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).

Sydney Town Hall
483 George Street
Sydney, New South Wales, 2000
Australia

Alice Ivy

Raised on the Victorian surf coast, Annika Schmarsel aka Alice Ivy, recalls a childhood coloured by extensive travel in a vibrant and multilingual household. Her first foray into music, an ill-fated tryst with the clarinet, was swapped for guitar before Annika began beat-making inspired by the likes of The Avalanches, J Dilla and Bonobo. As member of all-female soul outfit Sweethearts, in her late teens Annika twice toured Europe performing at the Poretta Soul Festival, Italy and Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland alongside luminaries of the genre ranging Al Green through Mark Ronson.In 2016 the 23-year old artist/producer released a pair of singles, the cinematic “Touch” and soul-soaked “Almost Here” which collectively amassed 1,000,000 plays on Spotify and saw the Melbourne-based beat- maker draw comparisons to fellow sample-fiends and one of her greatest influences, The Avalanches. Alice Ivy’s musical output was compounded by near constant touring numbering more than forty shows by year’s end having completed two Australian headline tours, maiden dates in the USA and Singapore and a slew of summer festivals including Strawberry Fields, Paradise, Queenscliff Music Festival, Listen Out (Melbourne) and NYE On The Hill. Her September showcase at BIGSOUND in Brisbane was widely reported as one of the best of the conference by triple j, Purple Sneakers and The Herald Sun. In March 2017, in the midst of a mammoth 18-date national tour supporting Urthboy & Joyride, Alice Ivy revealed the new single “Get Me A Drink” featuring Sydney’s E^ST and Melbourne rapper Charlie Threads on shared vocal duties, which The Age newspaper recently placed #8 in their “Best Songs Of 2017 so far” feature. In April 2017, Alice Ivy travelled to Toronto to showcase at Canadian Music Week prior to a run of US shows in NYC and LA before returning home for performances at Groovin’ The Moo (Bendigo), VIVID, Splendour In The Grass and a sold-out headliner at the Northcote Social Club in her hometown of Melbourne.

Anastasia Volkova

Anastasia is an aeronautical engineer completing her PhD in autonomous drone navigation. She has experience ranging from projects with the NASA robots onboard International Space Station to managing 370 person team for UEFA. Anastasia has recently been awarded Amelia Earhart Fellowship for her commitment to advancing the application of aerospace engineering. Her passion for the real-world application has found expression in the start up, FluroSat accelerated by Telstra’s muru-D and now monitoring farms using drones and satellites in 5 states in Australia.

Anika Molesworth

Anika splits her life between her family’s arid outback sheep station in Far Western NSW, her PhD crop trials in Griffith, and lush green rice paddies in Southeast Asia working as a researcher in international agricultural development. She was awarded the 2015 Young Farmer of the Year, 2017 NSW Finalist for Young Australian of the Year, and most recently the NSW Young Achiever Award for Environment and Sustainability. Anika is a passionate advocate for sustainable farming, environmental conservation and climate change action. She helped founding Farmers for Climate Action, and connects landmanagers to researchers through her platform Climate Wise Agriculture in order to build resilience into farming communities. She is also keenly interested in the conservation of natural and cultural heritage in farming communities and manages the International National Trusts Organisation’s Sustainable Farms program.

Bilal Hafda

Bilal is a high-school teacher, with a passion for spoken-word poetry. Alongside running poetry and creative writing workshops in schools, he is currently involved in the RESPECT program, which are a series of Creative Arts Domestic Violence workshops that run with upper-primary students who have been flagged as potentially ‘at risk’ as having witnessed domestic violence at home, or have shown a tendency towards violence themselves. He is also a member of the Bankstown Poetry Slam and is constantly looking to facilitate and nurture the voice of the participants of the slams and audiences who attend them.

Chris Lebon

Chris Leben is a writer, director and failed theatre actor. Starting his career as a presenter on ABC’s Andrew Denton produced youth magazine program Hungry Beast Chris quickly learned that he wasn’t made out for being in front of the camera. Partly because he looks like Dan Ackroyd and the Grinch had a love child but more importantly that he just wasn’t very good. After two seasons on the show Chris transitioned to behind the camera writing and directing. For several years he stumbled around doing completely unremarkable work until he was hired by SBS’s youth news, current affairs and satire program The Feed. There he met the love of his life, (non romantic) SBS Newsreader and cultural icon Lee Lin Chin. Together they worked on comedy sketches and created the incredibly popular Lee Lin Chin comedy character, it’s basically just Lee Lin but more violent and overtly sexual. Since then Chris and Lee Lin have collaborated on hours of television, live performances, a book and a failed TV pilot. They currently run the boutique creative TV and ads production company All the Chin’s Men and are hoping that a Hollywood bigwig will see this Ted talk and give them money.

