Some of the most inspiring and innovative Australian minds will congregate at the Sydney Opera House in May for the annual ideas festival TEDxSydney. The 2013 lineup has just been announced and boasts a diverse range of talent from world-leading industrial designer Marc Newson to Healthhabitat co-founder Paul Pholeros and horticulturalist/entrepreneur George Poonkin Khut.
The TEDx series is a locally-focused spinoff of the internationally acclaimed TED Talks dedicated to “ideas worth spreading”, designed to give communities, organisations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue at a grass roots level. Janne Ryan, the executive producer of TEDxSydney, says of the 2013 lineup: “Whether they are prominent or undiscovered identities, all our speakers are brilliant change agents within their fields of endeavour, and are making a difference to some of our most important challenges both locally and internationally. Each speaker will reveal a unique concept on the TEDxSydney stage which will surprise, inspire and delight the audience – and may change their thinking forever.”
TEDxSydney takes place on Saturday, 4 May at the Sydney Opera House. You can apply to be part of the live audience at the TEDxSydney website, or tune in online from anywhere around Australia.
Full TEDxSydney 2013 lineup:
MARC NEWSON, industrial designer.
One of the world’s most influential industrial designers, Marc will participate in a Q&A session on stage with curator and television producer Julian Morrow.
PROFESSOR DAVID SINCLAIR, PhD, Dept of Genetics, Harvard Medical School.
TOPIC: Forever young. David has made a remarkable discovery that may change the way we think about aging – forever.
DR ALICE GORMAN, Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA and Adjunct Fellow, Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, ANU.
TOPIC: Space junk – archaeologists usually work deep into our soil to uncover the past.
JENNIFER ROBINSON, Director of Legal Advocacy, Bertha Philanthropy Services.
TOPIC: Cross examining the law and challenging the limits of the law.
PAUL PHOLEROS, architect and co-founder Healthhabitat.
TOPIC: How architecture is eliminating poverty. Good housing is a direct link to good health and comes from work proven in the field not from government.
DR ANDREW PARKER, author and biologist, Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Green Templeton College.
TOPIC: How colour is changing the way we do business. Colour doesn’t exist in the outside world, it lives only in the minds of those animals with eyes, and we don’t fully understand how.
DR REBECCA HUNTLEY, author and researcher, Director, Ipsos Mackay.
TOPIC: Why we are NOT consumers. Rebecca holds a mirror up to Australians to show us who we are and how we really think – featuring original research being revealed on the day.
PROFESSOR RON McCALLUM, Emeritus Professor, Sydney University Law School – the first blind person to be appointed to a full professorship at an Australian university, and a former Senior Australian of the Year.
TOPIC: Ron will reflect on a life transformed by technology as he explores blindness and the many dimensions of the right to read.
DANNY KENNEDY, Founder, Sungevity.
TOPIC: How entrepreneurs, not missionaries, are saving the world. Danny also shows how the skills needed to be an entrepreneur come from learning how to be an activist.
A/PROFESSOR BILL PRITCHARD, human geographer, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney.
TOPIC: Why there is still hunger in a world full of food? To answer this question, Prof Pritchard suggests we must ask some new questions.
PROFESSOR SIMON JACKMAN, Department of Political Science and Department of Statistics, Stanford University, California.
TOPIC: A key political analyst during the recent USA election, Prof Jackman discusses changing the way information is collected and voting behaviour is understood.
DR LISA MURRAY, historian, City Historian, City of Sydney.
TOPIC: Finding ways to future-proof the memory of the world. Lisa argues that if we don’t preserve our digital records, not only will we be unable to write about the past, we also can’t plan for the future.
GEORGE POONKIN KHUT, Sydney-based artist and designer working across the fields of electronic art, design and health.
TOPIC: How art and medicine are working together in a Sydney hospital to change health outcomes for young children.
JOOST BAKKER, horticulturalist and entrepreneur
TOPIC: Creating CBD farming – and making it successful. Joost is working on a concept to turn Melbourne’s CBD rooftops into productive farms.
DAMIEN MANDER, Founding Director and Chairman, International Anti-Poaching.
TOPIC: Being a modern-day warrior. Damien will show how the skills he learnt as a soldier and sniper in the Australian Army are helping him change the animal conservation world.
As an additional speaker segment, up to 20 speakers from the audience will be invited to pitch their idea in 30-seconds.
A charge of $220 will cover the full day conference in the Concert Hall, along with all food, beverages and admission to the after-party. Student discounts are available.
Photo by Pascal Le Segretain for Getty Images.
