Falling Walls Conference 2018 - Which will be the next wall to fall?
8 November 2018, Berlin

In 2018, more than 3000 applications were submitted for 77 Falling Walls Labs that took place in 57 countries worldwide.

GDL member Tarek Alsaleh had the unique opportunity to present his pitch on 'Breaking the Wall of Localising Aid' at the Grand Finale of the 2018 Falling Walls Lab on 8 November in Berlin.

The Falling Walls Lab is an international forum for the next generation of outstanding innovators and creative thinkers. Its aim is to promote exceptional ideas and to connect promising scientists and entrepreneurs from all fields on a global level. Participants are given the opportunity to pitch their research work, business model, or initiative in 3 minutes to peers, a high-calibre jury made up of experts from academia and business, as well as the general public.

During his pitch, we learned that in the aid sector, all organisations are competing with each other – for money, for visibility, for paying their employees’ salaries. Small, local initiatives don’t stand a chance, struggling to survive and being worn down by bureaucracy. What a lost opportunity! This is what moved Tarek Alsaleh to tackle the red tape and to present three solutions to the problem: technology, smart use of time and focusing on results instead of managing money.

In addition, as winner of the GDL Wild Card he had the opportunity to attend the Falling Walls Conference which is an annual interdisciplinary gathering of forward-thinking individuals from all over the world.  Each year on 9 November – the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall – 20 of the world’s leading scientists are invited to Berlin. They gather together to present their current ground-breaking research, identify trends and opportunities for global challenges, support interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and to build bridges between different sectors and regions.

For further information and impressions of the events, please follow this link.