Theme: The Art of Design

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

BMW Welt
Am Olympiapark 1
Munich, 80809
Germany

Ben Bogart

Ben Bogart is an artist working in installation, audio-visual improvisation and software development. His installations create content live in response to their sensed environment. He works in an Open Source context and makes all the software he develops, that is of general use, available under the GPL. He is currently a PhD candidate in the School of Interactive Art and Technology where he is developing an Integrative Theory of cognitive and neurological mechanisms of perception, mental imagery, mind-wandering and dreaming. This cognitive framework is manifest in a computational model and site-specific and generative artwork: A Machine that Dreams.

Veit Etzold

Veit Etzold is author of several bestselling thriller novels, his latest novels “Final Cut” and “Seelenangst” being in the German bestseller list for 14 weeks and translated into seven European languages. Beside writing thrillers, he is also a keynote speaker and lecturer on corporate storytelling for individuals and corporations. He authored several essays for the European Financial Review, the Business Strategy Series and the Harvard Business Manager on corporate storytelling as well as the book “Storytelling for Managers” by Wiley Publishing.

Van Bo Le-Mentzel

Van Bo Le-Mentzel is an architect and designer based out of Berlin. Le-Mentzel has created a Do It Yourself house on wheels. It just has 4 square meter of space and includes a living room, a kitchen unit and even a shower and a toilet. On the roof you find the sleeping area. Thanks to a genius folding system you can wrap and unwrap the house on parking lots in public streets. This house is called "Unreal Estate House" and is a political statement to the real estate economy. Le-Mentzel, who came to Germany as a refugee from Laos, explains, why living is a human right, and why the world gets better, if we start to build our own homes.

Moritz von Uslar

Moritz von Uslar is a reporter and interviewer for the magzine and the feuilleton of ZEIT. His breakthrough came with his interview-series “100 questions to ...”, which was featured in the magazine of Süddeutsche Zeitung from 1998 to 2006 and was published as a book in 2004. Uslar has also written a novel (“Waldstein”, 2006) and theater plays (“Freund”, 2000, “Freunde II”, 2002). His literary reportage “Deutschboden”, in which Uslar documents his stay in a small town in Brandenburg for 4 months, was awarded with the Fontane-prize by the city of Neuruppin and will be released in theaters in March 2014.

Natasha Vita-More

Natasha Vita-More is a designer and author of “Body by Design”, an innovative platform diverse body and substrate autonomous person. She is currently a Professor at the University of Advancing Technology. Her research covers emerging science and technology of human enhancement design.

Andy Goldstein

Andy Goldstein is a serial entrepreneur with 30 years experience in founding, building and accelerating companies. Having sold his software company to the publicly listed Avanquest Software in 2003, Mr. Goldstein is a member of the Board. Andy Goldstein is founder and Board member of the unique Social Entrepreneurship Akademie, a joint initiative by the four leading universities in Munich and his incubator at the LMU Entrepreneurship Center, where he holds the position of Executive Director, has spawned over 110 companies in 5 years. Current acceleration clients include the German Silicon Valley Accelerator, a project of the German government & the Allianz Digital Accelerator. He is also the Managing Director at the German Entrepreneurship GmbH.

Saskia Diez

Saskia Diez completed a classic apprenticeship as a goldsmith and went on studying industrial design. She worked at various design studios, including Rosenthal and Konstantin Grcic, before setting up her own studio in Munich, Germany. Saskia Diez's collections close the gap between fine and fashion jewelry, reflecting the zeitgeist without being trend-driven. Known for sophisticated and distinct creations, the brand has had a prolific rise since its launch in 2007. Her jewelry collections play with cultural references and display influences of art, fashion and industrial design. Further to the creation of jewelry, Saskia Diez designs objects like her famed series of paper bags, PAPIER, which won the German Design Price 2010 and the Condé Nast Traveller's Innovation & Design Award.

Jessica Joffe

Jessica Joffe was born in Hamburg, raised between Germany, England and the US. She has a BA in Comparative Literature from Stanford University. She worked as a staff writer at the New York Observer, a free-lance journalist and book critic and has also appeared in a handful of movies, notably Machine Gun Preacher, Celeste and Jesse Forever, A Most Wanted Man and And it Was Good. She models in her spare time, has appeared in several notable campaigns, including Banana Republic, Uniqlo, Elizabeth Arden and Vanessa Bruno and in the pages of Vogue, W, Glamour, Self Service, L'Officiel and Glamour among others. She is on the cover of the March 2014 issue of Town and Country.

Jules

Singer Julia Nagele enchants her audience with a colourful and expressive voice. She found her home in Singer&Sonwriter music: the 22 year old presents her own songs under the name "Jules“. Her Songs are influenced by Jazz, Pop and soul and tell the stories of her life. She sings these songs alongside different musicians from all over Germany, but she convinces her audience even as a soloist - all she needs is a chair and her guitar.