Ingi Mehus
Founder & director | national Geographic explorer 2019-22 | tedx speaker | facilitator FOR change | Storytelling coach
My background story
My Norwegian name was formally given to me when I was four months old, and recently adopted from Korea to Norway. My first migration journey as a baby resulted into a life-long balancing act between identities; this triggered an innate curiosity of everything that was different. I fell in love with personal storytelling when I was 11 years old and read The Diary Of Anne Frank for the first time. Since then, ‘Storylistening’ became my tool to discover and learn from the world around me.
I spent my first few adult years travelling the world before I decided to formalise my education through a bachelor degree in Communication and a Master in Politics of Global Development in Australia. My personal journey led to to work with international migration across four continents with local NGOs, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency and IOM - UN Migration. But dissatisfied with the current personal and global narratives about migration, encouraged me to found Pocket Stories to connect people with unheard voices through storytelling to embrace and accept diversity.
Listening to and recording hundreds of personal stories from around the world has helped me to better understand how we are ALL interconnected, not in spite of, but because of human migration. We all have profound stories to tell. You and your stories are not alone. All our stories belongs in a much larger story, our shared collective story. Our history.
Who I am and what I can do for you
I am a storytelling coach, facilitator for change and a program developer for social and non-formal educational projects and have facilitated workshops and international summits across the world with people from all walks of life - investors, young changemakers, artists, journalists and everyone in-between, in all age groups and migration backgrounds.
I am a National Geographic Explorer 2019-22, TEDxHaarlem speaker, ChangemakerXchange alumnus and facilitator, Ashoka Hellopreneur, Bosch alumnus, and European Youth Press media awardee.
Current and previous partners
I have collaborated and partnered with organisations like Anne Frank House, Disney, National Geographic Society, National Geographic Education, Ashoka, ChangemakerXchange, SOS Children's Village, ChangeNOW, the Bosch Foundation and different European universities.
You can find me on
@ingimehus
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn
A selection of my current and past work
‘Reimagine migration: An inclusive conversation’ was an interactive virtual keynote speech I gave for 150 National Geographic Society and @NatGeo staff as a part of their #DEI Speaker Series in 2022.
“Who is a migrant?” is one of my favourite questions to ask to create a more inclusive narrative around migrantion. Watch my TEDx talk to learn more (07:42’).
Changemakers at SOS Children’s Villages
I am the program consultent and facilitator for ChangemakerXchange managing their partnership with SOS Children’s Villages to realise youth from around the world at their Villages to become changemakers. SOS invited ChangemakerXchange to create an online accelerator program for 35 young people in their network.
Learn about Roots Guide in 2 min from my talk during the Explorer Spotlight hosted by National Geographic Society in Munich.
Key note speech to 160 Walt Disney Nordic and Baltic staff during their Happiest Summit on Earth in Stockholm 2022.
“We could not have asked for a better speaker to round up the team days in Stockholm. Ingi’s way of storytelling really captures every one of you
”
Facilitating ChangemakerXchange summits in four countries. A five day retreat for young changemakers in Europe working with rural communities.
Facilitating and hosting a storytelling exchange between hearing and deaf from Spain and the Netherlands outside Barcelona, Spain 2019.
The “Social Innovation Cluster”
I am a program consultent and facilittor from ChangemakerXchange create and deliver engaging content, workshops and conversations with a focus on social innovation for the BAN.
Facilitating Story Seekers, a program to mobilised media professionals, academics and civil society organizations to promote social inclusion and civic engagement through storytelling and media in the Nordic in 2016.
Facilitating Ashoka’s European Changemaker Summit in Barcelona, Spain 2019. A summit bringing together Europe’s leading social entrepreneurs, investors and broader community.