Chris Leben with Lee Lin Chin

Chris Leben is a writer, director and failed theatre actor. Starting his career as a presenter on ABC’s Andrew Denton produced youth magazine program Hungry Beast Chris quickly learned that he wasn’t made out for being in front of the camera. Partly because he looks like Dan Ackroyd and the Grinch had a love child but more importantly that he just wasn’t very good. After two seasons on the show Chris transitioned to behind the camera writing and directing. For several years he stumbled around doing completely unremarkable work until he was hired by SBS’s youth news, current affairs and satire program The Feed. There he met the love of his life, (non romantic) SBS Newsreader and cultural icon Lee Lin Chin. Together they worked on comedy sketches and created the incredibly popular Lee Lin Chin comedy character, it’s basically just Lee Lin but more violent and overtly sexual. Since then Chris and Lee Lin have collaborated on hours of television, live performances, a book and a failed TV pilot. They currently run the boutique creative TV and ads production company All the Chin’s Men and are hoping that a Hollywood bigwig will see this Ted talk and give them money.

Dauntless Movement Crew (DMC)

Joe Carbone is a performer and head instructor with Dauntless Movement Crew (DMC). DMC is a movement-based team combining art forms such as Tricking, B-Boying, Parkour and Acrobatics. Starting in 2012 with just six members, by 2016 they had expanded to over 30 members while also teaching more than 120 students. DMC have featured in numerous films and commercials as well as performing and teaching at community events, including at their homeground Fairfield City Council, Bring It On Festival (part of Youth Week) and Cabramatta Moon Festival. In their workshops and classes, DMC teach skills such as Tricking, Parkour, Dance and Kids Fitness in the Sydney suburbs of Fairfield, Liverpool and Canley Heights. Their main focus is to bring members of the community together, showcasing their skill and talent and offering a fun and supportive place to learn and engage in physical activity. Force Majeure and Powerhouse Youth theatre have combined to create a theatre show based on DMC’s rags to riches story. It is a fully funded show that has been performed at the Powerhouse Youth Theatre and will show at the Sydney Opera House this year and will go on to tour across Australia. All performers in this show are DMC members.

Emily Wurramara

Emily’s debut EP is ‘Black Smoke’, 6 songs proving her passion for culture and heritage heard through every beat and skip of her deeply engaging and personal songs pulsed by her detailed and crafted talent for songwriting. Singing in both English and Anindilyakwa, the traditional language of her home on Groote Eylandt, NT, Wurramara says “The language songs are definitely a dedication to my grandmother.” Produced by acclaimed artist David Bridie (My Friend The Chocolate Cake: Not Drowning, Waving) and featured percussion by Greg Sheehan, released through Wantok Musik. Emily has become a seasoned performer who has taken her music around the country and abroad with show and festival appearances in Sweden and France. Closer to home she has performed at Gaarma Festival, Island Vibes, Woodford Folk Festival, Clancestry and numerous other events; performing alongside respected artists like Shellie Morris, Troy Cassar Daley and Impossible Odds. Add in a couple of 2016 Queensland Music Award nominations and the picture starts to build of a young artist with a very bright tomorrow.

Grace Turtle

Grace is an Experience Design Manager within Deloitte Digital. A design futuring and experimentation protagonist and conductor for human-centered design creating at the intersection of design thinking, design doing and social science. Grace is a driver of co-creative and transdisciplinary practices in speculative futuring, experimentation and participatory design research. Critical to Grace’s role is the application of systems thinking to prototyping and testing activities to help organisations solve complex problems, design solutions and execute strategies that achieve positive societal and ecological impacts. She does this by developing build-to-think approaches to innovation, prototyping and simulation that put experimentation, collective making, play and testing at the centre of the creative process. In a past life Grace co-founded Three Farm and Makers Place, both multifaceted social design focused practices specialising in sustainability, emerging technology and the democratisation of knowledge, goods and services through STEAM social learning experiences and community-making.

