What do dictatorships fear most?
It’s noise, connection, and solidarity. Resistance together.

In this personal and politically charged keynote at the 2025 Creative Bureaucracy Festival, I shared my journey from growing up under dictatorship in Tunisia to witnessing -and participating in- the uprising that sparked the Tunisian Revolution for Freedom and Dignity, called now the Arab Spring.
Reflecting on what it means to lead, resist, and rebuild in the face of systemic failure, this talk is a call to reject isolation, reclaim community, and harness the power of collective intelligence. As democracies backslide and authoritarianism spreads, we must move beyond romanticized notions of savior leadership and toward radical solidarity and participatory systems that can evolve, include, and inspire.
This session invited participants to rethink not only how we govern creatively but how we dream and act, together.

About the Creative Bureaucracy Festival: On 5 June 2025, the Creative Bureaucracy Festival returned for its 8th edition in Berlin. The festival brought together over 2,100 international participants from government, politics, civil society, and other change-making organisations gathering to share and celebrate outstanding examples of innovative public administration. The festival welcomed both familiar and emerging creative minds and public sector innovators on four stages and five workshop spaces including a new meetup area. Across 90 sessions, 200 speakers from over 30 countries shared bold ideas, practical tools, and inspiring experiences. Official Website: https://creativebureaucracy.org/