Stronger Together: BBYO IC 2015

From the outside looking in, one cannot fully comprehend nor explain the magnitude of BBYO’s International Convention (IC). While on the surface you may have some success deciphering that which is superficial – size, location, performers, etc – in the end you lack the ability to appropriately convey the impact of it all, unless you attend.

This past week, thousands of teens from more than 20 countries gathered in Downtown Atlanta, Georgia to kick off BBYO’s annual global summit. Ahead of them stood four days of delicately designed programming, overflowing with opportunities to hear from a collection of the world’s most inspiring minds, engage with community changing organizations, learn from globally renowned educators, and celebrate with GRAMMY Award nominated recording artists.

With a list of speakers, performers and educators that includes Past-Israeli President Shimon Peres, Actress Emmanuelle Chriqui, Neiman Marcus CEO Karen Katz, Def Jam Records Mogul Michael Skolnik, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Actress Kat Graham, financial genius Michael Steinhardt, Forbes rising star Alex Banyan, Olympic Gold Medalist Garrett Weber-Gale, GRAMMY nominated artist Flo Rida and more, how can you not be impressed?

But the power of this conference isn’t contained within its headliners, rather in the audience that sits so attentively before them. The 2500+ participant convention body comprised of 15 to 18 year-old teens from the United States, Israel, France, Ukraine, Argentina, Serbia, Uruguay, Bulgaria, Georgia, Turkey, England, Ireland, Latvia, and elsewhere is what makes this conference so magically significant.

While it may seem that this behemoth of an event must be conceived by the minds of seasoned professionals, and engineered by the hands of event planning experts, it is in fact the teens themselves that drive the formation of what can easily be considered the gold standard for conferences of its kind.

These teens dream, plan and execute on ideas that likely appear unthinkable to many. Outsiders may ask, “How can teenagers build something like this?” Rather than satisfying a thirst for reasonable understanding with an answer that tries to explain the process, I’d instead reply… “What can’t they do?”

With a blank canvas, tools provided by generous donors who deeply believe in the empowerment of youth, and support from staff whose passion, dedication, resilience, perseverance, authenticity, and outright love could never be adequately described with words; these teens are capable of anything.

As an alumnus of BBYO, I left convention with an assemblage of feelings about an organization that will forever hold a special place in my heart. I was proud to see the values I learned as a member are still celebrated years later. I was excited to see that the passion that I shared with friends and family as a leader within its ranks is still so undeniably infectious. I was confident to know that this organization, which provided me with such a strong foundation for life is in such able hands. And I was inspired to know that these amazing teens exist in a world where hope may sometimes not be so easy to find.

It was an honor to come home to IC, and a pleasure to have had the opportunity to photograph it with all access privilege. Below are some of the moments I found most compelling. I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I enjoyed capturing them.

For additional photographs from IC and elsewhere, please join me on instagram -> @makandel.

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