Review: TEDxMONTECARLOSALON at Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort

It's uncommon these days to find people who have never heard of TED. Evidently, I am talking about the inspiring event and videos one can watch online and not the blockbuster movie about a talking bear. However, how many people know about TEDx Salons?

On the 24th of January 2019, I was invited to the second TEDxMonteCarloSalon in the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel in Monaco. Different from their flagship event due at end of this year, the Salon lasts only 3 hours and focusses only on one theme. In an intimate setting, the event aims to spark in-depth discussions after watching several TED videos on the said theme.

Following the theme of their first event on Education, this sold-out Salon's topic was Gastronomy with the catching title "A la Table de TEDx". With experts on the subject in the audience (such as Michelin-starred chef Marcel Ravin, urban-farmer Jessica Sbaraglia and TEDx speaker Madeleine Karlsson) and the humorous moderation by TEDxMonteCarlo's Board Member Andrew Knox, the evening sizzled with interesting debates on food distribution, rooftop-gardens, hydroponics and the edibility (and future) of insects.

Though my optimistic hopes of being able to sample dishes prepared by Marcel Ravin were not met, the audience and I nevertheless left with a mind full of inspiration and 'food for thought' - be it to create a vegetable garden on their balcony, to test chicken therapy, or to try a baguette made out of locust-flour. Keep an open mind, I say.

Noteworthy: like TEDxMonteCarlo, the event is independently organized from TED, and is solely run by volunteers who aim to inspire, to ignite conversation and to share ideas for a better future. Any sponsorship or revenue made by i.e. the sale of tickets goes directly into the actualization of the event. Interestingly, each TEDxMonteCarloSalon is run by a core team member of the TEDxMonteCarlo team, under the supervision of licensee Nazanine Matin.

If you would like to attend the next TEDxMonteCarloSalon, it will be held on the 7th of March at Monaco Tech (Monaco), themed Technology and Entrepreneurship. For more info and for tickets, visit www.tedxmontecarlo.com.