Why is "community" such a buzzword these days, and what does it even mean? In this game-show style evening hosted by the kyu collective, top community leaders debated the do's and don'ts of fostering creative communities.

From building a network of art patrons to collaborating on design-led innovation to building the metaverse — we heard from community folks at ATÖLYE, The Arts Club, The Kave, ILLUSORR and Blank Canvas as they tackle lightning-round questions about the ambiguous world of community building.

Registrations are now closed.

About the speakers:

Ryan Murphy (kyu)
Ryan is a London based designer interested in how creativity can empower leaders in creating systems-level change. He is currently a Creative Director at the kyu Collective, working to empower communities across IDEO, SYPartners, ATÖLYE, and more in new models for collaboration and creative work.

Zaina Kanaan (Kave)
Co-founder of Charicycles & Kave. Zaina’s initiatives focus on preserving the environment, driving impact, building communities and giving back to underprivileged children in refugee camps. Her passion for a kinder world is the reason she builds startups and communities, bridging between businesses with social impact and redefining life’s purpose.

Sybel Vazquez (The Arts Club Dubai)
Sybel is the Head of Cultural Programming for The Arts Club Dubai and has been an art practitioner in the region for over 8 years

Emre Erbirer (ATÖLYE)
Emre is a culture manager, facilitator and writer. As a creative professional with extensive communication, programming, community building and project management experience, he works as the Creative Hub Lead at ATÖLYE Istanbul. Emre is also the founder of kültür.limited and gives lectures in different fields as an instructor. He continues his community building efforts on a global scale by hosting CreativeMornings Istanbul and Global Goals Jam Istanbul and curating Design Calendar Istanbul.

Begüm Aydınoğlu (ILLUSORR)
Begüm is an award-winning architect and computational designer, both urbanist and academic, uniting cross-disciplinary collaboration to enhance cutting-edge interrelationship between art, design, architecture, engineering, and virtual reality. Begum is leading Sensory as the Creative Director and received multiple awards such as RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Trophy for WuWei Forest Eco-Living in China and Hyperloop Desert Campus Finalist Award. She is also Co-Founder of ILLUSORR, the world's first design-oriented metaverse that creates virtual experiences.


Tanya Awad (Blank Canvas)
Tanya Awad is an advocate for sustainable community development who thrives in creative spaces. As an artist and a Third Culture Kid, she shares the constant existential questioning of identity and belonging. Tanya has dedicated her life to exploring this by offering safe spaces for people (and herself) to belong to and freely express their stories and perspectives through various forms of collaborative art and wellness experiences such as Blank Canvas Community.


Image Courtesy: Jaime Spaniol