Did you ever wonder who is the person behind TEDxSarajevo?
By now you all saw that we changed names from TEDxFerhadija to TEDxSarajevo, what we did over the past five years, and a lot more. But, did you ever wonder who is the person behind the entire organisation and who brought the biggest global conference to Sarajevo?
Well, we are here today to shine a light on the founder of TEDxSarajevo, so let’s get started! His name is Ismar Lačević and this is his story.
How are you doing today?
Absolutely marvelous! There’s so much happening at TEDxSarajevo, from the name change, new partnerships, and exciting new formats upcoming. It’s very hard to be calm and not excited to the maximum.
What led you to start this project?
Back when I was living in Vienna, I had a life-changing opportunity to work with amazing people at TEDxVienna and saw what teamwork, impact, and ideas worth spreading look like. From the preparation phase, collaborations, up to the event with 1000+ attendees. Afterward, I moved back to Sarajevo and saw that there was no TEDx format happening (although several were hosted in the past) which immediately kickstarted my ambition to apply for the license and provide the local community with new ideas, groundbreaking minds and drive positive community impact in my hometown.
Sarajevo needs new, fresh ideas to be heard and shared with the local community. And what better way to do that than to bring the biggest platform in the world to Sarajevo.
In one word, how would you describe yourself?
Infinitely curious (that’s two words, sorry).
What benefits does this project offer our community? Why is it necessary?
Try to remember the last time you had an “aha moment”; now imagine having it for several hours and about various topics. Exactly that is why it is necessary to have a TEDx event in Sarajevo. To bring ideas onto the stage and give the community a chance to pick the brains of various experts from around the world, listen to topics they never heard of before, and discover intellectual sparks in their lives.
It’s necessary because, globally, we stopped exploring and nurturing curiosity which ultimately led to our lack of connection with like-minded people.
Who is your team? What have they done before? Why are they excited about this project?
Wonderfully, the team is packed with enthusiastic, creative, and young people that share a common vision: impacting the local community for the better. Even though there are several teams inside TEDxSarajevo, we always work towards building a strong team spirit and emphasize collaboration wherever possible.
The members come from various backgrounds, local and international. From other NGOs, civil societies, career and life paths but one thing connects them all is a shared vision.
I’d say they are excited to be part of TEDxSarajevo because they get to be part of a movement that challenges the status quo every day and gives voices to ideas that need to be heard around the world.
What is your vision?
That’s rather simple: my vision is to be a driver of positive change in the local community with everything we do. Sarajevo is regarded as a rather negative place when it comes to the mindsets of people, but with the work we do, we want to spark positivity, curiosity, and change wherever possible.
What progress have you made so far?
I’m possibly the worst person to be asked this question since I’m never fully satisfied with the progress and believe that it can always be better. However, the community is more than excited about everything that we do which can be seen through various gestures of affirmation and comments we received throughout the years.
Probably the biggest achievement is the messages we receive after every event from attendees sharing their experiences, new ideas they discovered, and connections made. This fuels our motivation to strive to do better every time.
What are the most common issues you run into while working on the project?
By all means, improve with each new event. TEDx globally stands for a golden status when it comes to events, content, and everything in between so keeping this standard up or even improving it by a little event after event is a challenge in which the entire team is completely involved.
Furthermore, the general awareness of the local community about what the TEDx event is presents a challenge that we constantly face. Although the majority of people are aware of it there are still corners we didn’t reach thus far. That, in itself, presents a different challenge we continuously try to address.
