Laurent Widmer

My dream was once to become a correspondent for Swiss public broadcasting in Africa. At the age of 23 I was doing freelance work for a German radio station in Dakar where I was an exchange student. I had to find other dreams. Guided by my curiosity, I got a job in Berlin where I covered Germany and Switzerland for TF1, a French TV station. In Africa I worked with rural radio stations. In Switzerland I worked as a communicator and later as an energy specialist in international cooperation. When I came back from a 4 year posting as a senior advisor at the World Bank in Washington D.C. I was asked to talk at TEDxFribourg 2022. I looked at the changes of places and professions. I sum up my approach as follows: curiosity, empathy, stammtisch and Gruyere.

In 2022 I gave my first TEDx talk, at TEDxFribourg (see link under my name). The subject of the 2022 edition was Travel. It was clear from the beginning, that as a generalist, interested in many things, I was not the top specialist of anything. This TED is about me. And when you speak about yourself, you are not always objective, there are lots of anecdotes you want to tell, and there is no ready-made theory you can copy paste. In September 2021, I went on a walk in the Swiss Pre-Alpes, came back home and I told my kids that I was done preparing the script of my talk. I was wrong. My theory part was centered around the idea of daring to take decisions and move on. It was too general, not specific, and just a chronology of events. The perfect way to lose the audience’s interest. In November 2021, I found my title (Nomadic Witness) and my four words to describe my way of life: CURIOSITY, EMPATHY, STAMMTISCH and GRUYERE, the CESG approach. I started playing around with those words, thinking about my life experiences and how I could use the words to define some patterns. And week after week, discussion after discussion with friends and the TEDxFribourg Team, I put together the pieces of my talk. It includes some special moments of my life and in all these new contexts I had to get acclimated. To do so I used the CESG approach: 1. The traveler is in discovery mode, he travels with his antennas open. He shows CURIOSITY. 2. The traveler is not at home, he tries to understand the people, the culture, he does not judge. He demonstrates EMPATHY. 3. The traveler needs to integrate in his new country, to find his fellow travelers, his buddies, he is looking for contact. For all that he needs a STAMMTISCH (this is a German word for "regulars’ table", it’s an informal group meeting held on a regular basis). 4. The traveler comes from somewhere, there must be a place where his journey began, he has roots, a terroir, he does not forget where he comes from, he always has a piece of GRUYERE in his pocket. My talk ends like this: Life is like a long roadtrip and what a better way than to be in movement, on a trip, to move forward with your life? To find out the next steps and take some decisions. Or like the Swiss author, Nicolas Bouvier, defines it: “We travel so that things happen and change, otherwise we would stay at home.” Sarting with the 2023 edition, I am now part of the organization committee of TEDxFribourg where I am in charge of the speakers and communications.