Inspire Armenians to find the work they really love

Knowledge Collection Making a Living
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#1

Hey Edgeryders!

We are here to call for support for something we care about: to inspire Armenians to find the work they really love!

We recognise that unfortunately not many here have the privilege to be able to choose the job they like. Having an income is the main priority, family members generally rely on each other as a sort of social welfare, so all in all is not easy for people to explore different paths when it comes to making a living.

Nevertheless we also believe that there is a lack of knowledge, and even hope maybe, that more fulfilling options may actually exist.

Therefore we would like to start a campaign to expose young Armenians to some local and global success stories from people who are making a living by following their passion, sharing the hard compromises they had to make but also showing the potential rewards that come when you work following your call. Our intention would be to inspire the audience to explore themselves and give it a try to look for a future where work is not just something they have to to do make money.

Practically speaking we decided to organise an event, in Yerevan to begin with (date to be decided), and perhaps more events even in other regions if we will be able to and we will gather enough interest. The format will be a TEDx-like presentations with some time for discussion and networking.

We are going to contact the TEDx Yerevan group, which we personally know (we actually have a former speaker in the group too, Anahit), to investigate the possibility to organise an actual TEDx event.

The next steps for us, and for you if you want to join us:

  • contacting TED people in Yerevan (Alessandro and Anahit?)
  • find success stories, locals and internationals (Everyone is welcome)
  • start thinking about how to attract the right audience to the events (Everyone is welcome)

Some resources from our group:

  • Noemi (@noemi): expertise in community building and user lobbying, engagement of the right the users base. "Social Software"
  • Alessandro (@alessandro_mambelli): experience with entrepreneurship, connections with Tumo Center, connections with TEDx, connection with Luys foundation, good network in Yerevan and outside
  • Anahit (@amusheghyan): marketing manager, social media and lead generation for startups, TEDx speaker
  • Anna: economics and management, project coordination, online contribution
  • Seg: film director, documentary, doing a bit of everything from writing to distribution, PhD student, full time if film making
  • Lilit: in two full time jobs, internship at UNDP, networking through her connection to the youth council, works with Luys connecting mentors with mentee
  • Lilit: graduating as a lawyer, constructive debate trainer, work with World Vision international community development organisation (right?)
  • Suren: economics, IT startup

Shall we make this happen together?

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Next: link up the three STF countries to each other and the the broader Edgeryders community
#2

Thematic TedX would be an edgeriding! : )

I know the TedX organizers here. I was in the task force of the first TedX:) 

Do you want me to talk to them? Sounds really interesting!

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#3

Yes, we do want to talk to them

also know Kristine, Arpine and Gohar from TEDx. Before Thursday I won’t be able to talk to them though.

If you want to open the conversation before that, feel free @marina.n, and please keep me updated so I can join the discussion later on!

#4

Hi @alessandro_mambelli. I had a meeting today with Kristina from TedX and discussed a lot of strategic cooperation stuff.

I briefly touched on the Edgeryders initiatives and your project idea and she seems to know the context already.

She is very positive on cooperation. You can discuss the details.

Let me know if I can facilitate anything.

M.

#5

Well done!

This is excellent news, @marina.n. @alessandro_mambelli, let us know how you progress, and whether and how we can help.

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#6

Nice, so she read it!? :slight_smile:

Hey @marina.n, thanks for the update!

I sent Kristine a long-ish email, I can only guess she read apparently, which is good :slight_smile:

I’ll give her a call, and Arpine (again from TEDx) is also interested in meeting up, so perhaps I could manage to see both of them and get some more information about the feasibility of these events under the TED label. If you are interested to join the meeting you are welcome of course.

I’ll send you a message when I have some news.

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#7

Same folks : )

No problem, you tall then.

I’ll drop a call to Kristine and let you know.

#8

Interesting reading

Hey Alessandro and company, hope you had nice holidays! :slight_smile:

Thanks for putting this up here so we can continue to think about ways to go about it and sync at global level. I was reading this very personal reflection on work and it seems like something you could draw inspiration from, for when you’ll need to start framing the problem you wanna solve:

"It was not till I was in college that the idea of work finally broke free from the idea of making a living. Then the important question became not how to make money, but what to work on. Ideally these coincided, but some spectacular boundary cases (like Einstein in the patent office) proved they weren’t identical.

The definition of work was now to make some original contribution to the world, and in the process not to starve. But after the habit of so many years my idea of work still included a large component of pain. Work still seemed to require discipline, because only hard problems yielded grand results, and hard problems couldn’t literally be fun. Surely one had to force oneself to work on them.

If you think something’s supposed to hurt, you’re less likely to notice if you’re doing it wrong. That about sums up my experience of graduate school.

How much are you supposed to like what you do? Unless you know that, you don’t know when to stop searching. And if, like most people, you underestimate it, you’ll tend to stop searching too early. You’ll end up doing something chosen for you by your parents, or the desire to make money, or prestige—or sheer inertia.

Here’s an upper bound: Do what you love doesn’t mean, do what you would like to do most this second. Even Einstein probably had moments when he wanted to have a cup of coffee, but told himself he ought to finish what he was working on first." - http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html

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#9

How can we help?

