In February, the Abdul Majeed Shoman Auditorium at King’s Academy was transformed by red spots and giant red letters easily recognizable by people all over the world. A decade since the last event, a committee of student organizers brought TEDxKing’sAcademy back to the school’s stage.

TEDx is a grassroots initiative, created in the spirit of TED’s overall mission to research and discover “ideas worth spreading.” TEDx events are independently organized but bring the spirit of TED to local communities. King’s Academy’s TEDx event was organized by a committee of 11 students led by Leah Halabi ’24 and Ghiath Sukhtian ’24.

Held under the theme “The Essence of a Changing World”, TEDxKing’sAcademy invited nine speakers — five King’s students and four guest speakers — to share their fresh ideas and thoughtful talks with the school community. TEDxKing’sAcademy sponsors Bzuriyeh Kabatilo, GMS Holdings and Bayt.com helped bring the event to life. 

King’s Academy’s student speakers demonstrated confidence and eloquence as they took to the stage to speak about topics they are passionate about. Lubna Sabbagh ’27’s love of literature led to a talk entitled “Beyond the Screen and Pages: Unveiling What Makes Fictional Characters Lovable,” while Ward AbuAli ’24 took a turn towards the scientific with her talk “Genes That Don't Run in DNA.” Ahmad Aliahmad ’24, who initiated the first welding club at King’s this semester, let his passion for welding inspire his talk “Beyond the Weld: Unraveling Society’s Hidden Fusions.”

Suhayb Qasem ’24’s talk “Drones and Beyond: From Regulation to Revolution” touched on the ethical as well as technological considerations of the remote vehicles, and Maya Mcinturff ’25’s talk “Redefining Identity through the Third Culture Kid (TCK) Perspective” was a subject that many — in the multicultural environment of King’s — could relate to.

TEDxKing’sAcademy also provided an exciting lineup of guest speakers whose talks kept the audience engaged.

Aliya Boshnak is a Jordanian Olympic athlete who competed at Tokyo 2020 and won two gold medals at the Arab Women’s Championships. Her talk, entitled “Understanding Your Pulse: Navigating the Wearable Tech Revolution,” took a deep dive into the benefits and limits of wearable technology where she said: “While technology tracks our heartbeats, it falls short of capturing the essence of our emotions. This contrast highlights the limits of wearable tech: it can monitor our physical health but not the depth of our human experience.”  

Rawand Samarah is an educator and founder of The Learning Home Inn which was born out of necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her talk “From Crisis to Classroom: The resilient evolution of the Learning Home Inn,” highlighted how adversity can be turned into opportunities amid an evolving educational scene, and amplified stories of hope and determination.

Hamdi Tabbaa is the co-founder and CEO of Abwaab and former head of Uber’s Middle East North Africa expansion and his talk “Unleashing EdTech: From Elitist Product to Intelligence for the Masses” touched on the radical transformation of education and how modern educational technology has the potential to unleash a wave of thinkers, innovators, scientists and artists in the near future, unlocking human potential by making it accessible to everyone.

The fourth and final guest speaker in the lineup was King’s Academy’s own alumnus Kareem Ayyad ’12 who is the founder of Uktob.ai and was named in Forbes Middle East’s 30 Under 30. In his thought-provoking and engaging talk, he questioned the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and what that means for humanity.

“Once we perfect this and get this right, we will be headed towards an era of radical abundance,” said Ayyad. “As the cost of intelligence goes down, the abundance rate goes up. And with abundance comes an age of unparalleled creativity.”

Organizing Committee:
Leah Halabi ’24, Ghiath Sukhtian ’24, Celine Abu Saadeh ’24, Tala Al Daher ’24, Ahmad Karbooli ’24, Hashem Dudin ’24, Leen Sukkar ’25, Salma Fakhouri ’25, Omar Rabadi ’26, Mohammad Al Ahmad ’25, Mariam Hadi ’24