The latest TEDxGreekStWomen event delved into the possibilities of generational exchange.
Step into any modern workplace and you’ll notice something remarkable: for the first time in history, four generations, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z, are working side by side. It’s easy to focus on the friction points, but I see something more exciting: a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to unlock and share intergenerational wisdom.
For over a decade, I’ve had the privilege of hosting TEDxGreekStWomen, an annual event celebrating women’s ideas and impact. This year, our theme, “Rising Through Life,” delved into the power and possibility of generational exchange. We brought together four extraordinary women, each from a different sector, to share how the wisdom of other generations has influenced their journeys. The result was an evening of intimate, expansive conversation and one that left the room buzzing with new ideas and renewed purpose.
Our first speaker, Maliha Abidi, artist, author, and founder of Women Rise, reminded us that art is the ultimate vessel for shared memory. Her practice, spanning migration, collective memory, and gendered histories, draws from deep roots. Maliha’s recent exhibition, A Knock on the Door: Ancestral Ghosts, explored how creativity can transmit stories across time, sometimes as bold narratives, sometimes as whispers, sometimes as fragments.
Real progress, creative, cultural, and personal, depends on our willingness to listen, learn, and rise together.
Sairah Ashman, Global CEO of Wolff Olins
Born in Pakistan, Maliha described growing up in a place where creativity thrived, even as girls’ education and the arts were often overlooked. Her books, Pakistan for Women and Rise, are a vibrant act of passing the torch, ensuring today’s girls see themselves in the stories shaping tomorrow. As she put it, “Art itself is intergenerational knowledge. There’s an urgency to preserve these stories because they belong to all of us.”
Adwoa Aboah, model, actor, and trailblazing founder of Gurls Talk, knows the value of lived experience. She spoke with rare honesty about her journey through despair and healing, and how those lessons became the foundation of her global platform for girls’ mental health. “We don’t live in a society that celebrates honesty or vulnerability,” she said.
Yet it’s precisely this rawness that makes wisdom real. Adwoa challenges the notion that knowledge only comes from institutions, from “suits and politicians and academics in ivory towers.” Now a new mother, she dreams of passing down a legacy not of perfection, but of authenticity: “I want my daughter to trust her own story, to know her lived experience is enough to rise.” In that single line, she captured the essence of the night: what we hand down isn’t a finished rulebook, but the courage to keep growing.
Next, Harriet Green OBE, former CEO, global leader, and impact start-up founder, shared how learning flows in all directions. In her career, she’s witnessed the magic that happens when generations work together. At IBM Asia Pacific, she paired senior leaders with young talent to co-create strategy and communication. The results? “Astounding,” she said, richer engagement, higher retention, and a surge of mutual respect.
During lockdown, one Singapore office created a digital recipe portal, enabling colleagues to swap family cooking tips. “The younger women loved learning from the older cohort, while the ‘grandmothers’ felt newly empowered by technology and by the realisation that they still had so much to give.” Harriet’s message was simple yet profound: collaboration across ages breeds confidence, creativity, and progress.
Finally, Charlotte Figg, Co-Founder of Purdy & Figg, revealed how blending old wisdom with new energy can spark business success. Frustrated by the wastefulness of traditional cleaning products, she and Purdy Rubin looked to the past for inspiration, uncovering forgotten, natural cleaning methods. But it was when Purdy’s sons, Charlie and Jack, joined the business that things really took off, they brought fresh ideas, digital thinking, and the energy to build a manufacturing line from scratch when no UK supplier could be found.
Charlotte credits their success to mutual trust and the willingness to listen: “It’s about tradition and innovation, hand in hand.” Their story is proof that when generations collaborate, you get the best of both worlds, wisdom and disruption, roots and wings.
What resonated throughout the evening was this: every generation has something irreplaceable to offer. Youth brings boldness, invention, and hunger. Experience brings context, patience, and depth. Real progress, creative, cultural, and personal, depends on our willingness to listen, learn, and rise together.
When we share stories across generations, they become more than anecdotes; they become catalysts for change. That’s the message I want all creative thinkers to take away: the future is richer when we build it together, one conversation at a time.
Sairah Ashman is Global CEO of brand consultancy Wolff Olins, where she oversees the business direction across its offices in London, New York and San Francisco. She’s passionate about working with ambitious leaders to help their businesses become great brands in world, the kind of radical and category-defining brands that represent something special for the people who buy from them and the people who work for them. She works across a wide range of jobs, helping to push creativity and challenge the work internally. Sairah is an alumna of Harvard Business School and Goldsmiths University of London, where she recently completed a Masters in Digital Sociology. She’s also an active supporter of The House of St Barnabas, working to break the cycle of homelessness, and a regular TEDx host and speaker.
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