Marvila is one of Lisbon’s fastest-growing new neighbourhoods
On Saturday, March 1, an amazing and inspirational happening took place in the Lisbon district of Marvila in a former 18th century convent.
It brought together entrepreneurs, artists, thinkers, writers, academics, educationalists, scientists, innovators, musicians and a school pupil to give their take on what it is to be human. That event was TEDx Marvila.
The organiser of the event, Anel Imanbay, who holds the English franchise, explained that the theme for the first ever TEDx event in English in Portugal, ‘The Art of Being Human’, was important to each and every speaker, organiser and invitee attending or taking part in the event.
“Throughout the day, our speakers addressed the questions of ‘who are we’, ‘what is the impact of progress’, ‘why do we need each other’, and ‘how do we stay humane’.”
The entire day, which attracted around 800 people, was centered around these core ideas, including an art exhibition called ‘The Heart of Being Human’ with the artists showing pieces of art in different galleries in the building.
“What this event showed to me as an organiser is that there are a lot of good people with kind hearts who are willing to make their community better, and because our talk was fully in English and ‘live’, translated through AI support, it brought the Portuguese, ex-patriots living in Portugal and people from a wider international world together and built something very impactful, and that’s what I’m proud of,” said Anel Imanbay.
“We had Lisbon’s Mayor Carlos Moedas talking about the importance of dreams and putting them into reality, dental and regenerative technology expert Miguel Stanley talking about bio-hacking teeth that can impact our health and longevity, we had genetics topics and how genetics affects motherhood from innovation funding consultant Anna Kozlova, while leadership coach, author and founder Simon Court discussed the value of friendship,” she said.
“So, we went back to the core of humanity, and the only speaker who was allowed to speak about tech was 11-year-old António Amaral, student and young leader who gave a talk on ‘What if my parents were AI robots?’”
Anel Imanbay stressed that TEDx Marvila was all about going to the “heart and core” and the most important thing that every human should remember: who we are.
