Theme: Here to listen

Perspective—you have yours and I have mine. To understand one another, I will have to leave my “here” to curiously step into your “there”. In doing this, I broaden my view and I grow. But to address and understand different perspectives, I need to listen, really listen, and be present—both physically and mentally. Only by being present in the moment, can I fully receive all the information you are sharing with me. I hear what you are saying.

This year, TEDxCapeTown 2016 is Here/Hear to listen. We invite you to be in the moment with us at this year’s TEDxCapeTown “Here/Hear to listen” event. Join us in doing away with distraction, opening our minds and paying attention to world-changing ideas being shared. Be here to hear!

How can we better listen to better understand each other? Why is it so hard to consider someone else’s point of view? How do our beliefs shape our perspective? How does our perspective shape our world? And how can we find more effective ways of communicating that lead to better understanding and connection in a world riddled with conflict and war?
Come and explore these various topics from multiple perspectives with us. Join us in discovering ways with which we can exchange our points of difference for deep connection. We want our community to really see, hear and listen to this year’s talks and come to understand the role they play. TEDxCapeTown provides a platform for sharing “Ideas Worth Spreading,” but it’s up to the community to spread these ideas. Whether it’s sharing ideas online or having conversations in between sessions or days after the show, listen carefully and take the time to understand the perspective of all those in our TEDx community.

MegaVu Theatre
Ratanga Junction
Century Blvd, Century City
cape town, Western Cape, 7441
South Africa

Madzishe & Band

Madzishe means ‘kings’ and these Zimbabwean musos are indeed inspired by the monarchs of African music.Their sound is a fusion of Chimurenga and Afro Jazz. Madzishe’ consists of four African music artists, all of whom are originally from Zimbabwe, and are now living in Cape Town, South Africa. The band consists of Musa Antonio on mbira and lead vocals, Simba Ndowa on drums and vocals, Brian Nkhafa on bass and vocals, and Ashley Chiweshe on electric guitar. The sound is somewhat ‘traditional’ Zimbabwean music, with a solid groove, and melodic vocal and guitar lines. The songs are written by Musa Antonio, and all have a unique meaning, for example, Mwari WeAfrica – is a song praying to the ‘God Of Africa’ to hear the peoples’ cries, and to help relieve the many that are suffering unnecessarily. The album is upbeat and uplifting, and yet there is a significant personal message behind each song.

The Betsie Beers

The Bestie Beers are renowned for getting crowds up on their feet and moving to their Indie- Folk-Bluegrass style music. Sweet harmonies and poetic catchy lyrics, unique fusion of indie country, folk and bluegrass, accompanied by their variety of instruments from banjo picking to fast guitar strumming and some harmonica blowing.

Anne Thistleton

Anne grew up West Virginia, USA, but has been living in South Africa for close to 20 years. She fell in love with the country after work with Coca Cola brought her to Johannesburg. Anne holds a MBA in Harvard and is a 25-year consumer marketing veteran. Crossing paths with Gerald Zaltman mid-career sparked a personal journey with mind processes and decision making. For many years she has been working with corporate clients to help them better understand and apply this new knowledge. Anne is also involved in different start-up businesses and NGO’s including her a fabric company, African Sketchbook Fine Art Fabrics, that specializes in custom-designed, hand-painted fabrics and helps local artists generate an income. Anne lives in Stellenbosch with her husband and two children.

Babusi Nyoni

Babusi is a developer and design and technology enthusiast. Working as a user interface designer and developer in website and mobile applications, he has a strong passion for fresh new ideas that would change the lives of those around him. Babusi has worked over the years to become an expert in User Experience and User Interface Design. He has a background in visual arts and is self-taught. Backend development is also a strong point has he has worked on copious websites for clients with a focus on Wordpress Content Management Systems and creatin Wordpress themes according to clients' needs. Babusi is a keen follower of digital trends and keeps up to date with design and development updates across the industry. He is a firm believer that Artificial Intelligence is on the brink of shaping the technological zeitgeist worldwide, and that it is now the time to use the technology to improve the lives of Sub-Saharan Africans.

Carlo Randall

Carlo is a bush doctor, entrepreneur and artist born in Cape Town, South Africa. Travelling extensively through Southern Africa, Carlo embarked on a journey of discovering his passion for healing. The connection to that, the herb lore that he found so fascinating was the product of oral knowledge passed down from the Khoi/San people (Bushmen) who boasts one of the oldest cultures on the planet. With 20 years of experience, Carlo has an established practise in Cape Town, worked for Stellenbosch University as a Research Assistant and Lecturer on Indigenous Medicinal Plants used in South Africa. An advocate and custodian for the livelihood of indigenous medicinal plants and remedies.

