Theme: Rip Up the Rule Book

We’ve all seen those inspirational quotes about ‘stepping outside your comfort zone’ and why we should all do it more often, however in reality actually doing it is harder than it looks.

The scientific reasoning why we stay in our ‘comfort zone’ is to reduce stress and risk, resulting in a more secure mental state. When we dare to step outside of this state and conquer our fears with gusto, amazing things can happen.

By pushing our boundaries (no matter how small they might be) we are pushing ourselves to operate in a state of ‘optimal anxiety’, which accordingly to scientists is where mental productivity and performance reach their peak – how cool is that?

We at TEDxLeamingtonSpa, want to celebrate the heroes who’ve gone against the grain. Have you done something different or crazy? Have you dared to challenge the status quo? We want to explore new approaches to ingrained thinking, whether that’s limitations placed by society or us as individuals.

It’s up to us to constantly shake things up in our daily lives and to create some much needed disruption.

Have you ever held a meeting at an assault course? Have you worked a day standing up at your desk? Can we disrupt our daily routine to make life more fresh and interesting to keep us inspired? We want to address the limitations we place on ourselves and challenge the ‘should’.

So join us to rip up that rule book!

The Royal Pump Rooms
The Parade
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32 4BB
United Kingdom

Rosetta Fire

Following the release of their debut single, ‘Against the Odds’, produced by George Shilling (Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub, Paul Weller), Rosetta Fire have taken their eclectic sound to crowds across the country. Their blend of tight harmonies, strong melodies and memorable lyrics with an added pinch of optimism are trademark Rosetta Fire, with each new song showing a flash of creative brilliance from a band with an unorthodox sound.

Annouchka Bayley

Researcher, teacher and publisher

Annouchka has been researching, teaching and publishing on the subject of using arts-based methods for transdisciplinary contexts for several years now. Since completing her PHD, she has published several articles and has a forthcoming book on education with Palgrave Macmillan Publishers. In 2014 Annouchka won the Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence. As a practising artist, she has written, directed and performed more than 20 shows across Europe and Asia. She is also an Emerging Director with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Barnaby Lashbrooke

founder and CEO of Time etc

Barnaby is the founder and CEO of Time etc – a Virtual Assistant service offering time-poor entrepreneurs and professionals the ability to access skilled assistants for their evolving needs. Time etc works with 600 freelance Virtual Assistants around the world and has handled more than 1.3 million assignments to date, achieving 275% year-on-year growth last year. Barnaby started his first business – web hosting company SupaNames – when he was 17 and turned a £150 investment into more than 24,000 customers, eventually selling it to Pipex plc in a multi-million pound exit deal. Barnaby has invested in several start-ups and mentored many more. He is passionate about harnessing the combined power of psychology and automation to overcome business challenges.

Brendan Poynton

singer-songwriter and entrepreneur

Brendan is a singer-songwriter and entrepreneur who has worked in various start-ups in Birmingham, London and Dubai. An art school graduate in design management, he combines a unique mix of creative thinking and business development experience. Following a visit to Zambia to run music workshops, he developed a grass roots music property to raise funds to build a sustainable music centre there. Brendan has developed and managed several fundraising events under the umbrella www.musicearthrise.com – winning support from international names such as The Prodigy and Ronnie Wood

Catherine Pawley

chemistry student at the University of Warwick

Catherine is a chemistry student at the University of Warwick, a photography enthusiast and a self-confessed perfectionist. While growing up in Leicestershire, Catherine was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa in early 2012 and battled the illness throughout her ‘A’ levels and the first year of her degree. This resulted in her taking two gap years to get specialist treatment as an inpatient at an Eating Disorders Unit. Catherine has just completed her second year at university, and has not relapsed. She is busy enjoying student life and everything it entails, before entering the 'world of work' when she graduates next year.

Dr Angela Armstrong

Leadership development specialist and executive coach

Dr Angela Armstrong is an independent leadership development specialist. She previously delivered national and global transformational change programmes on behalf of a major consulting firm across public, private and not-for-profit sectors. By talking about resilience, not stress, we can all change the workplace culture one conversation at a time and create an environment that enables people to not only attain high performance… but sustain it.

Dr Itai Ivtzan

positive psychologist, a senior lecturer, and the program leader of MAPP (Masters in Applied Positive Psychology) at the University of East London (UEL)

Itai is passionate about the combination of psychology and spirituality. He is convinced that if we befriend them both, introducing them into our lives, we will all become super-heroes – gaining super-strengths of awareness, courage, resilience and compassion. In addition to being a positive psychologist, senior lecturer and Master’s programme leader at the University of East London (UEL), Itai is also an honorary senior research associate at University College London (UCL). Over the past 15 years, Itai has run seminars, lectures, workshops and retreats around the world, is a regular keynote speaker at conferences and has published several books, journal papers and book chapters. His main areas of research are positive psychology, mindfulness and spirituality.

