Theme: Thinking Forward

The need to look at the future has never been more crucial. How will our current ideals and values stand against the conditions of tomorrow? What new principles and technologies can propel today’s society toward the standards of tomorrow? What new ideas or philosophies will transform the way we see the world?
Part of the answers lie in innovation.
Nowadays, we live in a world where changes are constantly made in many different places and in many different ways. The question is: are we really aware of our part in those changes?
At TEDxLancasterU we are thrilled to explore these questions, and will attempt to understand how we can promote meaningful thinking and innovation that can move the world forward.

Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster University
Lancaster, Lancashire, LA1 4YD
United Kingdom

Anne Toomey

Anne has worked in areas of community development and environmental stewardship in places as diverse as Nicaragua, Mexico and New York City. Currently, completing her PhD at Lancaster University in the UK, looking at the concept of impact in research. Her previous work gleaned interesting insights about the different ways in which people around the world understand and perceive the impact of scientific research and development projects.

Arash Aazami

Arash Aazami founded the world's first energy interdependence company: BAS - Benefit to All Stakeholders, which quickly grew into a serious alternative to conventional energy companies and became one of The Netherlands fastest growing companies and whose business model, the Path to Zero, won two categories at 2014 MIT Climate CoLab Challenge. He recently resigned from the board of his company to dedicate his time to empower people and organisations to find and utilise their full potential.

Bayan Smith

Bayan dedicates his time alongside friends in promoting a process of community building in their neighborhood. The programme they are implementing is used globablly. Broadly, the activities seek to build strong communities by empowering people to take charge of their own spiritual, social and intellectual development. Bayan is a professional Craftsman who primarily makes bespoke furniture from wood. www.bayansmith.com

Bruce Crowther

Bruce, included in the former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown's book 'Everyday Heroes', was awarded the MBE for services to Fairtrade and Oxfam. He now serves as Executive Director for the FIG Tree and acts as the International Fair Trade Towns Ambassador for the International Fair Trade Towns Steering Committee. For more information on the FIG Tree visit http://www.fairtradecentre.org/

Christian Butterworth

Christian is a current student in the Highwire Centre for Doctoral Training at Lancaster University. His research interests centre on the use of 'big' and 'open' data within non-profit arts organisations and the challenges and opportunities that are associated with their application.

Dr. Simon Mabon

Dr. Simon Mabon is a lecturer in international relations at Lancaster University and a research associate at the Foreign Policy Centre. He is the director of the Richardson Institute, the oldest Peace Studies centre in the UK, which is dedicated to pioneering research in peace and conflict studies. Simon is the author of Saudi Arabia and Iran: Soft Power Rivalry in the Middle East, forthcoming books on Hizballah and ISIS, and has written extensively on Middle Eastern politics. He is an avid snowboarder, Arsenal fan and a musician.

Dr. Stuart Parkinson

He is the Executive Director of Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR), a UK membership organisation which promotes more ethical science, design and technology. Dr Parkinson has authored numerous studies and reports on issues including corporate influence on science, climate science and policy, and military involvement in engineering.

Fraser Williams

Fraser is currently a second year student entrepreneur at Lancaster University. Having started multiple ventures he has qualified himself as a doer through his actions instead of his words. He is currently running a student proofreading business and a social enterprise that connects entrepreneurs in the North West.

Ian Steel

Ian is known as a coffee hopper, as part of his work he travels around the developing world in search of great beans and stories of farmers. In his talk, Ian will show the impact that coffee can have on the communities that grow it.

Jilly Sumison

Jilly trained at Manchester University as a teacher of the deaf in 1987. She has since learned British Sign Language and is currently exploring Signed Theatre. She works with groups of creative young adults with learning needs.

John Easton

John Easton is an IBM Distinguished Engineer and lead Cloud Advisor in Europe. He is internationally known for his work helping commercial clients exploit scale distributed computing infrastructures, particularly those utilising new and emerging technologies. Over his time at IBM, John has led initiatives around hybrid systems, computational acceleration, grid computing, energy efficiency and mission-critical systems.

Joze Marcelino

Joze Marcelino Kongo, a graduate from the Institute of Biomedical sciences (Oporto), has a MSc in Food Technology and and a PhD in Biotechnology and was a researcher at Cornell University (USA), University of Cork (Ireland) and University of Guelph (Canada). When not teaching he likes writing uplifting songs, sharing his music as a voice to express his inner beliefs rooted in the concept of Unity of Diversity.

Mat Baker

Fairly new singer/songwriter studying at Lancaster University, Mat started performing just over a year ago and now performs all over the city of Lancaster.

Tim Hunt

Sir Tim Hunt is an English biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine. His discovery for the protein molecules that control the duplication of cells has made significant progress in the medical world, notably for Cancer Research UK.