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The echo of empathy: Reflections after Athar Festival 2025

Impact BBDO's Manisha Bhatia explains how empathy is humanity in action, and shares how Athar Festival enabled conversations around it.

Manisha Bhatia, Head of Strategy and Planning (KSA), Impact BBDO on empathy at Athar Festival and following peopleManisha Bhatia, Head of Strategy and Planning (KSA), Impact BBDO

When I walked onto the stage at the Athar Festival of Creativity 2025, I carried no script to impress, only a humble intent. A lot like this write up. And my session followed – albeit on the different stage – one of the most intelligently provocative keynotes ever heard by the renowned Mo Gawdat. No pressure.

I was stepping on stage as a shameless optimist for a collective exchange; to remind us that, for all our data and algorithms, our real power as an industry in a doomscroll economy lies in something quieter. Something deeply human.

The keynote was titled “Empathy: The Only Algorithm That Truly Scales.” I wrote it with one belief; that if it made even one person think outsid


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