Theme: Whakapapa

TEDxUoA happened on Saturday, October 7th, 2017 with 8 speakers and 3 performers.

The day included lunch and an afternoon snack. Furthermore, 100 attendees took part in numerous activities and saw interactive displays during the breaks, such as AR/VR stalls, artwork etc. TEDxUoA's goal in its first year was to create a knowledge sharing culture, for students at the University of Auckland.

Visit the TEDxUoA website to learn more: www.tedxuoa.com

Owen G Glen Building
12 Grafton Road
Auckland, New Zealand, Auckland, 1010
New Zealand

Jupiter Project

Electronic DJ Act

Jupiter Project are best known as New Zealand’s Top Electronic DJ Act and have been behind some of the biggest records, campaigns, and PR stunts of the past few years. Few know the inspiring story behind the pair’s award winning plaques - Gavin and Martin both graduated in Law/Commerce and Doctor of Chiropractic respectively. Taking the road less travelled, the boys unconventionally used the skills they gained in university to navigate a completely new territory in music and social media, developing their passion into a successful enterprise reaching millions today. As New Zealanders with origins in India and Tanzania, the boys are a true testament to "following the beat of your own drum” and live an inspiring story worth sharing with the youth.

Aliesha Staples

VR Expert

Aliesha is the Managing Director behind Staples VR (Staples Rentals) a Virtual Storytelling content creation studio with clients including Warner Brothers, Paramount Studios and Disney. They are the first company to have a 4k live streaming VR system in this side of the world.

Greg Cross

Entrepreneur and CBO Soul Machines

Greg is one of the original tech nomad’s, who has spent his career travelling to and living in every major tech market in the world. In 2016 Greg teamed up with Dr. Mark Sagar to create Soul Machines, a company focused on humanizing the next generation of computer technologies. By combining a human face with brain models they're literally bringing computers to life in a very human-like way. He is also the Sir John Logan Campbell Executive in Residence at the University of Auckland Business School.

Jarrod Isopo

Student and Young Entrepreneur

Jarrod is a New Zealander with a proud Samoan heritage. But his life is not as straightforward as it seems! He has changed his area of study at least 4 times, been to three different tertiary institutions, worked as a personal assistant to a Republican, pretended to be a qualified accountant, and once lied about his age to get a job at the local fish and chips shop. His life can be perceived as different, but regardless he would not have wanted it any other way. He looks forward to sharing his view on Whakapapa, and the historical impacts it has had on Generation Y from a Polynesian perspective.

Paige Tapara

Paige is an acoustic pop artist from South Auckland NZ. She began performing at the age of 7 in school talent shows. Then going on to performing gigs at restaurants, work functions, weddings and busking on the street. Paige featured in season 2 of X factor NZ and made it to round 1 of boot camp. She is now studying at MAINZ.

Rez Gardi

Solicitor and Youth Advocate

Rez was born in a United Nations refugee camp in Pakistan as her Kurdish family escaped persecution in their home land of Kurdistan. After years of struggle, Rez and her family were fortunately given the opportunity to resettle in New Zealand to and create a new life for themselves. However, Rez never used her family's misfortune as a reason to underachieve, rather as motivation to excel beyond expectations. Arriving with nothing, Rez has sought to use her difficult start in life as motivation to succeed recently becoming New Zealand’s first Kurdish female lawyer. She was awarded the Young New Zealander of the Year for 2017 for her services to human rights and a Women of Influence Finalist. With an understandable passion for human rights, Rez hopes to focus her legal career on fighting for justice and equality for underprivileged and marginalised people which she is doing through her role as a global refugee youth advocate.

Sharndre Kushor

Young Entrepreneur

As Co-founder and Chief Operations Officer of Crimson Education, Sharndre has helped turn a small start-up into a hundred-million-dollar global education company, spanning 20,000 students. In the 2015/16 admissions round, 90% of New Zealand students who gained admission to Ivy League Universities were Crimson students. In 2016 Sharndre graduated from Auckland University with a Bachelor of Health Sciences specialising in Population Health. The same year she oversaw Crimson expand its offices from Auckland and Sydney to: Melbourne, London, Bangkok and Singapore. The Crimson network now includes over 2,000 tutors and mentors, and over 20,000 students. This year Sharndre was featured on the 2017 Forbes Asia - 30 Under 30 list.

Stevie Sikeua

Stevie is a young Maori woman living in Auckland, but her whakapapa is to Ngapuhi, Ngati Porou and Te Arawa. She currently works as a youth development administrator/worker/poet for Action Education, and has been involved in the youth development sector since she was 14. In 2015 she completed a Bachelor of Arts double majoring in Maori Development and Social Sciences at AUT, and has recently completed a Masters in Human Rights at AUT. She is a current member of the South Auckland Poets Collective and loves spoken word poetry. Stevie is passionate about young people, culture, creativity, education, and community development.

Trent Hohaia

Storyteller/ Indigenous Researcher

Trent is passionate in the pursuit of the repatriation of traditional Māori learning methods into the homes of Māori whanau. Held deeply in this passion is a belief is that the old ways of learning of his people are relevant, powerful and have helped esoteric knowledge bases survive the many oppressions faced. He is a proud descendent of Ngāti Maniapoto, of the Tainui Waka.

Zeal Quartet

ZEAL Quartet is a national and international award-winning group consisting of four young women who are passionate about barbershop four-part harmony a cappella singing. The group formed in the middle of 2015 and since then have placed 3rd in New Zealand at the Sweet Adelines National Competition as well as receiving the Novice Quartet cup for the highest scoring first timer. They went on to compete in the Sweet Adelines International Rising Star Contest, earning another 3rd place medal as well as 2nd place in the Pan Pacific Youth Quartet Contest. The girls are enthusiastic and active ambassadors for the Young Singers In Harmony NZ. Recently ZEAL toured around high schools in Nelson, assisting in workshops hosted by the Nelson Bays Harmony Chorus. They also travelled to Napier in July this year to judge the Hawkes Bay Young Singers in Harmony regional competition. They hope that through workshops and performance they can introduce people to barbershop singing and invite people to share in their passion for this art form.