Introducing… Kim Kadiyala
Kim Kadiyala is a creative force to be reckoned with. Her resume is impressive – she spent five years working at advertising agencies and in-house creative departments on brands including SC Johnson, Oracle and Disney before deciding to focus on the tech landscape with Techstars, one of the top start-up accelerators in the US. Here we speak to her about her upcoming TEDxSevenMileBeach talk, taking place on Wednesday 10 June at our Beach House.
Kim has a Bachelors degree in Advertising and a Masters in Digital Media Management from the prestigious learning institute Hyper Island. Living in Cayman since 2010, she now works on projects that help customers get the most out of a product or a service. She explained: “I’ve always had ideas bubbling inside of me but it wasn’t until this past year that I learned how to get them out into the world as part of a team. I spent the first six months of 2014 studying with Hyper Island in the UK, a learning institution renowned for its digital knowledge and inspiring teaching methodologies. My background is in advertising agencies and digital project management, but at Hyper Island titles mean nothing so I strategised, designed, pitched, and above all, grew as an individual.”
Her learning journey at Hyper Island inspired her to get involved with TEDxSevenMileBeach. She elaborated: “I had just finished my Master’s thesis and I was having some mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I felt relieved to have it finished, but I also felt disappointed to have put countless hours of work into a project that no one would really ever see. On the advice of a friend, I started playing around with turning the content into a workshop and soon after, I found the TEDxSevenMileBeach application. I realised that it was completely up to me to share what I had learned in my research with others. I think it’s natural to have feelings of doubt – I worried my topic isn’t interesting enough or I’m not qualified enough to speak – but I pushed these aside and applied anyway. When I was preparing my talk, I wrote at the top of the page, ‘People will be excited to learn about this!’ That reminder helped me push through the doubts and come out the other side with a talk I’m truly excited about.”
The theme of this year’s TEDxSevenMileBeach event is “The Life of an Idea: Plant. Nourish. Harvest.” When we asked her what this means to her and how she will explore it within her presentation, she said: “Different types of plants thrive in different environments. Some crave sunlight and heat; others prefer lots of rain and cool temps. If a plant isn’t flowering, it’s likely that you’ll reflect and adjust your approach, trying something new out to see what works. In my talk, I look at the spaces we work in as entrepreneurs and innovators. We all have different work styles and preferences, so perhaps we need to adjust the design of our workspaces to create environments that help us do our best work – individually and as collaborative teams.”
It is a topic that Kim is certainly passionate about. She is a strong supporter of the digital nomad lifestyle, something that she exemplifies in her own work choices as she collaborates with creative teams all over the globe.
So with the TEDxSevenMileBeach conference fast approaching, what is her current state of mind? Energised. She concluded: “I’m working with a speech coach to refine some of my weaknesses (what do I do with my hands!) and I’m practicing in front of mini-audiences to get feedback on the content. Above all, I’m having fun with it. My talk and visuals feel very ‘me’ and I’m really excited to share it with Cayman and beyond on June 10.”
To read more about Kim and the other speakers at this year’s TEDxSevenMileBeach event, visit their website.
