Afaf Alhatmi

Event planner, Idea generator, Life mentor, Muslim, Project manager, Single, Social entrepreneur, Student

6th year medical student at Oman Medical College, IFMSA certified trainer, previous Vice President of Capacity Building of MedSCO-Oman for the term 2016/2017.

Neurosurgery and the organising and planning of events. I'm heavily invested in stepping outside the comfort zone of my academic syllabus and my textbooks and growing my skills and harnessing experience in innovating and executing campaigns, initiatives, and events of all kinds.

That life and time itself is limitless and the only limits are the ones we place on ourselves; nothing can stop me from achieving.

Leadership, Organization, Planning

The story begins with something as simple and cliché as my father passively sharing a TEDx video with me years ago. I was changed by everything I saw, from the speaker’s words, to his tone of voice, to his compelling body language. For the life of me I can’t remember the name of the video or even what the speaker was talking about, but the effect of his ideas on me were so profound that I find myself years later, and on a different path in life, not only wanting to recreate that experience, but wanting to share it with as large a group of people as I can. That idea lay dormant for a while, an itch in the back of my mind as I focused on my medical studies and other simpler projects. As I accumulated experience in extracurricular activities and in organizing events, my confidence levels grew, and with it, my itch. Eventually, I realized that not only should I realize my dream of creating a TEDx event within Oman, but that I will realize it. And that’s exactly what I did on Thursday, the 11th of February 2016 under the license of TEDxMuscatSalon. I took the first serious step by discussing my hopes with a similarly ambitious colleague, Mohammed Al Khabouri, who immediately encouraged and supported the idea and joined me in planning. As we took further steps together, we were joined by other colleagues (Ghaitha and Anfal) who overflowed with enthusiasm at the idea, and so the TEDxMuscatSalon team of Oman Medical College was created. While TEDx is wildly popular and well known globally, it is still a novelty in the Sultanate of Oman. A unique experience by all standards, of all the numerous and varied projects the members of our team have been involved in, nothing compared to the challenges and enjoyment that accompanied the organization of this event. Every moment from the conception of our team, to attracting distinguished speakers, to audience organization, to the clearing up after; nothing could compare with realizing my dream of sharing my ambition for change and innovation. I am not the complacent type, and with a new year, we have new ideas, and we hope to organize a new TEDx event this year, but one which bears the name and character of Oman Medical College; TEDxOMC. I’m not sure where I came across the phrase “ideas worth spreading”, but there’s a great measure of truth to it. What is the point of ideas and knowledge if not shared, not given to fresh minds to utilize, not given to the next generation to fortify them, not given to those around us to rejuvenate not only our minds, but to rejuvenate the very way we approach life? We would like to bring this concept to our college, our community, our country. We want to usurp a stigmatic and content culture and instead till the fields and plant something new in the minds of the audience. We want to give those with “ideas worth spreading” a platform with which to create a change that is so necessary.