Christopher Venter

Christopher Venter is an adventurer and writer based in Cape Town, South Africa. In 2008, Chris, working as a chef at the time, embarked on an expedition across Africa to Ireland. During the 32,000km scooter trip, Chris, unfortunately, fell ill and this led to him losing his sight. Today he is known as the Blind Scooter Guy and thrives on sharing with his readers how he can and does experience the world through all his available senses. He draws from the journey pre- and post sight loss to inspire everyone he meets. Chris refers to himself as a Writer, Accessibility Buddy, Adventurer, Vintage Scooter Enthusiast, Chef, Scuba Diver, Fisherman, Guitar Player, Boxer, Petrolhead and Roamer of the Globe! Through his work he hopes to inspire adventure seekers to get themselves out there, to go and explore, to enjoy every sensory opportunity and to live their lives to the fullest.

Crick Lund

Crick Lund is a Principal Investigator of the Africa Focus on Intervention Research for Mental health (AFFIRM) U19 NIMH Collaborative Hub, and CEO of the Programme for Improving Mental health care (PRIME), a DFID funded research consortium focusing on the integration of mental health into primary care in five low and middle-income countries. Crick holds a BA (Hons), MA, MSocSci (Clinical Psychology), PhD, and is Professor and Director of the Alan J. Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town. Crick wants to create greater public awareness about the links between mental health and poverty, and what can be done to break the cycle of poverty and mental illness.

Frank Magwegwe

Frank is a businessman, public speaker and advisor on investments, financial planning and financial literacy. His journey started as an entrepreneur in 1992 when Frank started his own fruit and vegetable business in downtown Johannesburg to save for his studies at WITS University. He graduated with a BSc in Mathematical Sciences and later an MSc in Financial Mathematic (Cum Laude) from the University of Pretoria, after which he qualified as a chartered accountant in. Today Frank is employed as a Segment Executive at Momentum and works in growing market shares. He hopes to bring change through writing and speaking about financial planning and to contribute to the development of a savings culture in South Africa.

Gabriella Geffen

Gabriella is a writer, because engaging with people’s journeys, and the experiences and moments that expand our vision and make up a life, is what makes her feel alive. She has majors in Economics, Philosophy and English and an Honours degree in English Literature. Gabriella served on a National Task Team for Entrepreneurship, working closely with the Department of Basic Education. She co-authored the National Blueprint for implementing ‘Entrepreneurship and Critical Thinking in Schools’. Gabriella also worked in Business Development at The Maharishi Institute, a virtually free university delivering internationally recognised Business Degrees to people who cannot afford them, while employing the Consciousness Based Education method, which has Transcendental Meditation and deep inner healing at its core. She has written two books, is a Poet and has worked as a Feature Writer for the luxury lifestyle magazine Private Edition, and as a Freelance Journalist for Bartlett Communications.

Hanelle Fourie

Hanelle is a lexicographer, language enthusiast and Hanelle pursued her studies in Language and Linguistics and holds an MPhil in Hypermedia for Language Learning and PHD in Lexicography. Hanelle is particularly passionate and literacy and believes that it holds the key to social and economic upliftment. She has devoted her life to developing an electronic dictionary for the South African sign language. If successfully developed, this tool will help the deaf, hearing impaired as well as those that can hear to learn and understand sign language better. Hanelle also serves on the Advisory committee for National Institute for the Deaf and works as an interpreter from time to time. She can speak more than 5 languages and currently works at the Dictionary for the Afrikaans language (WAT), the biggest monolingual comprehensive dictionary for the Afrikaans language.  

Ian Sklarsky

"Blind contour refers to a method of drawing in which the artist draws a line and never looks at the paper. It takes what one sees with one’s eye and with study allows the hand to trace the image from one’s brain. I pursue this method because of the ways it captures the essence of my subject. The contours I draw with Xucheng pens create a sense of rhythm and movement while capturing the essence and character of the subject in a very intimate manner. I am experimenting with introducing sculptural forms into my work by projecting drawings onto large canvases; vectorizing them; and using Plexiglass, cut vinyl, and 3D printing.

