Turkish High Schools Championship
In a tournament of 110 teams spread across four months, I served as both committee chair and chief adjudicator.
The Desk
From Idea To Field
Some works are more than a profession; they reveal how a person reads the world. On film sets, in debate halls, across agricultural fields, and around decision tables, I kept learning the same thing: a good idea is an idea that can be executed well.
What Sits on My Desk
My desk was never confined to a single industry. Many different ventures accumulated on it over the years, yet every one of them grew out of the same discipline: how does this idea reach the field? That is the question every venture began with — and by now I have gathered quite a few answers. This page brings those answers together.
- I.Education ConsultancyFrom debate to communication expertise — a line that began at the podium
- II.Private SectorGeneral Manager years at Sonitel and Vivenso Turkey
- III.Food & BeverageThree concept venues, from Istanbul to Odesa
- IV.AgricultureA hazelnut plantation in Ohrid, built to Ferrero standards
- V.CinemaFrom script to screen — a production journey and its projects
- VI.Financial SoftwareFintech — an autonomous trading expert built in software
I
Education Consultancy
From Debate to Communication Expertise
It began with stepping up to the podium at university; before long it grew into a line of work that ran through teaching, founding tournaments, chairing juries, and carrying all of it into the private sector.
I discovered debate at Istanbul University. After the successes I earned in the club I was elected its president, and I began teaching debate techniques at Turkey's leading high schools. What I learned at the podium I soon carried to the organizing table: within the Turkish Private Schools Association I founded the country's first inter-high-school debate tournament, running both the organization and its jury committee.
The Turkish National Debate Council then chose me to chair the committee of the 13th Turkish Debate Championship. In 2011 I organized the country's largest debate tournament, with 39 universities competing.
"In 2013 the invitation came from the World Debating Council: the national teams of 50 countries would compete in Antalya — I served as the committee's vice chair."25th World Schools Debating Championship
Every year I ran the Turkish Debate Camp — the first of its kind in the country — with 120 students over ten days in Antalya: effective rhetoric, career planning, the psychology of persuasion, public speaking, and negotiation. I gathered that experience in Etkin Hitabet ve Münazara (Effective Rhetoric and Debate), one of the first books in Turkey to teach international debate techniques.
In 2013 I founded the Etkin Hitabet company and carried the same discipline into the private sector: trainings in the psychology of persuasion and communication architecture, and negotiation programs designed especially for the pharmaceutical industry. With GlaxoSmithKline I brought a first to Turkey — KBB'de Yorum Farkı (A Difference of Interpretation in ENT). For four days in Sapanca, ENT physicians debated the contested questions of their field before juries of professors; we held the final at the National ENT Congress in Antalya, in front of all the participants. Every argument defended was turned into a working report and shared with physicians across the field.
Turkish Universities Championship
I chaired the committee of a championship in which 40 teams competed over five days.
25th World Schools Debating Championship
I was vice chair of the committee for the 20-day organization that hosted the national teams of 50 countries in Antalya.
A Teaching Line Across Anatolia
Debate, rhetoric, negotiation, and persuasion-psychology trainings for more than 3,000 students at 11 universities and 180 high schools; symposiums and camp programs.
Tournaments I OrganizedŞarköy Open Debate TournamentCommittee Chair Edirne Debate TournamentChief Adjudicator Istanbul Debate TournamentCommittee Chair 13th Turkish Debate ChampionshipCommittee Chair Enderun Debate TournamentCommittee Chair Turkish High Schools Debate TournamentChair · Chief Adjudicator World Schools Debating ChampionshipVice Chair
Committee, jury, and organizational roles
II
Private Sector
Corporate Leadership and Market Building
I carried the communication I had learned in the field into corporate life: sales strategy, team building, and planting a brand in the market from scratch.
I entered corporate life at Sonitel Bilişim, a developer of call-center software, as Sales and Marketing Manager. For a year I built the sales strategy, managed the corporate client portfolio, and carried what the field demanded back into product development. I then took on the General Manager role for two years, directly steering the company's commercial growth, its team, and its operational decisions.
Then came an offer from Vivenso, one of Germany's largest brands in cleaning robots and hygiene technology, and I became General Manager of Vivenso Turkey. Over two years — in line with German work discipline and quality standards — I led the founding of the Turkey office, the structuring of the sales and field teams, the dealer and service organization, the training programs, and the positioning of the brand.
Turkey had deeply rooted competitors; we entered the market not merely with a product but with a hygiene narrative built on measurement and proof. Through the Hygiene Check-Up project we developed, our teams took measurements in customers' homes; the need became visible as hard data, and our recommendations rested on that data. The brand set itself apart quickly and earned trust.
"We entered the market not with a product but with proof: first we measured, then we advised."Hygiene Check-Up · Vivenso Turkey
From the archive — an interview from my General Manager years in Sonitel's in-house magazine: "I have a dream," December 2015.
Frames from the corporate years — office, desk, and the executive suite.
III
Food & Beverage
Concept Venues and the Craft of Running Them
Running venues has always been a passion of its own alongside my professional life. While my education and consultancy work continued, I founded concept venues in Turkey and abroad — and I ran them not from a desk but from the floor. From concept design to team management, from the kitchen line to the guest experience, I lived every step of the craft firsthand.
