In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

Carl Djerrassi Theater in ABF Student Center
12, Svoboda Bachvarova str.
Blagoevgrad, Blagoevgrad, 2700
Bulgaria

Ergen Deda

Female Folklore Ensemble “Svetlina” was founded in the Fall of 2010 by the American transfer student Lacey Cope. Passionate about traditional Bulgarian singing and dance from an early age, she wanted so share her knowledge and experiences with others on campus. The ensemble currently consists of 7 students, 2 professors and 2 alumnae, whose main goal is to increase on-campus awareness of the richness of Bulgarian folklore.

Santra

Santra is a Bulgarian singer, known for her work in the R&B, Soul and HipHop genres. She was born in Sofia and at the age of 16 she began her music career. For the last 15 years she has been one of the most recognized faces on the Bulgarian music scene. Her collaborations with some of the most relevant Bulgarian artists, as well as her solo projects have earned her more than 10 number 1 hits, more than 20 mln view on YouTube and 170 000 fans on social media. Santra is also very passionate about fashion and is known to have personally created the designs for some of her stage and video outfits. Despite the challenges she had to face in the local music industry and in her personal life, she has managed to remain relevant to the music audience and to become one of the most beloved performers in Bulgaria.

András Baneth

At the age of 12, András won a Commodore64 coding competition with the digital version of the board game Monopoly. By "mistake", he went to work for various EU institutions but found his true calling when he quit becoming an entrepreneur to merge his interest in politics and tech. He launched Europe's most popular e-learning website for EU career preparation that won a Deloitte Fast 50 award and prepared almost 100,000 job candidates, and a fast-growing platform called SpeakerHub to connect speakers with audiences globally. Through his 'day job' as director of the world's largest association of public affairs professionals called Public Affairs Council, he observes and advises 700 companies on how to be more strategic in their business.

Jeanine Glöyer

Jeanine first witnessed the working conditions in the textile industry during a voluntary service in India in 2008. Appalled by what she had seen, she developed a strong desire to learn about possible ways in which the exploitative structures of this industry could be altered. Having completed her Bachelors in International Relations with a focus on International Human Rights Law, she was curious to dive even deeper into the subject and thus specialized on global commodity chains and workers’ rights through completing her Masters in “Labour, Social Movement and Development” at SOAS – University of London. Convinced that a different approach to producing apparel is possible, she founded and is today leading the Fair Fashion Label Jyoti – Fair Works. Moreover, regularly organizing workshops, talks as well as lectures for pupils and students, she is deeply engaged in the debate on how structures of exploitation can be transformed in a way that every single person involved in the production of our clothes benefits.

Jovanny Varela-Ferreyra

Jovanny Varela-Ferreyra is an artist and the creator of The Artidote, a social media platform aimed to cultivate self-awareness and empathy through visual and written storytelling. Born in Mexico, Varela emigrated to the U.S. at the age of ten, where his lack of English proficiency and inevitable alienation from his surroundings gave way to his introspection and interest in art. Having no other way to communicate his inner self with the external world, he found drawing to be a powerful tool for communication. This formative experience would take him to follow his passion and study art at The University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. After graduation, which coincided with the rise of social media as a space for mass communication & connection, Varela began experimenting with curating artwork online. His particular way of presenting artwork acquired viral traction and a community developed around his introspective posts, generating unlikely bonds between individuals across cultures & religions. Today, a million strong and expanding across major social media channels, The Artidote community has become a global support group most recently responsible for saving suicidal lives on Snapchat.

Kerim Ture

Kerim Ture is a Turkish entrepreneur & angel investor. He is a co-founder of Modanisa.com, an online platform for Modest Fashion brands and designers which aim at providing a variety in choice and style for the Muslim women around the world. Kerim has a lifelong passion for entrepreneurship, meeting different cultures and improving society by empowering women and entrepreneurs. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Etohum, the leading startup accelerator in Istanbul and the Youth Republic, an award-winning Marcom agency in Turkey. He holds a masters degree in Communications from Boston University.

Madina Demirbash

Madina Demirbash is a family relationships expert and an author of the book “The Art of Mature Love: Connecting to Others By Being Connected to Yourself.” She holds a master's degree in Gender Studies from the Central European University, and a bachelor degree in Psychology from the American University of Central Asia. She began her passion for helping people form and restore happy families with certified courses of family counseling at the University of Navarra, and later in the Institute of the Work of Byron Katie and ScreamFree Institute of Hal Runkel. At the moment, based in Kiev, Madina is a business trainer, psychologist, family coach, member of the "Ukrainian Business Women" NGO, and a student of the Interregional Institute of Gestalt therapy and Art.

Mieke Meurs

Mieke Meurs is Professor of Economics at American University and Executive Vice President of the International Association for Feminist Economics. Her areas of research include household behavior, firm organization, and local government. She has published extensively on household behavior, with a particular focus on gender issues and rural households. Recent publications include “A data triangulation approach to understanding the behavior of small landholders in Bulgaria,” in Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Heterodox Economics and “Doing It All: Women’s Employment and Reproductive Work in Tajikistan,” Journal of Comparative Economics, with Vanya Slavchevska. She holds a Ph.d. in Economics from University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a B.S. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mile Grncarov

Mile Grncarov is an AUBG sophomore from Macedonia majoring in Political Science and Business Administration. In high school, Mile worked for the Youth Educational Forum, an organization that gives young voices a platform for their opinions. This experience made him passionate about debate and advocacy for freedom of speech. Currently, he hosts a show on AUBG's “Radio Aura” and manages a political blog. He is planning to pursue a law career after graduation.

Milena Stoycheva

Education is the building block of any society, and there is a need for new teaching methods, new frameworks, and new models in order to better equip tomorrow’s generations for the evolving reality of our world. Milena Stoycheva will argue that innovation and entrepreneurship education is essential for creating the societies of the future.

Ronald Harvey

Ronald Harvey is a two-time Fulbright Scholar and has his doctorate in community psychology from DePaul University in Chicago, USA. The primary focus of his community psychology research is how formal and informal social systems such as governments and local communities impact the actions and well-being of individuals with drug and alcohol problems when such people leave treatment and re-integrate back into society.He is currently doing international development research to create treatment systems for former addicts in Bulgaria, and to perform cross-cultural research on their feasibility and effectiveness. He currently teaches psychology at American University in Bulgaria and runs a number of improv comedy workshops on in Sofia and at various English-language high schools throughout Bulgaria.

Vu Nguyen

Vu Nguyen is a designer, home cook, and tech entrepreneur. He has lived in many different places around the world. Vu was born in Vietnam, grew up in Bulgaria and lived in the US for 12 years before returning to Bulgaria to start his own startup. After graduating with a journalism degree from the University of North Carolina, he went to work as a business graphics editor for The New York Times, where he won multiple journalism awards. Fast forward seven years and three tech companies later, in 2013, Vu decided to return to Bulgaria with his family. Between 2013-2015, he started his own tech startup with his wife, received a design patent, became one of the finalists in MasterChef Bulgaria and opened a concept restaurant. He is currently the head of product at an Internet of things startup and runs The Bulgarian Way, a photography project that documents life in Bulgaria. In his free time, Vu enjoys snowboarding, taking photos of strangers, watching superhero movies with his son, and eating.