Theme: Ideas Worth Spreading

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).

Perth Concert Hall
5 St Georges Tce
Perth, Western Australia, 6000
Australia

Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse

Musician

Three-time winner of the WAMI Indigenous Act of the Year Award, Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse bring a modern take on ancient Aboriginal traditions, merging acoustic guitar with vocals, and capturing the natural rhythms of the Noongar language. "...this music... this is where the ancient meets the contemporary... it's beautiful... I love it..." - Archie Roach, singer-songwriter, national treasure.

Ochre Contemporary Dance Company

Ochre Contemporary Dance Company brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous dancers, choreographers and arts professionals. Through this exchange, Ochre explores who we are, our heritage and our relationship to the land and to each other. Ochre’s goal is to build understanding and, through understanding, respect. Ochre is uniquely Western Australian dance troupe. By drawing upon life and heritage, the Company stages emotionally charged performances that speak to the human spirit.

Amanda Ridley

Behavioural Ecologist

Amanda Ridley has devoted her career to understanding the causes and consequences of social behaviour. She is a behavioural ecologist based at the University of Western Australia. After a career in wildlife management, Amanda undertook a PhD at Cambridge University where her eyes were opened to the fascinating world of animal behaviour. Amanda’s fieldwork took her to the Negev Desert in the Middle East, and onward to the Kalahari desert in southern Africa as part of a postdoctoral collaboration between Cambridge University and the University of Cape Town. In 2012, Amanda began research on the Western Australian magpie. She is leading two longitudinal research projects and has authored over 50 scientific articles. In 2015, Amanda was nominated as a Rising Star in the UWA Faculty of Science.

Ben Sharp

Fungi Entrepreneur

Ben Sharp is passionate about the intersection of science, innovation and entrepreneurship. He recently founded Mycovative, a small Perth-based biotechnology startup exploring the potential that fungi has as bioremediators and biomaterials. He encourages young scientists to pursue a less conventional pathway and explore business ventures that utilise a science background.

Callum Ormonde

Protein Researcher

A chance discovery by Callum led to the realisation that an egg could be “unboiled”. The quirky, yet profound research garnered much international attention and led to his team winning an Ig Nobel Prize for achievements that make you laugh, but then make you think. Callum Ormonde is a PhD candidate at the University of Western Australia, department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

David Ritter

Sustainability and Social Justice Campaigner

David Ritter is the Chief Executive Officer of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, an associate of the Sydney Democracy Network at Sydney University and an honorary fellow of the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Australia. He returned to Australia to take up his current role after campaigning on the global issues of destructive fishing, deforestation and climate change with Greenpeace in London. Prior to joining Greenpeace, David worked as a lawyer practising in general litigation, resources law and native title, before spending a short stint as an academic teacher in law and history. David has written two books about native title rights; Contesting Native Title (Allen & Unwin, 2009) and The Native Title Market (UWA Publishing, 2009). He is a widely published commentator on politics, law, history and current affairs.

Jo McDonald

Rock Art Researcher

Jo is the Director of the Centre for Rock Art Research + Management at the University of Western Australia. Before entering academia in 2012, she was a leading cultural heritage management practitioner. She has recorded rock art and dreaming stories with the Martu, traditional owners of the land along the Canning Stock Route in the Australian Western Desert. Her analysis of the rock art and stone structures in the Dampier Archipelago (Burrup Peninsula) led to their inclusion on the National Heritage List. She continues to study the scientific and community values of this place to ensure the continued protection of this rock art.

Kevin Vinsen

Astronomy Supercomputer Researcher

A researcher with the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), Kevin is a computational polymath - expert in numerous coding languages, artificial intelligence, genetic algorithms, data mining, business analysis, games development and command and control systems. He is helping solve the extraordinary computational challenges facing the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the largest and most capable radio telescope ever built. When complete, the SKA will expand our understanding of the Universe and help drive technological innovation worldwide.

Ky Sinclair

Upskilling and Empowerment Activist

Ky Sinclair is founder and trainer of The Homelove Project, an innovative community development project that seeks to empower through education, insisting that if the project does not work for ‘the least of these’, then it doesn’t work at all. He has been involved in nonviolent direct action advocating for the removal of children from detention as a part of Love Makes A Way actions. He continues to train people on a weekly basis on the streets of Perth at no cost.

Laura Boykin

Computational Biologist

Laura Boykin is an American computational biologist and an Assistant Professor at the University of Western Australia. She is also a TED Fellow. Laura completed her PhD in Biology at the University of New Mexico while working at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the Theoretical Biology and Biophysics group.

Mama Kin

Musician and Storyteller

Mama Kin (AKA Danielle Caruana) is part raconteur and all-out entertainer, renowned for her stirring live shows, where storytelling, intimacy and community reign. Mama Kin’s music, best described as soul folk, is created at the junction where strength meets vulnerability.

Paul Stone AKA Future Dynamic

Paul works with a custom built live looping system designed to manipulate music & sounds live. In his live performances he improvises with a keyboard, microphone, effects and recorded sounds, drawing upon the audience as an active participant in the creation of the music. Paul’s is passionate and curious about how music can bring people together and how technology can be used to manipulate sound live in an expressive humanlike way.

Paula Constant

Author and Wellbeing Advocate

In 2004, Paula packed her life into a backpack and began walking from London. She continued walking for three years, covering over 12,000km through eight countries, including 7,000km across the Sahara. Upon returning from the desert, Paula began to speak to schools, groups and corporations about identifying what success looks like and how to achieve it. Gradually she began to feel something was missing from her talks and she set out to find what that was.

Peter Sharp

Social Artist and Professional Paradigm Shifter

Peter Sharp is a “professional paradigm shifter”. Fiercely optimistic, he designs social experiments and global movements for peace that bend the rules of fear and challenge the modus operandi of community empowerment and flash mobs. Through his work leading The Liberators International, Peter creates spaces for the public to create their own threads of love, life and joy during the daily experience. One of his projects include the The World’s Biggest Eye Contact experiment which involved 100,000 participants from over 156 cities sharing a minute of eye contact with strangers.

Prue Cormie

Exercise and cancer researcher

Prue Cormie is committed to improving the health and lives of people with cancer. Her research has led her to this conclusion: exercise should be part of a doctor’s prescription toolkit. Prue is a Principal Research Fellow at Australian Catholic University’s Institute for Health and Ageing and an Accredited Exercise Physiologist. Her research and clinical work focuses on the role of exercise in the management of cancer. She has practiced and researched in various exercise clinics and research laboratories in Australia and the United States and has a PhD in exercise science.