Dr. Gillian Mara

Author, Athlete Mentor, Speaker

Gilly was a shy child until the discovery of canoeing at 15 helped grow her confidence. She entered her first national competition at 17 and was selected for her first international at 20, but a serious spinal injury to her neck meant she was unable to compete. However, she came back fighting. Three years later, Gilly competed internationally and went on to reach the podium at 30. In 2016 she set multiple world records as part of an all female crew who rowed over 3,000nm across the North Atlantic. Alongside her athletic prowess she also has a successful career, which began with gaining a doctorate in engineering in 2007. Since then she has been a professional coach, an academic, a published author and now works in the automotive sector – recently being named in the industry’s top 100 most inspiring women. Gilly is passionate about inspiring others to push their limits and shares her story with young people through her role as a Sky Sports Changing Lives Athlete Mentor.

Emma McGann

Singer

Gaining critical acclaim and the attention of Kylie Minogue and Nancy Sinatra for her earlier releases, live-streamer and independent singer-songwriter Emma has always strived for success in the arena of pop. As a self-taught guitarist, music graduate and passionate live-streamer, Emma continues to establish herself as a notable songwriter and an excellent example for other independent artists.

Freddy Kelly

Computer Scientist-turned-entrepreneur

After spending the first two years of his working life in San Francisco, he moved to London in 2015 to establish creditkudos.com – a start-up focused on using analytics to provide fair access to Financial Services. Benefitting from being a relative outsider to the Finance field, Freddy found himself frequently questioning the status quo. Financial Technology or 'FinTech' has attracted much media attention in recent years, yet there has been little focus on tackling the problem of financial exclusion. With almost half the world's population online in some capacity, Freddy believes that finance should be fair and accessible to everybody – not only the educated and wealthy – and that we must consider how technology can address this issue.

Graeme Hall

Dog trainer

Acknowledged by the media as one of Britain's top dog trainers, Graeme – aka “The Dogfather” – criss-crosses the country helping dog owners with dog behaviour problems. This year he has worked from Aberdeenshire to Sussex with dogs of all sizes and all kinds of problems. In total, he has helped over 4,000 dogs (and one fox!). Graeme is one of the few dog trainers chosen by TV and radio broadcasters to feature in their programmes. He has trained dogs on the set of a Hollywood film and even helped celebrities with their pets. Unusually for a dog trainer, Graeme did not have a dog of his own until his 40s – he now owns a (very well behaved) Rottweiler called Gordon – and came into dog training relatively late in life. Graeme is also an accomplished public speaker, writes a monthly column in Countryside magazine and competes in national ballroom and Latin competitions for fun.

Jonathan Jardine

Chief Executive of the West Midlands Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner

As the third largest force in the country, West Midlands Police covers a diverse urban area comprising nearly three million people. Jonathan’s experience includes Policy Manager for West Midlands Police Authority; partnership, scrutiny and research roles at Coventry City Council; Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; and research at the University of Wolverhampton and University of Warwick.

Lydia Ward

Founder of Velvet Evolution, a marketer and a psychologist

Lydia is the founder of Velvet Evolution, a marketer and a psychologist with particular expertise in assessing communication styles and building emotional resilience. Her 15-year global business career includes high profile roles in the food and health & beauty industries. As a confidence coach and mindfulness teacher, she helps clients define success, identify their stress triggers and execute a mindful plan for change. Lydia is also a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and is now a supporter of Safeline.Org as a member on the Board of Trustees and an Ambassador for the charity. A recently approved foster carer, she acts on stage at The Priory Theatre Kenilworth in her spare time. Confidence is the belief “I can do this”. Lydia embraces this value in every aspect of her life; she wants to empower survivors and others to do and feel the same – each and every day.

Nivi Morales

Photographer

Nivi is a photographer and web developer based in Leamington Spa. She uses photography to capture her passion for details and as a way of facing her challenges in a positive manner. Nivi shares a unique take on photography and how she has pushed boundaries to capture images despite being being visually impaired.

Weight Loss Bitch

Blogger

'Weight Loss Bitch' - is a feisty blogger, mind coach and social media commentator who shares her incredibly frank account of being a “35-year-old super morbidly obese woman” on a health and fitness driven journey to lose over 32 stone. “The trials and tribulations of a very fat woman in an image-led society can be funny, frustrating and, at times, mortifying. The day that I'm called a 'bitch' rather than a 'fat bitch' is the day I know I've hit my target!” With tens of thousands of ‘likes’ on Facebook and a social media fan-base growing daily, WLB started her venture in 2013, weighing 43st 5½lbs.