Mel Mwevi

Hey! I am Mel Mwevi. I was born and raised in Windhoek, Namibia. Growing up, all my environments were versatile and filled with different tastes, colours and cultures. I’ve celebrated all different kinds of art my whole life from painting, sculpture, clothing, acting, dance (Latin Dance/Hip Hop/African Dance) and finally my love for music and poetry. I enjoy writing and in the latter years have perhaps become a lyricist as much as I am a singer. I seemed to have kept my poetry/spoken word and my music separate for a while but, through various moments of sharing and collaborating with other artists who I find wonderfully inspiring, it has become clear to me that they belong with one another and so have been doing a mix-up of the two ever since. I hope you enjoy my speak and sound, it is riddled with all the things I love

Penelope Tainton

Penelope Anne Tainton is a dynamic, proactive presence in the South African government and political arena. In her current position, working in the Delivery Support Unit of the Department of the Premier, Penny leads the progress and delivery of two of the Western Cape Government’s Game Changers, namely eLearning and the After School Programme. An involved citizen of South Africa, Penny is passionate about extending her services to areas of society where she can make a difference, bring about positive change and realise improved standards. A major driver in her work is finding innovative solutions to the inequalities that remain in society, and most particularly in the child’s experience in education.

Riaan Conradie

Riaan exists to understand how different systems work, where they connect and how they affect each other. His passion is to share and flesh out these thoughts with people across the globe, whether it’s within companies he founded or other organizations, to try and solve difficult problems. Issues like improving human health and preventing disease; building sustainable technology platforms that grow exponentially. To this end he partook in about 50 flights, hundreds of Uber rides, 20 Airbnb stays across the globe over last 9 months. Riaan continuously seek out new, wholesome and mind expanding experiences. It is a great love of his to journey with other futurists, philanthropists, technologists, scientists entrepreneurs and loved ones towards a common goal. Riaan is also the co-founder of LifeQ and HealthQ Technologies.

Robyn White

Robyn is a lecturer at the Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) at the University of Pretoria. She has recently been chosen as a Fellow for the Tuks Young Research Leader Programme for 2016/2017 at the University of Pretoria. Robyn is currently busy with her PhD focused on the investigatory procedure disabled citizens have to deal with within the criminal justice system of South Africa. Her passion started volunteering at a special needs school at the age of 16.

Ronak Gopaldas

Ronak is currently the Head of  Country Risk at Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) in Johannesburg, where he manages a team of analysts who provide the firm with in-depth analysis of economic, political, security and operational dynamics across sub-Saharan Africa. He has travelled extensively across Africa to identify key country themes and trends, which in addition to a network of contacts and resources, help inform the qualitative and quantitative research the team produces with the aim of guiding RMB’s strategic investment decisions. He is a regular commentator in the local and international press, and writes opinion and analysis pieces for various publications. In 2015, he was appointed to RMB’s Africa and International Management Board (MANBO).

Sisa Ntshona & Mike Wood

Sisa is the inaugural President of the Enterprise Development Council of South Africa (EDCSA).He is the former Head of SME Banking for Barclays Africa. An emerging markets expert, Sisa executed a banking training assignment in Cairo on request from the Central Bank of Egypt, successfully delivering to SME bankers from 5 leading banks in the country. He also guest lectures on various MBA Entrepreneurship programmes. Mike is one of the founders of The Growth Collective, a growth agency with a portfolio of businesses offering BEE consulting, marketing & brand development and executive coaching A proudly born and bred South African, Mike regards himself as a student of this country, constantly learning about the complexities of culture, heritage, prejudice, acceptance and human nature.

Tate Mhunduru

Telling a story makes me engage my challenges directly If we all tell stories, we will all understand ourselves and each other better. This leads to less anxiety and more understanding.

Thomas Dreyer

Thomas works as a video artist and creative in Cape Town. He’s making a comeback after studying and teaching. For the last year, Thom has been exploring the interaction between audio and video, and was struck by the meaning-making potential inherent in their overlap. His work involves drawing from synaesthetic experience and more traditional artistic media such as oil and clay to explore the relations between sound, image, and time, and creates signature audiovisual artworks.  His process involves shooting and editing his own content and he has performed at numerous events and venues in South Africa, Berlin and Zurich, and exhibited at TEDx Table Mountain and Everard Read Gallery in Cape Town.

Tom Foster

Tom is currently a grade 8 student at Michael Oak Waldorf. Growing up in Cape Town with free time spent at the coast, swimming, snorkeling and diving along the shoreline with his parents, Tom ‘lost his umbilical cord to the ocean” and fell in love with the sea and all it’s animals.  Animals and nature have fascinated Tom since a young age. His passion and hobby is diving with his dad in his free time and over weekends. His favourite subject in school is art. He loves music and reading horror stories. When he is not diving, he is playing basketball for his school.  

Wilmot Arendse

Wilmot Arendse is a multi-award-winning sustainable community developer and project facilitator of the “No Messing in Bonteheuwel” project. He was awarded the Western Cape Premiers Award for impact made in the field of sustainable development in the Western Cape. In 2012 -2015 he was part of the International Mistra Futures Program in association with University of Cape Town’s ( UCT ) – African Centre for Cities.