Two days. Seventeen sessions. One community, fully alive. Watch the EDIS 2026 replay and find the moment that lights you up.
EDIS 2026 brought together next-gen Eritrean diaspora innovators, creatives, professionals, and leaders from across the world for two extraordinary days in Merhaba Hall. We explored what it means to lead with clarity and purpose. We talked about wellness, language, memory, joy, and what it looks like to create the spaces we wish existed.
The conversations moved us. The community showed up fully. Now you can be part of it too.
Watch every session on your schedule. Revisit the moments that resonated. Carry the Mebrahti Mindset into everything you build next.
One payment. Every session. Available through June 30, 2026.
We are the generation carrying the torch, inheriting the spirit of resilience, and the Eritrean Diaspora Innovators Summit is our strategic meeting point—our Baito – a powerful assembly of visionary innovators, next-gen leaders, creators, professionals, and young professionals from every corner of the world. We are all connected by the beautiful, bold threads of our shared culture, experiences and ancestral heritage.
The Eritrean Diaspora Innovators Summit is a virtual conference for second-generation Eritreans in the diaspora—those raised in immigrant households, between cultures, navigating pressure and possibility, and ready to chart their own path.
EDIS brings together the next generation of Eritrean leaders to explore identity, leadership, entrepreneurship, and community impact through meaningful conversations and powerful shared experiences.
Every session is included in your replay access. Here’s what you’ll find inside.
Opening Remarks:
Honoring Our Light
Semhar Araia
The Power of Your Hyphenated Self:
What Diaspora Leadership Looks Like Today
Semhar Araia
The Mebrahti Mindset:
Leading with Clarity and Purpose
Semhar Araia
Curating Your Life:
A Conversation About Discovery, Reconnection and Release
Azieb Pool
Semhar Araia
Welcome Back:
Afternoon Intentions & Reflections
Semhar Araia
Black Maria:
Living and Moving Between Worlds
Aracelis Girmay
Naz Habtezghi
Kab Libina:
Creating the Spaces We Wish Existed
Sewit Sium & Beri Gebrehiwot
I Hope You Find What You’re Looking For
Bsrat Mezghebe
Hagos n’Hizbi:
Joy for the People: Storytelling as a Service in the Twin Cities
Feven Gerezghier & John Gebretatose
Mebrahti Mindset: Lessons from 20 Years of Negotiating at the Highest Level
Merhawi Kiflezghi
Closing
Semhar Araia
Welcome and Intention Setting
Semhar Araia
Ti’ina and Selam:
The Power of Mental Health and Wellness as Eritrean Diasporas
Semhar Araia
Finding Selam Through Connections: Putting Wellness Into Your Everyday
Armana Embaie, LOMI & Sara Baheta, Project Libe
Hizbina, Hiwetna:
What Must Happen for Healing and Growth
Almaz Nigussie Bland, Habesha Health
Welcome Back:
Afternoon Grounding & Collective Intention
Semhar Araia
Building Community
Through Sign Language, Fashion and Memory
Hermon and Heroda Berhane
Kwanqa n’Mebrahti, Language as Light:
Preserving Language Through Technology and Innovation
Daniel Mengisteab, African Language House & Yemane Russom
Moving from Analog to Digital: Archiving Eritrean Music for the Next Generation
Waleed & Ibtisam Said, Tezez Tapes
Community Resilience:
Lessons from Georgia
Yonas Abraha
Zereba Roundtable
ALL
Closing Remarks
The full EDIS 2026 replay, including every keynote, panel, fireside, and conversation from Merhaba Hall, is yours for $49. Watch on your schedule, share what moves you, and keep the Zereba going.
Replay access closes June 30, 2026. All sales final.
Two days designed to inspire, empower, and connect the next generation of Eritrean diaspora leaders.
Below you’ll find answers to the most common questions about the Eritrean Diaspora Innovators Summit.
If you still have questions, feel free to reach out, we’re happy to help!
The Eritrean Diaspora Innovators Summit (EDIS) is a two-day virtual gathering created for Eritrean diasporas, by Eritrean diasporas. It is designed for second-generation and diaspora-born Eritreans who are navigating hyphenated identities while building leadership, careers, and community.
Our goal is to create a space where you feel seen, validated, and empowered to lead, innovate, and collaborate in ways that honor both your heritage and your aspirations.
EDIS is proudly hosted by Semhar Araia, Founder and CEO of The Diaspora Academy. Semhar is an experienced diaspora leader, advocate, and innovator who has spent her career supporting diaspora changemakers around the world.
Through The Diaspora Academy, Semhar and her team provide diaspora leadership training, advisory services, and community spaces that honor the unique contributions of diasporas.
EDIS is for Eritreans in the diaspora, especially:
Second-generation Eritrean diasporas (born or raised abroad)
Diaspora professionals, entrepreneurs, creatives, scholars, organizers, and change-makers
Young professionals, students, and emerging leaders ages 18 to 45
Anyone ready to lead with a Mebrahti Mindset, balancing clarity, purpose, and heart
EDIS will be held in English to accommodate all generations. We know you do not have to speak fluent Tigrinia or be fully “plugged in” to Eritrean culture to belong here. If you care about your roots and your future, you are in the right place.
Yes EDIS is open to all!
While EDIS is designed with the Eritrean diaspora experience in mind, it is open to all who are connected to, interested in, or invested in the growth and empowerment of Eritrean diasporas around the world.
Whether you are a second-generation Eritrean born or raised abroad, or a first-generation, a parent of a second-gen child, or someone passionate about supporting Eritrean diaspora leaders, you are welcome here.
Here is what you can expect over two transformational days:
All sessions are held virtually and will be recorded. EDIS is designed to feel engaging, supportive, and practical, with chat rooms, networking breakout sessions and resources for you.
By attending EDIS, you will:
Your journey continues after EDIS with:
You will leave EDIS feeling proud, prepared, and connected to a growing community of changemakers around the world.
Yes – EDIS will happen again!
Absolutely! EDIS is an annual event! We look forward to welcoming you next year on May 1 and 2, 2027!
If you’d like to join the EDIS planning team, sign up to become a volunteer, affiliate partner or sponsor!
We cannot wait to build the next EDIS with passionate Haweys and Hafteys like you!
Reach out to the EDIS team at edis@thediasporaacademy.com and we will be happy to assist you.
We cannot wait to build with you, Hawey and Haftey!
Get a glimpse of the conversations, insights, and powerful moments that make EDIS such a transformative gathering. These short reels highlight the voices, ideas, and energy shaping the next generation of Eritrean diaspora leadership.
