Theme: World of Morrow

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).

Billabong High International School, Bhopal
Bhadbhada Road, Beyond Bhadbhada, Neelbad
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, 462044
India

Lina Ashar

During her sabbatical from college in Australia, Lina Ashar came to India to reconnect with her roots. When she observed the inadequacies of the education system around her, she was struck with an idea that soon became her passion. An award-winning entrepreneur, Lina pioneered a new era in education when she founded Kangaroo Kids Education Ltd. with the hope to provide students an environment to flourish holistically. She built KKEL upon a strong edifice of a learner-centric teaching methodology and has since worked relentlessly to educate dynamic young minds to become innovators and changemakers of tomorrow. She has authored two books on parenting and has spoken at a plethora of education conferences in order to further spread her teaching philosophy. 1. Leading woman in education at the Women Leaders in India Awards 2015 by iiGlobal. 2. Nationwide winner of the Best K12 innovative curriculum by Franchise India 2015. 3. Alumni Excellence winner by Australian High Commission 2015. 4. Voted by over 50,000 people to the ‘MTC Global Top 10 Thinkers’ - 2015 among more than 35 nominees from different walks of life whose work has a significant impact in their sector, as determined by the independent Board of Jury at MTC Global HQ. 5. Lifetime Education Leadership Award by EduWorld 2014. 6. Key Speaker at the symposium of Indian Career Education and Development Council (ICEDC) 2014 at the American School of Bombay. 7. Panelist at The Economic Times Future of Learning Summit 2014. 8. Awarded Leading Women Entrepreneur Recognition at several forums between 2010 and 2014, including Times of India and iiGlobal. 9. Lina received The Economic Times Inspiring Business Leaders India 2016 award. 10. Awarded “India’s Top Ed Influencers” – by Scoo News 2018.

Prashant Shukla

Prashant Shukla’s career over the last 24 years spans successful leadership roles in marketing, sales, product management and software development in the US and India. Currently, Prashant is working as National Technology Officer for Microsoft India. In this role, he successfully drove the first TV Whitespace Pilot to provide an alternative for the cheap rural internet. He also drove the design of a framework for the first Indian digital village and its implementation in Harisal, an effort sponsored by the Chief Minister of India’s most economically advanced state, Maharashtra. The digital transformation of Harisal illustrates the power technology has to benefit those living in rural India and puts in place a framework that can be replicated in hundreds of rural villages. He also ideated the integration of Skype and Aadhaar, a project with potential for creating virtual presence possibilities for a whole host of scenarios. Prior to this, Prashant worked with Microsoft and Novell Inc. in the US. Prashant has also worked in senior leadership positions in India that include leading CMC, a TATA Enterprise, as its Chief Operating Officer and serving as Senior Vice President for TechMahindra/ Mahindra Satyam. Raised in India, Prashant graduated from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Later he pursued an MBA degree from the US. An ardent academic, Prashant co-authored a book on “Atomic Electronic Structure.”

Rafeeq Ellias

An award-winning photographer and cinematographer, Rafeeq began his photographic career in Japan in 1974 while creating advertising for Japan Air Lines, Suntory Whiskey, Imperial Hotel, TIME Magazine and assignments for the New York Times Travel Section. His print work has received over 40 awards in India and around the world, ranging from an Emmy at the hands of actor Mia Farrow for his films for UNICEF to the Communications Arts Guild in Mumbai to ADASIA (where he won gold, silver, and bronze in a single year for three print ads) to Graphis Press in Switzerland, The Art Directors Club of New York. His films include his first 16 mm documentary as a cinematographer for Britain’s Channel Four on the Kumbh Mela in India, The Nectar of Immortality. Another on the condition of Bombay’s pavement and slum dwellers, Slum Mumbai, and yet another on a historic 150-year old library in Bombay, Steps in Time. His fourth film, made for BBC World and broadcast in over 200 countries, The Legend of Fat Mama was also his first as a director and scriptwriter as well. The film won two National Awards, best film at MIFF 2006, and runner-up at Asian Broadcast Awards in Singapore. The film has been screened extensively at festivals in New York, Seattle, Toronto, Manchester, Barcelona, and Oslo as well as at seminars at leading universities. Rafeeq’s other passion is photographing ballet and opera which he has been engaged in for the last 10 years in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Ufa, Tashkent, Moldova and Bucharest for an international festival of dance and music. His first feature film as director and cinematographer, Love You To Death, an official selection at 10 international film festivals and winner of an audience award in Anchorage, premiered in leading cinemas in India in February 2012.