Iman Etri

Iman Etri is a student at WSU, majoring in History and Political Thought. She recently discovered that her desire to be an activist, requires her, by definition, to be active, and so joined the world of spoken word poetry. Since then, Iman has performed at numerous events, including Sydney Writer’s Festival, and as a support feature for best-selling author Rupi Kaur.

Ivan Zelich

At age 17, Ivan Zelich co-developed a groundbreaking mathematical theorem that works faster than a computer and has applications in better understanding geometric structures. The Liang-Zelich Theorem paved the possibility for anyone to deal with the complexity of isopivotal cubics having only high-school level knowledge of mathematics. A paper on the theorem was published in the peer-reviewed, International Journal of Geometry, making Zelich and his collaborator Xuming Liang, the youngest contributors ever to the journal. Aside from his passion for numbers, Ivan is a swimming state champion, speaks six languages, and has represented Queensland in chess. He is currently undertaking his fast-tracked, undergraduate degree at University of Queensland.

Joe Carbone

Joe Carbone is a performer and head instructor with Dauntless Movement Crew (DMC). DMC is a movement-based team combining art forms such as Tricking, B-Boying, Parkour and Acrobatics. Starting in 2012 with just six members, by 2016 they had expanded to over 30 members while also teaching more than 120 students. DMC have featured in numerous films and commercials as well as performing and teaching at community events, including at their homeground Fairfield City Council, Bring It On Festival (part of Youth Week) and Cabramatta Moon Festival. In their workshops and classes, DMC teach skills such as Tricking, Parkour, Dance and Kids Fitness in the Sydney suburbs of Fairfield, Liverpool and Canley Heights. Their main focus is to bring members of the community together, showcasing their skill and talent and offering a fun and supportive place to learn and engage in physical activity. Force Majeure and Powerhouse Youth theatre have combined to create a theatre show based on DMC’s rags to riches story. It is a fully funded show that has been performed at the Powerhouse Youth Theatre and will show at the Sydney Opera House this year and will go on to tour across Australia. All performers in this show are DMC members.

Joe Carbone and Dauntless Movement Crew

Joe Carbone is a performer and head instructor with Dauntless Movement Crew (DMC). DMC is a movement-based team combining art forms such as Tricking, B-Boying, Parkour and Acrobatics. Starting in 2012 with just six members, by 2016 they had expanded to over 30 members while also teaching more than 120 students. DMC have featured in numerous films and commercials as well as performing and teaching at community events, including at their homeground Fairfield City Council, Bring It On Festival (part of Youth Week) and Cabramatta Moon Festival. In their workshops and classes, DMC teach skills such as Tricking, Parkour, Dance and Kids Fitness in the Sydney suburbs of Fairfield, Liverpool and Canley Heights. Their main focus is to bring members of the community together, showcasing their skill and talent and offering a fun and supportive place to learn and engage in physical activity. Force Majeure and Powerhouse Youth theatre have combined to create a theatre show based on DMC’s rags to riches story. It is a fully funded show that has been performed at the Powerhouse Youth Theatre and will show at the Sydney Opera House this year and will go on to tour across Australia. All performers in this show are DMC members.

Louise Zhang

Louise Zhang is a Chinese-Australian artist based in Sydney, Australia. Spanning painting, sculpture and installation, her work negates the space between the attractive and repulsive. With an interest in horror cinema, particularly body horror, Zhang investigates the idea of the visceral as medium, method and symbol in negotiating horror as art form. Zhang graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts by Research at UNSW Art & Design (formally COFA) in 2016. She recently completely residency programs at the Institute of Provocation, Beijing (Australia Council) and at Organhaus, Chongqing (China Residencies and Copyright Council) centring her research around the construct of diyu (Chinese hell).

Macinley Butson

Macinley Butson, a 16 year old inventor from Mangerton NSW , this year became the first ever Australian to win 1st place in the world at the INTEL International Science and Engineering fair in its 67 year history. The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) is the largest pre-college scientific research event in the world, and is considered the Olympics for science. Over the past 5 years, she has become an inspirational role model for young Australians, empowering them to achieve greatness by working in the field of science and engineering and showing others that they can create and give back to the community. Macinley has also been a great representative to the community both locally and nationally. Macinley has been the Wollongong Young Citizen of the year and has been a role model for youth in the Illawarra Region. Macinley has also been the National Youth Ambassador for Green Cross Australia being the national advocate for the environment.

