Imre Vegvari

Change Agent, Concerned citizen, Consultant, Parent, Writer/Editor

Born in 1974 I live in Budapest, Hungary with my wife and three children. Having attended a dual-language high-school back at the time of the regime change in my country I got to learn to speak English and to travel around the world at a time when this was a rarity in Hungary. I spent some time in the USA attending college but did most of my university studies in Budapest (English, Psychology, Media.) Fell in love with computers at the age of nine - then again with Internet in 1997 - then again with social networks in 2004. My perspective / focus gradually widened from computers to the full scale of what changes digitisation and technology bring about - and recently what I do for a living is based on this ... together with two of my TEDxDanubia organising partners+friends we call ourselves Solution Designers » we work with people and organisations who either have interesting and novel solutions for important problems or who have serious problems that need solving.

I'm passionate about all forms of communication, particularly online social communications. I'm passionate about helping and supporting worthy initiatives with all my skills.

I think the basic problem with the personal understanding of how much damage we do to our environment comes from the simple fact that the Earth is so huge and we are so tiny in comparison. No matter what we do, it can always be thought that in the end it means nothing compared to the sheer size of the planet. I would help the process of understanding by creating one single human being by putting together the 7 billion humans. It would be a giant, a monster. It would be about 10 kilometers tall, it would weigh 350 million tons. It could swim comfortably only over the Marianna-trench and it could rest its chin on Mount Everest. Imagine the size of the coke can it would throw away twice every day. Imagine the exhaust fumes coming from its car. Imagine the amount of toxic waste from its giant washing machine. Those are easy to imagine. That's what the tiny personal level adds up to. I think this image that exists in your mind from now on is an idea worth spreading.

communication, online social networks

I have been receiving and forwarding TED videos many years ago - that's how it began for me and TED. The first video I saw was about multi-touch user interfaces, an innovation that later Microsoft bought and Apple perfected. Then a few years ago my best friend got the idea that Hungary really needs a TEDx event - and I joined him in this quest, so for the last years I have been an active member of the organizer group of the TEDxDanubia events (http://www.tedxdanubia.com/). The events that took place at Budapest are one of the most important things I did in the last few years, I think. The people I met, the causes I helped support and spread the news about, the thousands of people who visited these events (and the over 2 million who watched them online) have all shaped my view of the world. The talks we helped on the TEDx stage have formed Hungarian's view of the world. I am very grateful to have been able to be part of this process - and I hope to continue to do so :)

Paragliding, aquariums, diving, snowboarding, writing, raising my 3 children :), teaching and urban cycling. I also wrote a book about the future for children.