Raya Bidshahri
Raya Bidshahri is a serial entrepreneur, author, futurist, educator and keynote speaker. As the Founder and CEO of Awecademy, Raya is one of the world’s leading experts in alternative models in education, the future of work and exponential innovation. She has been featured by the BBC as one of the 100 most influential and inspirational woman globally and is a member of the Bett Global Education Council.
About
Raya Bidshahri

Past speaking engagemens
Raya is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Awecademy, an award-winning organization that offers future-focussed and wisdom-based education. She is a founding member at SciFest Dubai, a city-wide science festival which serves to celebrate science through the arts. Raya is also the Co-founder of Intelligent Optimism, a global movement with 500.000+ followers that aims to inspire a better future for humanity through evidence and rationality. Finally, she is the co-founder of Cafe Scientifique, a social meetup group to talk about science, technology, innovation and the future.
Raya has been keynoting at conferences for the last 9 years - since she was 16 - and brings a much-needed youth perspective to discussions about the future of our species. Raya speaks about the implications of exponential technologies on the future of work, education and humanity at large. She infuses into her talks a sense of cosmic perspectives, moonshot thinking, existential awareness and intelligent optimism. also, Raya is notable for her ability to take audiences through an inspiring vision for a radical model of education that can contribute to positive civilization-level change.
Raya Bidshahri
loves to inspire you on...
Education in the Day After Tomorrow
In a world of accelerating change due to exponential technologies, the global education system is ripe for disruption. What does the world “school” mean in a world where the only constant is change? How often do we learn something that leaves us awestruck?
During these talks, Raya Bidshahri outlines how and why we urgently need to overhaul our educational policies, curriculum, pedagogy, mindsets and school models for the Exponential Age. She takes audiences through a vision of the school of the future: no classes, no exams, no school buildings, but a model that is based on personalized learning, interdisciplinary curriculums, purpose-driven accomplishments and project-based training. The talks also explore examples of such “schools of the future”, including the Awecademy Learning Hub.
Mindsets for Exponential Innovation
Often, radical innovation stems from mindsets, more than it does from technical skills. Also, we tend to get so preoccupied with our issues here on earth that we forget that we are part of a grand cosmic arena. What if we start by zooming out of our planet and observe our actions and values through a transcendent lens?
Raya gives audiences a wider outlook and explores the power of existential awareness in kickstarting innovation and human progress. These talks involve a deep-dive into mindsets that catalyze innovation --- including exponential thinking, abundance mindset, intelligent optimism, cosmic perspectives and critical thinking.
COVID-19: Opportunities for Alternative Models of Education
The focus of this talk is to summarize the radical changes in education over the last 6 months and examine the opportunities that COVID-19 has exposed, with the use of case studies.
There is a recap of what has and hasn't worked with distance learning approaches around the world, and the lessons learned. It explores the need for radical imagination, to design and execute alternative models of education.
For me, the real power of a nexxworks tour is the unique group of people you meet and travel with.


The tour founded relationships with interesting people I otherwise would've never met.


The mix of speakers and content was perfect.
.jpeg)

It was truly an eye-opening experience that both enriched my network with amazing people and helped me shape the further direction of my career.


The things you hear, see and learn are a source of inspiration and motivation for the future. We have already implemented some of these in our current strategy and operations.


Nexxworks helps to facilitate innovative out of the box thinking. They will expose you and your teams to a different level of thought leadership, which in turn will help you and your people develop a different thinking ethos for the future.


The nexxworks inspiration series helps us to imagine the future together with all the teams worldwide, and make the bridge to our day-to-day challenges as well.


The nexxworks inspiration sessions were that mindblowing, that I invited my global team to taste, smell and learn via a similar experience.


Meeting today’s companies and speakers brought us refreshing energy and perspectives to our challenges today.


This experience showed how short-term planning and long term planning are both needed. The China visits were truly inspiring in how they execute on that.


It’s so important to step outside the day-to-day business. We are the only ones who can moderate this back to our teams and translate what we’ve learned to accomplish our daily goals.


To new travelers, I hope you feel some of the same excitement, anxiety, and concentration. May you learn the way we did.


We’ve seen great concepts and initiatives from other companies, that made us think outside the box.


We want to make sure that the wonderful company that our family started, remains relevant in a fast-pace changing world.


I view the nexxworks membership as a combination of inspiration, practical insights, and networking with peers.


You can find
Raya Bidshahri
on these experiences
Raya Bidshahri
thoughts in words
.png)
.jpg)
.jpg)