TEDx Swakopmund – ideas worth sharing

Isaac Chikosi 

The Dome Conference Centre in Swakopmund hosted an independently organised Ted Talk on Thursday 15 August. Scribing Dynamics, a local publishing company run by Brandt Van der Westhuizen organised the event with a line-up of seven distinguished speakers taking to the podium.

A timeous theme, “The Future is Already Here”, drew a focal point on what we need to do now to get to the next step in life. Leandrea Louw a journalist with the Erongo newspaper was the first speaker of the night sharing on the relevance of print media in a digital age. Pierre Grigor a pastor and author of “n Ander Evangelie” shared touching personal experiences showing the audience a new way to look at scripture and biblical texts.
With a mixed audience the variety of handpicked speakers were indeed worth listening to, say some who attended the event. “I especially liked Sondag Haluka’s presentation on how to make money online”, an attendee said. Sondag Haluka author of DotCom Lifestyle provoked the audience to introspection and action when she shared, “How a Ghetto child made over a quarter of a million dollars online.” Many were drawn by her practical methods.
In addition to this, “The art of relational leadership” presentation by Dr Rowan van Dyk appeared to quell fears and uncertainties of the steady introduction of artificial intelligence in our daily lives and the possibility of AI replacing human in-put.
The well-spoken and articulate Tabea Boye a keynote speaker involved the audience in what she termed the Hyena Principle. “Awareness, keen observation and action are key to survival”, she said. Heinrich Hafeni an entrepreneur and owner of Hafeni Township Tours; and Gerson Kamatuka a Human Resource Professional and coach concluded the roster with a look at the impact of small-town tourism and an exploration of coaching respectively.
According to Van der Westhuizen, “ideas must be shared. We don’t only want to move on with life, we want to move up”.