Around 250 people from Lahore and its enviorns assembled at Kinnaird College to 'rethink'. TEDxKinnaird, curated by Areej Mehdi, held its second successful TEDx event on February 19. The theme was chosen keeping in mind the following fable:

"A man found an eagle's egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. Years passed and the eagle grew old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. The old eagle looked up in awe. 'Who's that?' he asked. 

"'That's the eagle, the king of the birds,' said his neighbor. 'He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth; we're chickens.'

So the eagle lived and died as a chicken, for that's what he thought he was."

This story is so much more than a mere fable. It’s a story about human life. It’s about breaking out of comfort zones. It’s about the endless possibilities that reveal themselves to you when you let yourself believe. Imagine what we could do if we really looked at those ideas. Seemingly simple but at a second glance; profound.

With TEDxKinnaird, we wanted to give our attendees a chance to take the step in the direction of 'rethinking us'. The conference featured young speakers, passionate about their work and ideas. Jazib Zahir, a Stanford graduate, shared his vision of a world where games are a part of regular curriculums. Natasha Noorani, explained why she thought photography could be used to change stereotypes. Sonya Rehman, talked about the need for citizen journalism and cited recent examples that are shaping our world. Younas Chowdhry, shared his idea of the common man rising above his daily, petty worries through an immersive experience of street theatre. Younas' crew performed a street play "Machine" for the audience which earned them a round of applause. Other speakers who shared their ideas on stage included Elaine Alam, from FACES Pakistan; Mehreen Kasana, a prominent blogger and doodler; GIKI student Faisal Mehmood, who has three patents to his name already in the field of engineering; and Zubair Khan, CEO of Tranchulas.  

Attendees were especially happy with the way the networking break was conducted. A human scavanger hunt allowed attendees to approach each other easily and establish a basis for funny Q&A back and forth. Those who successfully completed the questions provided to them had the opportunity to participate in a lucky draw. One lucky winner was the recepient of a digital camera. 

TEDxKinnaird was all the more effective not only because of its live speakers but also the selection of TEDTalks. Maz Jobrani had the audience laughing with his quirky humor and The LXD elicited awed applause with its breath taking performance. 

On the whole, the event has received great positive feedback from the attendees. Here's to ideas worth spreading!