Assem grew up in a world that never stood still. As a daughter of one of Kazakhstan’s first diplomats, she lived in multiple countries and attended eight schools in ten years, learning one lesson above all: anything could end at any moment.

This experience taught her to live fully, to grab hold of each moment and make the most of it. And it made her long for roots – so much so that when she arrived in Switzerland, she couldn’t help but do something truly bold (or “stupid” as she likes to put it). With no experience in gastronomy, she opened a physical business, Simply Soup, a place she could call her own.

In the fourteen years that followed, Simply Soup became more than a business. It was her anchor, a brick-and-mortar sanctuary where she created, connected, and built a life around herself in which she finally belonged.

In this talk, Assem shares what it means to build a life that holds you, even when the ground keeps shifting. She talks about unexpected lessons from a soup business that became a school in resilience, and why she now believes the deepest connections, and the best stories, are the ones that remind us we’re not alone.