TEDxUniverzitaKomenskéhoLive

Bratislava, 28 April 2022: A unique TED event, TEDxUniverzitaKomenskéhoLive, introduces ten speakers on Friday, 29 April at 4 pm - six of them will speak live and four were recorded at the main TED2022 event. The new TEDxLive format enables participants to be present both in person and online. The event takes place in the recently reopened UniK Mlyny University Club and has the symbolic subtitle of RECOVERY.


29. 04. 2022 09.12 hod.
By: CU External Relations Office

These days, recovery is mentioned often. We recover the landscape, our customs, relationships. We also often mention ‘crisis’ in the same sentence. We used to refer to the coronavirus, but now it’s the war in Ukraine, the climate or energy. When should we attempt to recover the old and when is it better to make a radical change and rebuild from the ground up? Are we going to use this recovery to modify the toxic habits of humanity? Is the "new normal" going to be more sustainable than the one before 2020?

Speakers at TEDxUniverzitaKomenskéhoLive will ask these questions. Juraj Tekel is a physicist from Comenius University and will speak about why renewable sources of energy are introduced so slowly. We have been hearing about them for years, but we still burn gas to heat our homes, put petrol in our cars and generate most of our electricity from non-renewable sources. What's the deal?

Lucia Mokrá, who is the Dean of the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, argues that truth is always revealed with time. She speaks about her way of setting up processes at the faculty, about the challenges and obstacles. She says that time will reveal the truth about universities, the quality of higher education, student brain-drain and the importance of social sciences.

Will elves save social networks? Content on social networks is spiralling out of control. Now, however, trolls are taken on by elves - the moderators. Gabriel Tóth from the digital agency ‘Katedra Komunikácie’ (”Department of Communication”) studied political science at Comenius University and in his talk he will try to explore whether it is possible to win this fight.

Paranoid beliefs are relatively common in the general population and may not just be a manifestation of serious mental disorders. These beliefs have a significant impact on our day-to-day relationships. Psychologist and psychiatrist Michal Hajdúk from Comenius University talks about their root causes.

Co-founder of KC Dunaj, creator of the concept of the Shenk family craft brewery and of ‘Výčap u Ernőho’ (“Ernő’s Bar”) and, most recently, creator of the new multi-purpose culture and entertainment centre UniK Mlyny Ivan Pätoprstý has ample experience with recovery and restoration. Is it better to demolish and rebuild or restore and renovate? In his talk he explains why he tends to lean toward restoration.

Fragile and ardent, turning into wild and rough, with a dark premonition. Katarína Máliková is a composer, producer, musician and singer. Her style combines neo-classical, minimal synth-pop with elements of experimental music, glamrock, and 70's and 80's retro music. Her contribution at the event is musical.

TEDxUniverzitaKomenskéhoLive participants will have a unique opportunity to watch talks recorded during TED2022, which took place between 11 and 13 April, 2022. The speakers include Bill Gates, Adam Mosseri, Catherine Price a Garry Kasparov.

"Two years of a downsized social life have shown how much we all need to share ideas live. We could not attend lectures, events, conferences. TED and TEDx events are meetings of people who are ready to share interesting ideas. I’m pleased that we managed renew the tradition after the pandemic and that we are bringing the third year of this event to our university," said Radomír Masaryk, TEDxUniverzitaKomenského Team Leader and Comenius University Vice-Rector for External Relations.

"The videos of TED and TEDx talks are a popular supplementary content at university lectures and seminars because they have the potential to provoke and stimulate critical thinking. The events themselves foster an atmosphere of curiosity, exchange of ideas and of intellectual stimulation. They form experiences which the participants remember for a long time. And I believe that this is the essence of a modern university: we should be a source of such intellectual experiences," adds Marek Števček, Rector of Comenius University, who was one of the speakers at the 2019 TEDxUniverzitaKomenského with a talk entitled "Everything you need to know about the Civil Code but you did not even think to ask“.

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TEDxUniverzitaKomenského was made possible by the students of the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences of Comenius University. They organized the first event in 2018. In 2019, they followed up on the success of the project and created an unforgettable event filled with inspiring talks. This year, the organization of the event was taken over by the External Relations Office of the Rectorate, which decided to give the event a new lease of life after the pandemic. Learn more on the web and on Facebook.