Ulrike Reinhard

Ulrike Reinhard (born 1960) is a German publisher, author, digital nomad, and futurist. She is best known for her skatepark in Madhya Pradesh, Janwaar Castle. Reinhard has also been editor of WE Magazine and has written for Think Quarterly. All her work is related to network theory with the Internet at its core. It’s the interactions and co-creation processes within her network she cherishes most. She loves to see things emerging and falling into place. She founded a skate park in Janwaar in Madhya Pradesh, called Janwaar Castle, where one of the main rules to use the rink is "no school, no skateboarding," and which encourages girls to use the rink. The vision is one of rural change makers uplifting the life of the entire community and the mission is to spread this model of rural change across India’s sub-continent.

Yuki Ellias

Yuki Ellias is an actor, director, and corporate coach. She trained in Theatre Making and Performance from the Jacques Lecoq International School of Theatre in Paris and is a trained pedagogue from the London International School of Performing Arts. Her latest production “Elephant in the Room” which she directed and performed won three awards at the META Festival 2017- winning her Best Actor Female, Best Light Design, and Best Costume Design. In Aug 2017 her show was selected to be a part of India in UK Festival where she had 23 shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The show was later invited to the Theatre Olympics 2018, India by the Bay Festival Hong Kong and has also been performed widely across India. Yuki is the director of Dur Se Brothers, a theatre company, which has created Keep Calm and Dance (aka Yatagarasu, a children’s dance-theatre show on growing up), Elephant in the Room (about the God Ganesha in search of his old head), Dying to Succeed (Shakespeare’s characters in today’s world) and Charge (a dark comedy about life in virtual reality). Dur Se Brothers have also co-produced "It’s Not What You Think", a Commedia dell Arte mask based show. As a director, her shows have been invited to several festivals in India including The Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Festival (2017) Hyderabad Children’s Festival (2016 & 2017), IAPAR Festival Pune (2017), The Hindu Festival (2014 &2016) NCPA Centrestage Festival (2015) The Habitat Theatre Festival (2015) The Young Theatre Directors Festival Ranga Shankara Bangalore (2015), The Celebrate Bandra Festival (2015 & 2016) Prithvi Summertime festival (2016). As an actress, she has performed with directors like Atul Kumar in Noises Off and The Typists, Vikram Kapadia’s staging of Merchant of Venice playing the role of “Portia” and Rehan Engineer’s staging of Hayavadhana as Kali. She played the role of “Hermia” is the internationally acclaimed show of A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Tim Supple. With this show she performed at international venues like the Roundhouse London, The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre, UK; The Sydney Theatre Company, The Luminato Festival in Toronto, the Teatro Romano in Italy etc. She was invited to Opera North, UK’s leading opera company, as Movement Director on their production of Mozart’s Magic Flute. Yuki is also a High Impact Communications Coach and uses drama based techniques for learning and development in the corporate world. She conducts master classes and training programs on Executive Presence, Negotiations and Behaviour Management, Business Storytelling, Crucial Conversations and Feedback Skills. She has created and delivered programs for Deloitte, TCS, Microsoft, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, Unilever, Twitter, LinkedIn, Siemens, Sony, Liberty Videocon, Agrotech, Pitney Bowes etc. In the last five years, Yuki has also been a Pedagogical Advisor, Convenor, and teacher at the Drama School Mumbai. Yuki has studied and continues to train in the Indian Classical Flute, Kickboxing, and Yoga.