community.
Ricardo Affonso Ferreira is a surgeon who has organized more than 40 expeditions to offer high-level medical services to indigenous communities in Amazonia. He is taking care of those who take care of the native forest.
One of the speakers, Daniela Lerario, left a lasting impact on me personally. She went on an expedition in the Pacific and her talk was around the issue of single-use plastics and how important it is to do everything in our power to avoid them. Even though I have been engaged in sustainable development for many years now, the fact that she focused on a single piece of individual behavoir change made it more pressing. I’ve started buying bulk and avoid all single use plastics, including straws, soy sauce packets, bags, water bottles, and others!
These are just a few of the speakers who presented on TEDxSãoPaulo stage to an engaged and diverse audience interested in learning, sharing, and helping others. Our community gathers attendees from the public and private sector, academia, entrepreneurs, students, and business owners.
During this week of activities, we all learned more about what the social entrepreneurship ecosystem looks like in Brazil. In just one week we only get to see the tip of the iceberg, but we believe TEDxSãoPaulo is a space where people and organizations that want to improve the world can meet and exchange ideas. Where new partnerships are born, relationships flourish, and fruitful seeds are planted. We are excited to continue exploring and finding new solutions to old problems, to identify new heroes to admire, and to welcome more voices to our stage.
TEDxSãoPaulo loves music performances, and our event was no different. Five music presentations spanned a diversity of musical styles. We enjoyed listening to the opening Brazilian sounds of Banda Alana, the Portuguese-influenced “Choronas”, the melodic rhythm of “Amigas do Samba” and the urban band “Aborigens” of DJ Bola. A large orchestra of “rabecas” and “pífanos”, Brazilian folk instruments resembling violins and flutes, played by more than 60 musicians on stage provided a moving ending to the gathering.
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