Popcorn - TEDx Salon

"Our choices do not only affect our lives but also others as well. One unordinary movement, an initiation of change, might be messy to follow. However, this chaos and mess of energy is requisite.

Introducing our theme for this year's salon event: Popcorn.

Popcorn is made up of hard kernels that swell up and burst open when intensely heated. It begins as uniquely-shaped seeds of different shapes and sizes that transform into soft, light, and diversely-flavored snacks. Through the keen awareness of one's surroundings, the seeds change into adaptable variations of themselves.

Popcorn is a process that always begins with a first pop; to the outsider, it is an unexpected (or expected) and different behavior than the norm, that soon influences more behaviors into following along the new movement.

It’s the process of creating a trend, a phenomenon, a perspective. We as people are a process: process of creations, process of evolutions, and processes of freedom. We create art, movies, stories, inventions, experiences, and thoughts. We evolve to adapt, to become stronger, better, unique individuals resulting from everyone's own personal experience in the world. And we are free to express ourselves, be the influencers rather than the influenced, free to lead and spread greatness.

Popcorn is a phenomenon; popcorn is a movement; popcorn is the agent of change; popcorn is our movie companion and favorite go-to snack. There are endless examples of people who have influenced our world in great ways: some have shaped cultures into what they are today, some have started trends, and others have created movements of thoughts and philosophies that all began with a single mind pop.

We have witnessed the popcorn effect across different eras in history and even created historical popcorn effects such as the January 25 Revolution where we, as individuals who demanded their rights, made history. We witnessed the popcorn effect during the fight for feminists right, until it became a universally known concept and a motive for many fields of work.

Thus, TEDxGUC would like to invite you to our salon event where we will think of all the different ways of how and why that very first corn popping led to you having a full bowl of it together. We will be unleashing thoughts no matter how messy and unorganized they might seem, while embracing our chaos which would lead to a path through which real changes could be made and hidden potential could be discovered." - The event description published by TEDx GUC.

John Maher believes that both of his hobbies includes writing as a core part of them & both of his hobbies leads him to become a GEEK. He loves both coding and comics. John thought that our community is full of issues that only needs superheroes to solve it. So with his friends he decided to found an online comic series called El3osba. It is a comic that discusses our community issues and tries to solve it through its six characters. The main aim is to help people believe that always there is a chance to become a hero.

Sharine Atef, Seif Abdallah and Khaled Adeeb have formed the first panel discussing cinematography. Sharine & Seif are directors, Khaled is scriptwriter. They have talked about censorship which build a ceiling to your thoughts, this affects the ability of the public to judge what is right & what is wrong. Although censorship is a multinational concept that is available worldwide, however some artists believe that it is better to be real. Traditions are enforced by either the community or the religion and always there is a workaround through metaphors. 
This panel believes that the good movie starts at its end. The good movie is the movie that challenges your beliefs. And then the panel discussed the fact that real life & cinema constructs an infinite circle, so real life is the mirror of the cinema and vice versa. Finally, cinema is an expression medium because it is a mass media platform. Cinema should create a balance between both entertainment & art. 

Ali El Fakharany with his interest in both sports & data analysis has founded a startup that analyzes the football matches to provide the sports scene with a detailed report. So, they can easily judge the players & their prices. Ali claims that we shouldn't judge by our eyes as we are all biased. Plus judging by all of the matches played worldwide on weekly basis is time consuming. So, data analysis is the secret to success in any field specially sports.

Nelly El Sharkawy with a passion in photography, she has decided to work on street black & white photography to emphasize the different beauty of the slums. She chose black & white as it removes the noise of colors helping you to focus on the main scene only. Her talk mainly discussed that photography has a different beauty to show.

Aya Ragheb, Lamis Mourad and Omar Sharawy have formed the second panel discusses nutrition & fitness. Aya is a nutritionist, Omar is a performance trainer and Lamis is a real-life example for changing her lifestyle from a person with food disorders to a healthy & fit person. The 3 of them has went through a turning point that changed their lives & their careers to become fitness experts. 
Originally Aya was a marketer, then she has decided to go with nutrition when she believed that this is her real passion while completing her MBA abroad. Her graduation project was to start her own business online so she has started Nourished to help people sustain a good nutrition. 
Omar initially was a marketer then he decided that his real passion was sports, so he has started his career in performance training - which is highly personalized to your demographics & injuries history - despite fighting cancer twice.
Lamis who has lost 17 kilos in almost a year with a healthy combination of nutrition & performance training. After fighting both clinical depression and eating disorders. She proves that sports helped her fight depression and good nutrition helped her fight the eating disorders.
The three of them agreed that good nutrition with sports as a lifestyle changes all of the negativity to positivity.

The day won't be the same without the outstanding host Kareem Helmee & his sense of humor. Plus the entertainment done by Metro Band & Irtjal Band. Plus the great sponsors, especially El Garage with its Islamic Geometry by Mostafa Sedky & Arabic calligraphy workshops, in addition to the Miniature exhibition by Mohamed Samy

"Popcorn represents for me the will to start a war for something, or the will to end one to prove a point. It is the self acceptance in a world full of divergence. It is the opportunity to choose our own future, but choose we must. It is the power or right to act, speak, or think as we want without hindrance or restraint. It is a manifestation of freedom, it is Nelson Mandela, David Bowie, Salvador Dali or maybe Kendrick Lamar."  

That's how Basel Ihab - 2018 Chairman perceives Popcorn.