With 2023 quickly drawing to a close, its important to take stock of everything learned, experienced and discovered over this period before ushering in the new year, which is bound to bring with it a plethora of new possibilities (and challenges). With this in mind, TEDxPretoria hosted their annual idea sharing event yesterday. The event brought together a diverse group of speakers who shared personal and business experiences as well as innovative ideas, with the ultimate goal of inspiring the audience to take in what they had learned this year and use it to empower themselves further in 2024 and beyond.

Aptly named ‘A Beautiful Chaos’, the event was created to embrace the inevitable chaos driven by today’s fast-paced and ever-changing world, which can ultimately be used positively to uncover hidden opportunities and innovative solutions. And the event’s speakers certainly lived up to this concept, delivering talks about exploring oneself through AI empowerment, embracing adversity as a gift, exploring the starting points of inclusion and thriving at the edge of chaos.

As firm believers in the power of sharing stories and opening up platforms for ideas to reach the many, Strider Digital featured as one of the sponsors of this year’s event. Maggie Moonsammy, Sales Manager at Strider Digital, who was in attendance said: “It’s events like these that truly set the tone for the future, and this year’s gathering of great minds painted an exciting map for a 2024 that will be filled with incredible ideas and outcomes. We are grateful to have been part of all of it and look forward to an exciting year ahead, filled with all kinds of possibilities.”

Adding to Moonsammy’s sentiments, Shaun Nel, Speaker Curation and Partnerships Lead at TEDxPretoria said: “Yesterday’s event was all about encouraging each and every guest to celebrate the unexpected and appreciate the incredible surprises that chaos can bring. And I believe we achieved this and more via a gifted set of speakers who demonstrated that by embracing chaos, experimenting fearlessly and learning from failures, they were able to effect remarkable breakthroughs and create room for even better things to come.”

Talking about the most notable takeaways from the event, Nel drew attention to the following conclusions, made by the event’s speakers which could be used as inspired predictions for what 2024 could hold for the world of work as a whole:

• We need to understand that chaos creates opportunities for playful and creative thinking. Without uncertainty, we wouldn't need to be creative.
• We shouldn't be afraid of chaos, it gives us the chance to learn and grow. It’s best to focus on what matters most to us and allow this to cut through the chaos.
• Chaos encourages us to collaborate, so that we are empowered to tackle the challenges an isolated individual wouldn't be prepared for.
• We need to ensure that we aren't left on the margins of technological progress, it happens slowly and then all at once, so let's be a part of it... right now.

Summing up a successful event, TEDxPretoria’s licensee, Linda Swart concluded by saying: “We all need to be encouraged to recognise the power that new ideas have in an ever-changing world and what is even more important is to create a platform to share them. TEDxPretoria's ‘A Beautiful Chaos’ event is a genuinely collaborative process and we wouldn't be here without our brave speakers and our sponsors, like Strider Digital, who help make it all possible.”