FindingLife on Mt. Everest – A dream – A tragedy -A legacy.
An incredible story of challenge, courage and compassion. Taking huge risks in life in order to live one’s higher purpose. The underlying messages of the challenges and adversity we face and how they lead us to become who were were born to be.
Elia’s story transports us on an emotional, unforgettable and life-inspiring journey. From growing up as ‘punk-rock’ rebel who couldn’t stay in school and who lived on the streets, to breaking a world record at the young age of 17 through goal setting techniques and visualization. Hitting the lowest point in his life to soaring high above the clouds to the highest point on Earth – Mt Everest. His tale is out of the ordinary as his motivation to climb Everest was to honor the death of his mentor who tragically died climbing the world’s tallest mountain – Elia, at that time, had never even slept in a tent! He illustrates for us: The dream – The tragedy – The legacy.
Elia’s delivers a jaw dropping multi-media presentation that transports us into the world above 8000M, commonly referred to as the ‘Death Zone’. Using props, HD video and compelling soundtracks, Saikaly literally brings Everest to life. He Introduces audiences to the most remote environments filled with incredible life stories sharing lessons of success and failure and how he succeeded in reaching the top. His presentation often leaves audiences in tears and moved to action. His relentless efforts to honour a friend who died attempting to summit Everest, his contribution to the 3rd world countries he visits and how he now uses the platform of big adventures and technology to inspire thousands of young Canadians, is nothing less than inspiring. While most struggle to place one foot in front of the other, Saikaly climbs, shoots, broadcasts and communicates to thousands during his expeditions.
Fitness, wellness, goal setting, teamwork, courage, calculated risks, resilience, believing in oneself, contributing back to society and the incredible rewards that come along with giving back are all explored through this rich presentation.
FindingLife: Empowering students through adventure
Elia takes us on an incredible journey and shares his vision of FindingLife – a non profit organization that combines adventure, education, technology and charitable initiatives to inspire youth to create positive change. From summiting the world’s tallest peaks, to building classrooms in Kenya for disadvantaged communities. FindingLife transports students on interactive journeys all across the world. They are empowered and encouraged to take action offline and to make a tangible difference in the world. From building schools and wells to summiting some of the world’s tallest peaks. Saikaly’s interactive adventure-based expeditions help students discover who they are.
FindingLife utilizes today’s social media technology to captivate youth. Elia takes us to the summit of Everest sharing how he interactively shot, edited, blogged and GEO mapped his team’s adventure while literally hanging off the side of the mountain above 26 000ft above sea level. His relentless pursuit of reaching the summit of Everest alone is enough to leave us inspired, but the real driving force is the story of how 20 000 students followed along daily and raised funds to support an international charity.
Throughout his presentation, he illustrates how high school students summited Africa’s 2nd highest peak while building classrooms in a remote region in Kenya. He takes us through an interactive Soccer tournament that brought technology to hundreds of children in a community who had never even seen computers! Former street kids from the slums of Kenya joined Saikaly’s team of Canadians.
The magic of FindingLife is that it is all broadcast in real-time enabling school children to interact, learn and contribute to their neighbouring global communities. While some travel, others travel virtually and connect with people all across the world.
An eye-catching, multi-media driven, emotional roller coaster of a presentation, Elia leverages his film-making skills and manages to literally transport us into his world. He shares his innovative use of technology in remote and often inhospitable environments on Earth to move, affect, enable and inspire young people. His courage, vision, creativity and determination has not only built a successful organization, but it’s inspired tangible change in our youth and in communities across the world. Audiences are inspired and are filled with endless creative ideas of how to use technology to engage on-line communities. “Through vision and commitment, using today’s technology, we create lasting effective campaigns that inspire global change”.
Educational speaking events: info@findinglife.ca
