As people gear up to participate in a day full of learning and networking, presenters are busy perfecting their lectures commonly known as TED talks.
Sofia Gureshidze, a Georgian entrepreneur, is hosting Tbilisi’s next TEDx event on December 2 at the Wyndham Grand Tbilisi. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a media organization that publishes free online talks from experts in their field. The concept was co-founded in 1984 and started out as a conference that’s now been held annually since 1990.
TED’s tagline, “Ideas worth spreading,” has made a name for itself and is known by many worldwide. TED events only take place a few times a year, and are organized by the TED Foundation. However, there are also TEDx events hosted under the same brand, that happen more regularly, are organized by local communities, and focus on a specific area.
This weekend’s TEDx has been brought to Tbilisi once again with a lineup of five speakers. They include Andrew Henderson, founder of Nomad Capitalist; Joseph Boccuzzi, an international business expert; Mariam Nakani, a photography expert and artist; Michael Swigunski, bestselling author and founder of Global Career; and Nika Abashidze, an entrepreneur and innovator. Each speaker will have 10-15 minutes to give their TED talk.
All presenters have been chosen by Gureshidze and asked to participate because of their expertise and/or the experience they hold in their field.
Boccuzzi is a United States citizen who has been living in Tbilisi for the past ten years. He comes from an Italian bloodline and says that Georgia is comparable to the way he grew up in New York with his Italian grandparents, making their own wine, having a family garden, going to church every week, etc. When he was a teenager, he tells us, his grandparents passed away, also taking the family’s Italian culture with them.
“They were the glue to our roots and traditions, … so those traditions went away and now I’m just an American like everybody else, which is alright, but I miss that flavor,” Boccuzzi says.
Fast forward a few years and Boccuzzi has gone on to hold many titles while exploring various jobs such as airplane pilot, businessman, teacher, and radio host. All these careers have allowed him to draw on experiences to share with others, and ultimately led him to where he is today. Currently, having lived in Georgia for some time, Boccuzzi works a lecturer in various institutions, including the National Defense Academy of the Georgian Army in Gori; he is a businessman with over 40 cars; an ambassador for Tbilisi’s InterNations expat community; a member of Georgia’s American Chamber of Commerce; and the owner of a farm.
The topic of Boccuzzi’s talk on Saturday will be “Finding Worth in Your Work.” It will focus on self-development and determining how people define what is important to them in life.
“I will focus on self-evolution and invite the audience to consider what the definition of success means to them and their goals,” said Boccuzzi. “What sacrifices are you willing to make and live with?”
Another speaker, Swigunski, is also from the US. He first discovered Tbilisi through someone he met while working at a university in Prague, and was intrigued because of the country’s location and what he had heard about the culture. Swigunski has been traveling for the past ten years, and after being asked numerous times by people about where to visit, what to see, where to eat, etc., it inspired him to write a blog.
His creativity only expanded from there, because after talking to people, even experienced travelers, he realized that many of them didn’t know how to work and travel simultaneously or how to work remotely in a time when most of the world still worked from offices (pre-COVID-19). Since Swigunski knew the value of remote work and the opportunities that were out there, he also wanted other people to know it, so he published his book, “Global Career: How To Work Anywhere And Travel Forever,” in 2018.
“There are a lot of people who don’t understand that you can continue building your career by working remotely in other countries,” said Swigunski. “I wanted to present people with an alternative path that didn’t see the linear path that American culture leads you down.”
Swigunski’s talk is titled, “Life lessons from working and traveling in 107 countries,” where he’ll explain the biggest lessons he’s learned about life over the past few years.
“Travel introduces you to new challenges, and these challenges will empower you to be unstoppable,” said Swigunski. “That feeling you get when you achieve something on your own will fall into all other aspects of life.”
Other speakers include Nakani, a Georgian photographer who has been featured in publications, including Forbes, for her work, in addition to her life of co-founding a studio, opening a photography school, and practicing art therapy. Henderson, a US citizen who is the founder of an entrepreneurial and investor company, started his first business at the age of 22 and has been traveling for the past 12 years while building his network. And lastly, Abashidze who has established many “firsts” in Georgia, including the world’s first order management system that includes monetization, “Nika’s Autoblog,” the first of its kind in Georgia, and Blglu Man, Georgia’s first talking, working dog.
Gureshidze is hosting TEDx Vake for the first time, and intends to bring her own touch to the event. As she recalls, speakers from previous TEDx events never received gifts or a “thank you” for participating, and in between sessions, there will be a variety of things for they and guests to engage in. The event will open with a performance by David Bay, a violinist from Belarus who moved to the United States and is now living in Georgia.
Additionally, there will be a showroom with Georgian products and a demonstration on how to make Georgian wine. There will also be giveaways and prizes, so everyone has the chance to walk away with something. Gureshidze said that, “of course the day is about the speakers, but it’s also a way to give back and show off Georgian culture.”
The event will have many opportunities for guests to interact with the speakers both during the breaks and at the Q&A session. For those who purchase VIP tickets, there will be an additional gathering after all the sessions have concluded.
The event will take place at the Wyndham Grand Tbilisi on Lado Gudiashvili Street, Saturday, December 2 from 2pm to 8pm. The standard admission for the event is 120 GEL and VIP tickets are 300 GEL, however, guests can use promo code Expat20 on the standard ticket to receive a 20 GEL discount and promo code Expat50 on VIP tickets to receive a 50 GEL discount. Tickets can be found at tkt.ge/en/show/16550/tedx-vake.
By Shelbi R. Ankiewicz
