TEDxDouglas returns next month with inspiring speakers delivering powerful, thought-provoking talks.
The Youth Arts Centre in Kensington Road, Douglas, will host the event, which was first staged in 2014. This year's event takes place on Saturday, December 9 from 2.30pm-5.30pm.
The theme for this year is 'The power of an idea', and the line-up of speakers and performers is:
• Community driven, tech4good advocate Vim Appadoo - 'Social Impact and Technology'
• User experience designer Liam Carter-Hawkins - 'The 3 questions for more powerful ideas'
• Middle East business consultant Laura Cretney - 'How to change the world'
• Beach Buddies founder Bill Dale - 'It’s not enough to just stand and stare'
• Co-founder of ManxBioMed Cluster and Jurby Wellness Courtenay Heading - 'Being Well: When Florence Nightingale met David Icke
• Teacher Helen Moyer - 'Lifting the lid on learning'
• Astronomer Howard Parkin - 'Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder where you are'
• Band Jules Verne Theory
• Singer Simon Smart
Tickets cost ?20, and there are a limited number of free spaces available for under-16s. Tickets can be booked via www.eventbrite.co.uk (search for TEDxDouglas 2017).
TED - which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design - is a non-profit organisation devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short talks, normally no longer than 15 minutes. The movement has developed a worldwide following of millions since the first one-off event in 1984. TEDx events are independent from the main TED conferences, but operate under the same banner and follow similar principles and guidelines. There are more than 30,000 talks in the TEDx online library from presentations in 130+ countries.
Chris Stott, CEO of the ManSat Group, is the licence holder for TEDxDouglas. Chris has been involved with TED for 10 years and teaches with the TED Fellows.
He said: ‘We are thrilled to be bringing TEDxDouglas back to the Youth Arts Centre. The goal as always is to bring together bright minds to give talks that are idea-focused, to foster learning, inspiration and wonder – and provoke conversations that matter.’
This year's event is being supported by the ManSat Group, Manx ICT Association, Future Tech Services and MrsQ Event Planning.
Kurt Roosen, CEO of MICTA, said: 'We are delighted to be supporting this year's TEDxDouglas. TED talks are all about encouraging thinking and creativity, something that has been at the heart of MICTA since its establishment in 2010.'
TEDxDouglas will be curated by Emma and John Quirk, with the talks being streamed live on the internet and uploaded afterwards for worldwide viewing.
Emma said: ‘The TED philosophy is about the power of ideas to change attitudes, to make people question the world around them and how they live their lives. We have some excellent speakers lined up for this year's event to both challenge the audience's perception and inspire them.'
The TED mission statement reads: ‘TED is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world. We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world. On TED.com, we're building a clearinghouse of free knowledge from the world's most inspired thinkers — and a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other, both online and at TED and TEDx events around the world, all year long.’
For full details about TEDxDouglas 2017 visit tedxdouglas.im or follow on social media - www.twitter.com/tedxdouglas and www.facebook.com/tedxdouglas.
Photo - Simon Smart.
