Mutlaq is the founder of TEDx Arabia, a volunteer-run organization that believes in the power of ideas to change lives. His team is bringing together 20 of the most innovative and enterprising minds from all over Saudi Arabia and the Middle East to share their thoughts and enthusiasm at a seminar to be held at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Al-Mutlaq is also the Saudi ambassador for the Arab Thought Foundation. TEDxArabia, based on Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED), is a non-profit event which started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago. TED has become a platform to support world-changing ideas that are shared globally through the Internet. At TED, the world's leading thinkers and doers are each asked to talk about their lives in 18 minutes. TEDxArabia will be held on Dec. 2 in Jeddah. Al-Mutlaq told Saudi Gazette how the idea of bringing TED to the Middle East came about. “We realized bringing a TED Global conference to the Middle East would help build bridges between the Arab and western civilizations that have as much in common as the differences between them. Months after we [began our planning] to hold the conference in the Middle East, we realized it wasn't going to work out. Then I don't know what transpired but the US-based team decided to split the brand into TED and TEDx, where ‘x' denotes an independently organized TED event. So anyone in the world could organize their own TEDx event. With a core team of about 10 volunteers, Al-Mutlaq and his friends were inspired by the belief that ideas have the power to change lives. They wanted to support the TED motto, “Ideas Worth Sharing” and build it further. “It's about the power of ideas; how a thought can change your reality. I met the event organizers at a TED Global conference in Oxford and saw how they interacted with the speakers and every attendee, it is so similar to the way we Arabs show hospitality to each other,” Al-Mutlaq said. “TED attendees can be multi-millionaires or celebrities but the atmosphere is such that you can connect with them on a one-to-one basis. We want to create a similar atmosphere here, where anyone with an idea can walk up to anybody else and share it, pitch a business plan, or engage [each other with their stories].” “This is a living example of how thoughts can change your reality. TED is the ideal platform for sharing ideas and knowledge,” he added. The theme of this TEDx is “What is innovation?” where people will be provided with more depth on a particular subject. “Everyone defines innovation in their own terms, we want to show them how it can mean so much more.” Other surprises in store for audience members at TEDxArabia include Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, the creator of the comic series “The 99”. He will be showing for the first time a 20-minute preview of his movie. It is an animated film about 99 superheroes based on Islamic culture. Said Aghil Baagil, the marketing guru will be talking about brand innovation, and Hani Al-Munei will speak on marketing ideas. So far Al-Mutlaq's team has been spreading the word about TEDxArabia through new media, including Facebook and Twitter, with students and innovators in the field of technology, entertainment and design being involved in spreading the word. “We are a volunteer-run organization and welcome volunteers, especially those who are specialized in a particular skill and can share their expertise with the rest of our team,” Al-Mutlaq said. There have been about 20 TEDx events in this region, he said. “It has taken place in Cairo, Qartaj in Tunisia, Casablanca, Doha, Bahrain, Dubai and almost all countries in the Middle East. We've also had two small TEDx events in Saudi Arabia. Most TEDx events have about 100 attendees, but the TEDxCairo and TEDxDubai were a great success. We're expecting to see about a thousand attendees in Jeddah and hope this will be one of the few mega events of the 600 TEDx events that take place around the world each year. We are charging about $100 or SR350 per person which is a minimal amount for their confirmation. We're giving them gift bags with books, ‘The 99' magazine and Sami Yusuf music CDs.” When asked what audiences should expect from the largest TEDx event in Saudi Arabia, Al-Mutlaq said, “We really hope they walk out of Thursday's event with a strong belief in themselves, and in their ability to do something worthwhile,” he said. “When we close the event, we will ask audience members if they want to speak at the next TEDx event and share their ideas. We want the next event to be about them and their ideas. Our main purpose is to ignite them with enough energy to come back to the next TEDx and share their ideas and enthusiasm with another eager audience, Inshallah.”
