TEDxDeadSea, one of the independently organized TED events, took place on April 30th at the Dead Sea, the lowest spot on earth, spotting lights on Education, Creativity, Entrepreneurship and Empowerment of Women, spreading inspirational vibes and taking them into the next level in Jordan, where sky is the limit.

The event kicked off, at Kempinski Dead Sea, with a series of "Women Empowerment" sessions, starting with Rula Al Assi, a human performance development focused on motivational speaking, who spoke about accepting others regardless religion, race, gender or personal beliefs without judging, agreeing, or rejecting, people should accept differences among others peacefully throughout a win-win situation. And for me that was one of most important speeches, especially at this mad time we are passing through.

Muna AbuSulayman, Secretary General of The Alwaleed Bin Talal Kingdom Foundation, then had her speech on women equality in the Arab World, what difficulties and limitations Arab women face in the region. Tho I don't really see most of what she was listing in Jordan, i.e. women making less than men (with same skill set), limitations on decision making positions and more, as there are a lot of companies and even ministries in Jordan being led by women, and a big portion of the speakers at such conferences are also women, so I think it's a 50/50 chance here in Amman, at worst situation it could go to 40/60 chance depending on the field, and at some cases even men would ask for equality here too, so we need to focus more on the skill sets we build regardless gender. On the other hand I know it's not the same case in neighbor countries and I appreciate Muna AbuSulayman achievements especially as a Saudi Women, I'm sure she overcame loads of challenges at the gulf to become the women she is now.

As most of such forums, TEDxDeadSea had some ups and downs. Saja Maghashbeh, 17-year-old singer from Jordan Valley, performed three songs with a truly amazing voice. Following Sandra Hiari presentation on tareeq.me, which I honestly couldn't figure what is it all about; what is tareeq project and what's the mission, tho I tried to connect the dots.

Moving to "The Future of Jordan" Sessions, I was really impressed and inspired by the stories presented by Omar Al Hijazi, on students from M'aan, challenging limitations they face in the city and transportation  to Amman, beside Abdel Rahman Al-Zorgan, Student of Mechatronics Engineering at Al Tafila Technical University, proving that people there are also motivated to achieve modern and tangible products; and the less they have the more they achieve! Spotting the light on another cities where we need to develop too, beside Amman.

More inspiring sessions were presented, on Creativity, Education, Entrepreneurship, and Creative Minds. Rana Dajani, Founder of WeLoveReading, presented her project, which encourages kids to read, as reading percentage in Middle East is half a page per year, where it's 35 book a year in USA according to her speech. Reading is a critical gap in the region, hence her simple idea had a good echo all over.

Speakers and audience used all the energy they had to stay from 9.00 AM to 10:00 PM listening to the last session by Mr. Imad Naffa, The Founder and President of NAFFA International - Fresno, who shared his vast experience on various levels, and ended it with a great statement: Jordan is magnet that attracts you wherever you are! Which complies with my term: Jordanoholic :]

Jordan is the base and sky is the limit, let's be the change we want, act and spread positive inspirational vibes to all, invent and push ourselves to the limit to make the best of our resources.

TEDxDeadSea