Maria Tran

Maria Tran is a martial artist, actor, filmmaker & screen fight coordinator. With a background in psychology, filmmaking and working as an artist across culturally diverse communities she went on to making international action blockbusters such as “Fist of the Dragon” & Death Mist” in China and “Tracer” in Vietnam. In 2016, Tran worked on Jackie Chan’s “Bleeding Steel” movie filmed in Sydney before heading on Warner Bros shark movie “MEG” in New Zealand. Her recent projects include ABC iview Hong Kong police homage “Tiger Cops” and completing her documentary “Quest for Jackie Chan!”. Maria Tran was nominated and won the Breakout Female Action Star (Feature Film Category) at the 2016 Action on Film International Festival for her role “Zhen” in Roger Corman’s Fist of the Dragon.

Mariam Veiszadeh

2016 Fairfax Daily Life Woman of the Year, Mariam Veiszadeh is a Lawyer, Diversity & Inclusion Practitioner, Advocate and a Social Commentator. Proud of her refugee background, Mariam is passionate about championing the rights of minority groups in an endeavour to normalise ‘difference’ or rather, normality. Mariam is an Ambassador for Welcome to Australia, which aims to provide a positive voice in the public conversation around asylum seekers, refugees and multiculturalism. In 2015, Mariam was selected by Elle Magazine Malaysia as one of 12 women who were helping “change the world”, alongside the likes of Michelle Obama and Angelina Jolie. Mariam was also a finalist in the Daily Life Women of the Year Awards as well as being awarded Westpac’s ‘Woman of Influence’ Award for 2015. She has been described as a woman who uses her “considerable wit and smarts to punch holes in the stupidity of racism, sexism and xenophobia in general” and someone who has “courage, tenacity and perseverance without the protection and resources afforded by public office.” As a fearless advocate, Mariam is accustomed to being both an advocate against and a victim of xenophobia. In 2015, she made global headlines as she endured months of cyber-bullying for simply speaking out against bigotry. Australians responded by rallying behind Mariam using the hashtag #IstandwithMariam. Her experiences of cyber-bullying have been cited as a case study in several publications and books including in Tara Moss’ ‘Speaking Out’.

Nick Molnar

Afterpay Co-Founder and CEO Nick Molnar has raised the profile of ‘FinTech’ immensely over the last 12 months and at the tender age of only 27, he is one to watch for years to come. With his retail experience and out of the box thinking, Nick brings a refreshing addition to the retail space; an industry that was still tied to traditional financial models and practices. Nick has been in the online retail industry for close to 10 years. A born entrepreneur, Nick started selling jewellery at school and soon realised how to create a successful business online. Prior to establishing Afterpay, Nick launched leading American online jeweller, Ice.com, into Australia which he successfully grew to become the largest online-only jewellery and watch retailer. From becoming the most successful jewellery store on eBay to launching Iceonline.com.au, it was just a matter of time before he embarked on his next venture. Nick is a true leader in every sense of the word. He leads through example and inspires his staff every day. He is the quintessential multi-talented entrepreneur possessing the rare ability to effortlessly transition from consumer finance to consumer marketing and everything in between. He is not one to shy away from hard work and despite his obvious success, remains incredibly humble.

Nural Cokcetin

Dr Nural Cokcetin is a research scientist specialising in microbiology at the ithree institute, University of Technology Sydney. Her research focuses on the medicinal properties of honey. Currently, Nural is investigating the antimicrobial properties of honey, with a drive to use this knowledge to promote the use of honey as a topical treatment for skin infections and wounds, and to develop new treatments for infections caused by superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics. Nural obtained her PhD from the University of NSW in 2015 where she investigated the effects of Australian honeys on the growth of the beneficial and potentially harmful bacteria in the human gut. She was one of the first researchers to show a positive impact on the beneficial populations. Her initial results prompted a human clinical trial, where she investigated the impacts of eating honey on gut health. Nural is equally passionate about doing research that has direct positive impacts for society as she is about communicating her research to as broad an audience as possible.

Q&A with Scott Griffiths

Scott Griffiths is a National Health and Medical Research Council Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He researches eating and body image disorders, including muscle dysmorphia, anorexia nervosa, body dysmorphic disorder, anabolic steroids, and the contributions that masculinity, femininity, and stigma make to these. Scott’s research has attracted multiple awards and distinctions, including from the Australian Academy of Science, the Society for Mental Health Research, the North American and Australian and New Zealand Academies for Eating Disorders, and the University of Sydney.

