Press release -
Stockholm call for new diplomacy echoed around the world!
On 16 January, TEDxStockholm held a salon event focusing on the ‘New Diplomacy’ in conjunction with the international Stockholm Initiative for Digital Diplomacy (SIDD) meeting, organised by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The event resulted in a series of articles in Wired UK, a post read by 170 000 people on Sina Weibo (China’s equivalent to Twitter) and tweets from people all over the world who followed the event as it was broadcast live.
First on stage was Carl Bildt, Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and former Prime Minister, who shared his thoughts on how “when offline problems concerning freedom and censorship continue to become online ones, we need digital diplomacy to help connect the talkers and thinkers of the world with the doers, to facilitate change”.
Next up was Moira Whelan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Digital Strategy at the US Department of State, who said that “we’re not yet sure if diplomacy is going digital or just the conversations we’re having” and added that “sometimes you just have to dive in, and we’re going to, but we’re not really sure where we’re going”.
The first session was rounded off by Sally Kohn, a political commentator known from Fox News, who spoke in a TED Talk recorded at TED@NYC in December about emotional correctness versus political correctness. It would seem that she was actually following the event live as a tweet from her with the message “Thank you Stockholm, love your syndrome” appeared on the wall.
After a break in which guests mingled and enjoyed Swedish meatballs, singer Mahan Moin, who came third in the Persian TV singing contest Googoosh Music Academy (recorded in London for political reasons), took to the stage to sing about how distance is no problem as long as there is love. She received a lot of love from people in the audience in the form of tweets.
After a recorded talk in which Ronny Edry from Israel told the story of how he accidentally created the online movement Israel & Iran: a love story calling for peace in the Middle East when he posted a Facebook image declaring “Iranians, we will never bomb your country”, Andreas Sandre, Press Officer at the Italian embassy in Washington DC and author of Twitter for Diplomats took to the stage to round off the event by discussing the power of ideas versus the limits of innovation in diplomacy.
The event brought together an audience of people from more than 20 countries, ranging in age from 16 to 85 and from a wide variety of businesses and educational institutions. All in all, the TEDxStockholm team is delighted with the outcome: a successful event where Stockholm’s call for a new diplomacy achieved worldwide outreach, resulting in some animated online discussions that will hopefully contribute to change. As one of the comments retweeted on Chinese microblog Sina Weibo by “TED News”, with 140 000 followers, said (translated to English): “Damn, I wish I could be there”.
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More information:
The TEDx Talks from this event are published to the TEDxStockholm media hub on www.TEDxStockholm.com
Buzz from TEDxStockholmSalon #1/2014 – the New Diplomacy (on seen.co)
Images in these two Flickr sets:
And some of the international media coverage:
The articles published on Wired UK
Article in SvD (in Swedish)
Topics
- Art, Culture, Entertainment
Categories
- sidd
- new diplomacy
- mahan moin
- andreas sandre
- sabinije von gaffeke
- moira whelan
- carl bildt
- tedxstockholm
- tedxsthlm
- tedx
- stockholm
- sthlm
- diplomacy
TEDx is an open-source community of independently organized events that inspire innovation, thought leadership, and visionary insights.
TEDxStockholm is our way of creating such a community in the city we love, together with like-minded people. TEDxStockholm.com