Meanwhile, back at Edgeryders HQ (wherever that happens to be just now) …

… we are wondering how we can help @alessandro_mambelli and you all with this idea. It is truly inspiring to see you guys move decisively to take action: and honestly, this is the kind of outcome that we hope to see associated with Edgeryders, more and more. So, we will help if we can: it is in our own best interest, and anyway that is why we started this community and this company in the first place.

But how? Yerevan is not exactly our backyard. We can give you guys some social media coverage, but most of our network is in Western Europe: nice for the international profile of your event, but won’t bring many Armenians through the door. Have you got any idea of what we could do to help you make it happen?

#10

Thanks Alberto

I’ll come back to ask for help as soon as I will know what help I need!

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#11

Looking forward :slight_smile:

Hi dear @alessandro_mambelli and all! Nice to see this post. I think you included everything in this briefing. I’m excited to hear some positive reflections concerning our idea :slight_smile: Hey, so Im in Georgia now, will be back on 1st of May. Just keep in touch until we get together and start thinking of some detailed organizational stuff.

Cheers~

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#12

hi there

hi guys,

i m Armenian, but lived/worked 11 years abroad.

Last year when i was in Armenia i did try to contact someone in TEDx in Armenia but that went nowhere. Whereas I am convinced there might be some interesting speakers, it is crucial for TEDx to find those and get them committed before you guys do anything. It’s not like “lets go TEDx style” and this will solve your issue.

Organizing coworking camps, bringing together investors (angels ad VCs) in a more informal setting together with potential or current entrepreneurs and making small one-day workshops about starting a business in Armenia is the way to go.

TEDx is a cool concept - i spoke at TEDxAUC in 2012 - but that is not your panacea to inspiring young Armenians to become entrepreneurial or passionate about their jobs or initiatives. TEDx can be one of many driving forces.

#13

what about a sensecamp

hey guys I really like ur enthusiasm and I see u r going to make a lot happening :slight_smile: I also have some doubts about the tedx style ,because mainly its about one man giving a talk without any interaction with the audience .

I have just attended a sensecamp here in Berlin it was a really nice experience , there was keynote speakers but the rest of the day was mainly people interacting together some panels with speakers but in a very informal chaotic way   and some people from the audience pitching for ideas and having their own sessions  , its really a nice way to get people interact together .

the sensecamp was mainly about social enterpreneurs may be u can arrange something mixing both ways- ted and camp- together with the theme of finding ones passion in work or something , so u have the role models and networking happening in the same event .

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#14

wow! didn’t know about sensecamps

Interesting! Thanks for sharing the link.

I agree, TedX takes more seriousness in preparation and delivers an “elite” products which not always provokes a discourse. 

I’ve also use “PechKucha” unconferences in the past. Let’s see how the discussion evolves with the TedX team and what do they offer anyway.

#15

Ok, so, hi there :slight_smile:

Alessandro got me here… and I’m seeing many familiar faces.

Let me see how I can get involved :slight_smile:

#16

Hi there :slight_smile:

Welcome @arpik, and good thing he did! Not sure if you want to be involved in just this project or are also up for meeting everyone? The two go together actually, because getting to know one another usually leads to making it easier to collaborate. 

If you have a couple of minutes I would like to invite you to introduce yourself to the rest of the community (see for example @Vahagn’s story), mainly by telling what your interests are and what wind is bringing you here, anything big you wanna achieve? any burning questions you have and are looking to answer? 

#17

Hey!!

Hi @arpik!

#18

Hello everyone!

Hi everyone, I just joined edgeryders since I heard a lot about it from Alessandro and I am ready to actively get involved with this project.

Me and Alessandro talked to Arpine from Ted-x, and it seems there are certain rules that you need to keep if running a Ted-x style event.

Hazem, thank you for introducing us to the SenseCamp style. I also believe it could be a better way of organising the event.

I am working as a project manager at Tumo Center for Creative Technologies and I also am a Luys scolar, so I can try to help getting the audience and venue for this event. We need an approximate date and more detailed plan Alessandro to move this forward.

#19

Hi Ani – about the June event

Hello Ani, nice to c u - on the platform :slight_smile: – I thought to google the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies and I was like wow they do a lot of cool things - I c u got Stephen wolfram at the center . there is a new hub in cairo for technology entrepreneurship called the Greek Campus. I think @gazbia_sorour knows someone from them may be ping them here . anyway am curious about what do u study in this Luys scolar?

About the event in June it will be on the 24-26. And it would be shaped by the participants.

#20

2 events in 1?

Hi, Ani welcome to Edgeryders and kudos to @alessandro_mambelli for mobilizing key people like yourself who are willing to make this happen!

Hazem, I think Ani was refering to the event on youth talks on making a living, but you see, while you prepare this, I suggest you consider the community event we’re having in Tbilisi, June 24-26 as an opportunity to test run it? Maybe propose a session where you can flesh out the details with an interested group of Armenians, or an international group since we’re all gonna be there anyway. Or better yet, do the actual event - at a small scale to see how it would work?