MORE THAN 300 LEADING THINKERS AND DOERS EMBRACE CHANGE WITH TEDxYEREVAN 2012

YEREVAN, September 29, 2012 – Yerevan welcomed the third TEDxYerevan conference on September 29th at Tumo Center for Creative Technologies, which brought together more than 300 leading thinkers and doers from a myriad of fields, such as architecture, art, technology, education, entrepreneurship, and many more.

The leading theme this year was Embracing Change. TEDxYerevan 2012 brought 15 inspiring speakers on the stage to share their experience and understanding of change on many levels, including personal, institutional, societal and national. A variety of perspectives were articulated from embracing change in public health and individual lifestyle to embracing diversity of opinions and thinking.

The Founder and CEO of Kanjoya Company Armen Berjikly elaborated on circumstances when change is not a choice. Berjikly began creating online communities designed to sponsor hope through research and community after a close friend’s diagnosis with a serious medical condition. His passion continues to be building products that unite people who can improve each other’s lives and pioneering new ways to bring emotional awareness to technology.

Patrick Sarkissian, the Founder and CEO of SarkissianMason, talked about defying and conquering change. Sarkissian is passionate about reinventing the Armenian identity and finding innovative ways to use technology to stop human trafficking, having sponsored a worldwide grant in 2012.

The CEO of Luys Foundation Jacqueline Karaaslanian navigated TEDx participants through connecting learning to social change. Karaaslanian unveiled the proven ways to empower youth to engage and shape the future, while healthly lifestyle advocate Madlene Minassian discussed the perils of unhealthy eating choices.

TEDxYerevan 2012 also brought to stage some of the youngest TEDx speakers in Armenia so far – Marc Papazian, 16 years old, who talked about his perspective of change having lived and traveled in a variety of countries and cultures. Alongside Marc, Karen Hakobian presented an interesting way to welcome each morning, while Emil Aslanyan and Sima Cunningham elaborated on the concept of change from the perspective of art and creativity. In the same spirit the recognized photographer Ara Oshagan pondered upon the docmentary image of identity.

Participants also learned about change and interventions in problematic zones from the prominent architect Bernard Khoury. With an international reputation and a significantly diverse portfolio of architectural design project, Khoury talked about change in conflict zones and how that affects the society.

Participants had the chance to ponder upon how change affects the Armenian society as part of the global community. A successful entrepreneur David Bequette talked about how an active customer society has transformed the service delivery sector in Armenia, while Samvel Martirosyan discussed how the generational gap affects education. The Conference was summed up by Sevan Kabakian’s talk about Armenia’s inspiring narrative.

TEDxYerevan 2012 also featured an amazing plastic dance performance by the Mihr Theatre and a Surprise Session with a stand-up performance by the host and comedian Sergey Sargsyan and several TEDxKids@Yerevan 2012 speakers.

The event was made possible with the support of a number of organizations, including the official partner – TUMO Center for Creative Technologies, Synopsys, Storaket Architectural Studio, ABBYY, IREX Armenia, Mojo Drink, Green Day Organic Store, Inn Serenity yoga retreat center, PanArmenian Photo, JurJur, and ArmNews TV.