TEDxIkoyi – Sharing Nigerian Ideas With a Global Audience
0(Press Release) – Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria - On Thursday May, 24th 2012, 99 of the brightest innovators, business people, creatives and reformers in the Lagos community came together at The Wheatbaker Hotel in Ikoyi, Lagos for the maiden edition of TEDxIkoyi. With the theme ‘The Other Side of the Story’, the event featured an eclectic lineup of thought leaders from a range of disciplines- policy, the arts, entrepreneurship, social commentary and agriculture.
Nneka at TedxIkoyi
Speaking at the conference were award winning Reuters photojournalist, Akintunde Akinyele; Technology entrepreneur and creator of HopStop.com, Chinedu Echeruo; Agricultural entrepreneur and founder of Songhai Farms, Rev. Godfrey Nzamujo; world renowned artist and Nike Art Gallery owner, Nike Davies Okundaye; and policy adviser, Dapo Oyewole. Critically acclaimed artiste Nneka also performed an acoustic set of socially conscious music.
Providing a reference point for the speakers to share their ideas worth sharing was ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ author Chimamanda Adichie’s 2009 TED Talk ‘The Danger of a Single Story’. After a screening of the now viral TED video, Dapo Oyewole delivered a remarkable talk on “Development as Dignity” which proposed a rethink of our value systems by measuring societal development on how much dignity it impacted on its citizens. Nike Okundaye followed with a frank and humorous account of how she became an artist and the importance of passing on art legacies to future generations. Chinedu Echeruo also presented an exciting business intelligence sharing web portal for entrepreneurs through his talk “Crowd Sourced Business-in-a-Box”.
Tayo Oviosu, C.E.O. Paga and Will Anderson, Director, The Brunswick Group
Nneka set-off the second half of the conference by performing moving music from her catalogue to the speechless crowd. World Press Photo prize winner Akintunde Akinleye followed with astonishing photographs and narrations of social realities he has captured in Nigeria over the years. Rev Nzamujo closed the evening with a presentation on the possibilities of youth empowerment and poverty eradication in Africa through eco-sustainable agriculture in a talk that earned him a standing ova
“This was a fantastic event with brilliant discussion points and ideas; one I will be happy to see continue in the future” said Akin Oyebode of Stanbic IBTC and Will Anderson of the Brunswick Group noted that “TEDxIkoyi is a great platform for Nigerians to tell their own growth stories that will aid a better understanding of the country’s future around the world”
Wendolyn Okemini and Jumoke Oyewole
Saze Osayande, Founder of 4Twenty3 Marketing Agency and TEDxIkoyi co-curator said “We planned this event for our community and international audience to show a broad spectrum of Nigerian visionaries and address some of the existing stereotypes of the country”. Lade Ibraheem, Creative Director of Brand Faculty and TEDxIkoyi co-curator also noted: “Our mission was to showcase some of Nigeria’s brightest who will inspire and challenge a global audience with their ideas, innovations and calls to action. We hope that their ideas will act as catalysts of change in our country”.
