Sesame Summit 2026 – application open

It takes a village…

Fortunately, Sarah Porter is on a mission with her teams at InspiredMinds & World Summit AI to raise awareness about the current situation that the Afghan Tech Freedom Squad – formerly known as the Afghan all-girl robotics team – is facing after their tumultuous evacuation from Afghanistan.

Who are the Afghan Tech Freedom Squad?

The Afghan Tech Freedom Squad are Fatemah, Kawsar, Saghar and Lida – the 2017 all girl afghan robotics team alumni and the group formerly known as the Afghan Dreamers.

Which of their accomplishments stand out the most that our readers should know about?

They are the internationally-renowned group of robotics and engineering Afghan nationals who were originally banned from attending the Washington DC Robotics Championships under the Muslim travel ban. InspiredMinds lobbied for this restriction to be overturned and they subsequently went on to attend the championships, they attended World Summit AI in Amsterdam and they travelled to over 30 countries globally – in short, they are international icons for modern day women and girls in STEM. They have been hosted by global leaders and are now championing the right for women and girls to be educated and to live their lives — without restrictions. In the last 7 days, they have been evacuated from Afghanistan along with 54 of their family members in a highly tense and traumatic situation.

In what way are the Afghan Tech Freedom Squad members part of international events like WSAI and why should other event organizers support similar causes?

InspiredMinds campaigns for progress towards the United Nations global goals including the right to access technology and science equitably, and lobbies for gender equality and access for all to advances in healthcare globally. It is a fundamental blueprint of the InspiredMinds ethos to build interdisciplinary communities of changemakers, pioneers and individuals in positions of power – in their respective fields – to enable change for good. During the recent evacuation of Afghan nationals from Kabul, InspiredMinds were able to call upon it’s community members which resulted in the assembly of a unique group of NGO’s, humanitarian aid workers, heads of tech, heads of government and more — this group worked day and night to enable over 75 individuals to leave Kabul.  It is the power of community and likeminded good intention that enabled this to happen; this shows that when an event is built on a reciprocal ecosystem that is truly mission driven, it can indeed change the world.

Are there any upcoming projects that the Afghan Tech Freedom Squad members are working on that should we keep an eye on?

The squad are currently building a new initiative to lead women and girls. More to come soon.

What can we do to help you help them?

The squad members are without a doubt the brightest and most intelligent women with a fierce why for changing the world by example, they are seeking scholarships in software engineering and mechanical engineering so a shout out to anyone who can assist would be much appreciated.

They are also raising funds to assist in helping other asylum seekers and refugees, other women like them gain access to education and any support here is greatly appreciated

Help Afghan All-Girl Robotics Team Get to Safety, organized by InspiredMinds Media Ltd
As Afghanistan has fallen to the Taliban, women and girls hav… InspiredMinds Media Ltd needs your support for Help Afghan All-Girl Robotics Team Get to Safety
blank


Join Sarah during PIRATE Live’s “Future of Events” track on Sept 2nd where she’ll be discussing the role that event organizers play in promoting critical humanitarian & diversity initiatives with Ammin Youssouf (Afrobytes & The Colors) – hosted by our very own CEO, Ben Costantini

you might also like

blank
Events 2 days ago

Last week, I spent three days at Bits and Pretzels in Munich — a startup-focused event with a distinctly Bavarian flavor. Think Oktoberfest meets startup conference, complete with dirndls, lederhosen, and more beer than you might expect. As someone building an AI-powered event platform, I went in with a specific mission: Observe how startups actually market themselves at events. Here’s what I discovered: GoodBytz: The power of good demos What they did: Robotics startup GoodBytz set up a booth where its robots prepared kaiserschmarrn (a traditional German dessert) all day long. Why it worked: Nothing beats seeing a product in action. While other booths had brochures and demos, GoodBytz’s robots were actually cooking. The smell, the movement and the end result stirred together an experience that people will remember and talk about. The lesson: If you have a physical product, show it in action. The old writing adage generalizes well: Show, don’t tell.  Let people see, hear and touch the product. WeRoad: The bathroom hack What they did: Posted “Missing Investor” flyers in bathroom stalls with QR codes pointing to their website. Why it worked: Pure genius. Every startup at the event was looking for investors, but the “Missing Investor” headline, while a bit on the nose, proved irresistible. Plus, bathroom stalls are one of the few places where people have 30 seconds to actually read something. The lesson: Think about where your target audience’s attention will remain undivided. Sometimes, the most effective marketing leverages the most unexpected places. Emqopter: Visual impact matters What they did: Designed a bright orange booth that displayed their drone prominently. Why it worked: In a sea of grey, white, beige and brown, Emqopter’s bright orange booth was impossible to overlook. The drone was real, too, and proved a real conversation starter. The lesson: Your booth is competing with hundreds of others. Make it visually distinctive and ensure your product is the hero. Quests: Community building using the product What they did: Created a busy, branded booth with accessories (toy car, traffic cones, a bulletin board) and used their anti-loneliness app to build communities among founders at the event. Why it worked: Quests used their product to solve a real problem right at the event, and the busy booth design generated energy and curiosity. The lesson: Use your product to solve a problem at the event — if it’s possible, of course. Demonstrate your value in real time. Dyno: Event-themed marketing What they did: Distributed branded electrolyte packs with the tagline “Your hangover ends. Your pension lasts – with Dyno.” Why it worked: Dyno aligned its messaging perfectly with the Oktoberfest theme. Every attendee was thinking about beer and hangovers, so Dyno’s goodies were quite relevant. The tagline was clever, memorable, and directly addressed a pain point most people at the event might have to deal with later. The lesson: Tailor your marketing to the event’s theme and culture. The more you tie your messaging and product to the context, the more memorable you become. So, what did I learn? Event marketing is about more than just showing up and setting up a booth; you have to understand your audience and create experiences that people will remember. Here’s what really struck me: most startups and even big companies don’t know how to leverage events properly. They book the booth, show up and hope for the best; maybe they bring some branded pens and a pop-up banner. Then they’ll go back home and wonder why they spent €5,000 in exchange for 50 business cards that never convert. The startups that stood out at Bits and Pretzels understand something fundamental: event ROI isn’t about booth size or location; it’s about strategy, creativity and planning. None of the startups above improvised on-site, or planned something the night before the event in their hotel rooms. They laid everything out 4-6 weeks before the event. A solid pre-event strategy is what separates successful event marketing from expensive booth rental.  But what matters most for early-stage startups is that you don’t need a massive budget to stand out. WeRoad’s bathroom stall hack probably cost €50 to print the flyers. A standard booth package at Bits and Pretzels would go for €3,000 to €5,500. The ROI difference is staggering when you compare the cost per meaningful conversation. That’s the difference between simply spending money and investing smartly. Building Sesamers has taught me that helping startups find the right events is only half the equation. The other half is helping them understand how to maximize ROI once they’re there. Good props aren’t a marketing expense; they’re opportunities to meet customers, investors and partners, and strike up engaging conversations.

blank
New Materials 3 days ago

Lios Group, the Irish startup behind SoundBounce, was a winner of JEC Composites Startup Booster 2018, and has been making significant strides since taking home the award.

blank
New Materials 1 week ago

Tree Composites aims to accelerate the energy transition with innovative composite joints.

Subscribe to
our Newsletter!

Stay at the forefront with our curated guide to the best upcoming Tech events.