Q&A with Mariam Veiszadeh

2016 Fairfax Daily Life Woman of the Year, Mariam Veiszadeh is a Lawyer, Diversity & Inclusion Practitioner, Advocate and a Social Commentator. Proud of her refugee background, Mariam is passionate about championing the rights of minority groups in an endeavour to normalise ‘difference’ or rather, normality. Mariam is an Ambassador for Welcome to Australia, which aims to provide a positive voice in the public conversation around asylum seekers, refugees and multiculturalism. In 2015, Mariam was selected by Elle Magazine Malaysia as one of 12 women who were helping “change the world”, alongside the likes of Michelle Obama and Angelina Jolie. Mariam was also a finalist in the Daily Life Women of the Year Awards as well as being awarded Westpac’s ‘Woman of Influence’ Award for 2015. She has been described as a woman who uses her “considerable wit and smarts to punch holes in the stupidity of racism, sexism and xenophobia in general” and someone who has “courage, tenacity and perseverance without the protection and resources afforded by public office.” As a fearless advocate, Mariam is accustomed to being both an advocate against and a victim of xenophobia. In 2015, she made global headlines as she endured months of cyber-bullying for simply speaking out against bigotry. Australians responded by rallying behind Mariam using the hashtag #IstandwithMariam. Her experiences of cyber-bullying have been cited as a case study in several publications and books including in Tara Moss’ ‘Speaking Out’.

Sam McMahon

Sam McMahon is a Sydney based musician who makes a living street performing, playing his own compositions. Having grown up in the Bega Valley on the Far South Coast of NSW, his instrumental music is reminiscent of a childhood spent in a rural community. It incorporates finger style guitar, PVC pipes used as a didgeridoo and a GigPig drum kit. His current aim is to contribute to the street culture in and around Sydney’s CBD, using the platform of street performance to rehearse, develop and advertise his own work to the world stage (and maybe get a few coins in the process).

TEDxYouth@Sydney 2017 hosted by Nat Chandra

Great ideas come to all of us at the strangest of times. Standing in the shower first thing in the morning, gazing out of the window on the commute to work or having a heated discussion with friends and family over dinner. We know what happens to the ideas that are launched from the TEDxYouth@Sydney stage, but what about those great ideas that you have – where do they go?

Tilly Lawless

Tilly Lawless is a queer, Sydney-based sex worker who is passionate about horses, sex worker rights and feminism. She utilises her online platform to speak about her personal experiences within the sex industry, in an attempt to shine a light on the every day stigma that sex workers come up against. Growing up in rural NSW, her writing is often a bucolic love letter to the countryside that she comes from, and also a deeply intimate insight into queer romance and relationships. You can read her writing in various publications, but it’s best going straight to the source and reading it directly from her Instagram, @tilly_lawless, which she uses as an incredibly transparent analysis of herself, her life and her motivations.

Titus Grenyer

Titus Grenyer is a second year organ student at Sydney Conservatorium of Music. His musical education began with the violin at age three, and soon expanded to studying piano, music composition and theory. In 2013, he was awarded the inaugural IMB Roger Soden Organ Scholarship at Wollongong Conservatorium, which began his career in organ with a recital at the end of the year. In 2016, he was appointed Organ Scholar at St Andrew’s College and St James’ King Street, and was awarded an LMusA with distinction. He has given recitals at St Andrew’s Cathedral, St James’ King Street, St Mary’s Cathedral, Christ Church St Laurence and the University of Sydney Great Hall. Titus hopes to continue studying the organ for the remainder of his undergraduate studies, and then complete a master’s degree abroad.

Zhang Louise

Louise Zhang is a Chinese-Australian artist based in Sydney, Australia. Spanning painting, sculpture and installation, her work negates the space between the attractive and repulsive. With an interest in horror cinema, particularly body horror, Zhang investigates the idea of the visceral as medium, method and symbol in negotiating horror as art form. Zhang graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts by Research at UNSW Art & Design (formally COFA) in 2016. She recently completely residency programs at the Institute of Provocation, Beijing (Australia Council) and at Organhaus, Chongqing (China Residencies and Copyright Council) centring her research around the construct of diyu (Chinese hell).