Photograph — with the Bourbon Lounge team, North Macedonia.
Meşk Miskinler Tekkesi
An Ottoman-concept café and restaurant of 500 square meters, its name borrowed from an old Istanbul dervish lodge: a grand waterfall in the garden, secluded seating on traditional divans inside, and the signature dishes of Ottoman cuisine in an atmosphere composed of ebru marbling, calligraphy, and gilded illumination. The venue drew attention quickly and won great affection from its guests.
Duke Restaurant
A large venue for 200 guests on Duke Square, the city's biggest square. The concept centered on Odesa's own history; we brought world cuisine and Turkish flavors together on a single menu.
Bourbon Lounge
One of the region's largest cafés, which I founded while managing my agricultural investments. It became a strong hands-on practice in which I experienced every step of venue management in the field.
The venue notebook — from Meşk's opening day to Bourbon's bar; frames of concept, team, and atmosphere.
IV
Agriculture
A Hazelnut Plantation to Ferrero Standards
In the Ohrid region of North Macedonia, we established a plantation of 100 dönüms — roughly 10 hectares — to grow hazelnuts at the quality standard of industrial chocolate production.
- Location
- Ohrid, N. Macedonia
- Area
- 100 dönüms (~10 ha)
- Variety
- Nocchione (Italy)
- Planting
- 2020
- Target Yield
- 7–9 kg per tree
- Field Management
- 3 years
Land preparation before planting — Ohrid, North Macedonia.
The goal was clear: to build a sustainable, high-yield production model fit for the premium hazelnut supply chain that Ferrero Group — one of the world's largest packaged confectionery companies — draws on for its chocolates and creams. We chose the Italian-bred Nocchione variety: suited to industrial use, with a controlled fat profile that leaves chocolate's aroma balance intact.
We planned the orchard on a single-trunk training system; the drip-irrigation infrastructure, row spacing, tree layout, and maintenance program were all drawn up against a five-year production projection. Before planting we completed soil analysis, pH balancing, organic-matter enrichment, drainage work, and mineral-nutrition amendment; we planted in 2020.
For three years I managed the entire process — from land preparation to sapling selection, from the irrigation and fertilization plan to pruning and care, from disease monitoring to yield projection.
"An agricultural investment is not made of land and saplings; it is made possible by sound planning, the right variety, and disciplined field management."Notes from the Ohrid Plantation
V
Cinema
A Production Journey from Script to Screen
A journey that began with screenwriting grew into a complete production practice — from short film to national broadcasts, from running sets to distribution and marketing.
My story in cinema began with a script. My first professional step was Paşa'nın Rüyası (The Pasha's Dream), a short film I wrote and directed; it earned awards on its festival run and entered special selections. That film showed me something: the reflex of turning a creative idea into execution was my real trade.
In time I did more than write. I became versed in financing, production and directorial preparation, set management, post-production oversight, promotion and marketing, and distribution. Eleven of my scripts have been filmed to date; each project taught me to manage, ever more systematically, every stage an idea travels from page to set to audience.
During my years as General Manager of Aytaç Medya I ran the full production process on Savunma Sanayiinin Yalnız Dehaları — a documentary series on the lone geniuses of Turkey's defense industry — along with Güven Bana, Üçlü Pürüz, Efsane, Mahlukat, Haile, Haile 2, Nemlizade, and Efendiler. I have taken part in symposiums at universities and institutions and received awards; today I share my field experience with new producers through production trainings. This work now continues under my own production company, Kent Picture; my writing on the history of cinema and the profession of producing, the films I have worked on, and my current work in the field are all at kentpicture.com.
Script—Finance—Production—Direction—Set—Post—Promotion—Distribution
On Set
Behind the Scenes — Lone Geniuses of the Defense Industry
Savunma Sanayiinin Yalnız Dehaları — moments from behind the camera.
On set — the producer's chair and the director's monitor during the shooting of Güven Bana.
On set — Paşa'nın Rüyası, the podium scene in period costume.
"Eleven scripts that reached the screen — each one meant managing the whole distance between the page and the audience."The Production Ledger
IMDbEdiz Kentkuran
Filmography
Click a poster to watch its trailer.
VI
Financial Technology
An Autonomous Trading Expert: Kent AI
Financial software I developed by joining the experience of my managing years at software companies with an expert team: a trading expert that operates autonomously in the market.
My years as General Manager at software companies taught me not how to write code, but how to read software: to see how a system is put together, where it will strain, and which promises actually hold in the field. Kent AI was built on that literacy.
Together with a team of specialists, we developed Kent AI as an autonomous trading expert for the financial markets. The system watches the market, processes the data, and makes its decisions inside a predefined, disciplined framework. As with everything else on my desk, the essentials were the same: measure first, then plan, and work by the rules at every step.
For me, Kent AI is the most current answer to the question that opens this page — how does this idea reach the field? The system is live today at kentkuran.tr.
"Writing software is one craft; reading it is another. The one I learned at the manager's desk was the second."Kent AI · Development Notes
KENT AIAutonomous Trading Expert
On film sets, in debate halls, across agricultural fields, and around decision tables, what I learned was always the same: a good idea is an idea that can be executed well.
Ediz Kentkuran