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).

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Switzerland

Alexandra Mandoki

Alexandra Mandoki is a collaboration and innovation magician. After two decades at global blue-chip companies she founded Sparks, specializing in team development and innovation. She is also the country director of an animal welfare organization and guest lecturer at more universities. Alexandra has a Master of Sciences Degree, is a Proteus Alumna from the London Business School and studied Business Strategy at the University of St. Gallen. Her motto: “The sky is not the limit.”

Andrea Jansen

Andrea Jansen is a journalist, entrepreneur and former host of several shows on Swiss Television. As a working mother of three, she founded the platform Anyworkingmom.com in 2016 in order to establish a judgemental-free zone for parents and a place for empowerment among likeminded individuals. She is also a working nomad and has just come back from an around-the-world-trip with her family of five.

Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken

Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken is Senior Researcher in the Subject Area Game Design, Zurich University of the Arts, as well as founder and CEO of the fitness gaming startup Sphery Ltd. Anna has a sports scientific background and has been working in the field of game design since 2010. Since then, she has combined both fields of expertise in numerous interdisciplinary projects. Her R&D work focuses on exergames, games for health, body-centred computing and human-computer-interaction.

Claude Garcia

Dr. Claude Garcia is a tropical ecologist leading the FoDev Team, a joint research unit between CIRAD, France and ETH Zürich, Switzerland. His research aims at understanding the drivers of change in tropical landscapes using games to invite decision-makers to explore alternative futures. His goal is to help people develop better strategies and make more informed decisions. He created InSpire Strategy and Decision, a start-up that offers this service to anybody struggling with wicked problems and complexity.

Daniel Bisig

Daniel Bisig is a trained biologist and media-artist working in the domains of generative arts, technology development, and artistic explorations of algorithmic processes. As a researcher in the same institution, he frequently collaborates with choreographers and musicians to provide his expertise. Here, he develops visualizations of life-like processes in relation to the moving performer on stage.

Davor Kosanic

Davor Kosanic, PhD, is a scientist, social entrepreneur and innovator in the domain of healthcare. After successfully building the medtech startup SamanTree Medical, Davor has co-founded the Reconnect Foundation together with a dedicated group of mental healthcare experts, with the joint vision to build a “sustainable healthcare” enterprise, which places patient benefit above profit and develops transformational therapies targeting the root cause of disease.

Domenico Giardini

Domenico Giardini is professor of Seismology and Geodynamics at ETH Zurich. He studied in Bologna, worked at Harvard University and in Rome, and joined ETH in 1977. He directed the Swiss Seismological Service and presently the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research. He delivered the control electronics for the seismometer on the NASA InSight mission and will direct the MarsQuake Service, charged to detect and locate quakes and meteoritic impacts on Mars.

Dominique Kunz

Originally born in Switzerland, Dominique moved to the US after the completion of her studies to worked in Economic Development in the San Francisco Bay Area. Upon her return to Switzerland, she joined the startup Procivis as one of their first employees. Through her role as community builder and manager, she got immersed quickly into the areas of blockchain and decentralization. Dominique also contributed to the establishment of Procivis’ own Think Tank, where she is particularly interested in the impact of decentralization on the relationship between government and society. Dominique holds a degree in International Relations from University of St. Gallen (HSG).

Jamil El-Imad

Jamil El-Imad has built a portfolio of research in collaboration with a number of world-class institutes and universities. His interests are in Virtual Reality (VR), brain signal analysis, Big Data and Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI). With his team, he is developing algorithms for epilepsy prediction and other neurological disorders. Jamil is also working on the use of VR and neurotech in the treatment of mental health and in democratising human experience. He is currently launching a bio-sensory cloud service offering “Big brain data” management, storage and processing solutions in Switzerland.

Jan Schacher

Jan Schacher is an artist-researcher working at the intersection between performance and interaction technologies. As a musician and composer, his artistic work focuses on the presence of the artist on stage and the experiences of visitors in media-installations. By putting a strong focus on perceptual engagement and direct actions, he develops art works that investigate the role and influence of technology in relation of human agency. His has shown pieces worldwide in festivals, exhibitions, and screenings. As a Research Associate at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology of the Zurich University of the Arts he thinks and writes about the relationship between body, presence, the nature of ideas and knowledge, and means of generating insights and understanding through artistic processes.

Lea Suter

Most recently Lea Suter worked for the UN as Project Manager of large-scale public events and for the “Swiss Forum on Foreign Policy” as Vice Director. Originally from Switzerland she lived in Russia and volunteered in humanitarian projects in Mongolia and Colombia. In 2017 she founded “PeacePrints - Following the footprints of peacebuilders” a blog for which she travels as peace reporter to post-conflict countries to report about outstanding individuals committed to bringing a positive change.

Madelyne Meyer

Madelyne Meyer approaches people to wine in an unconventional way. With her website "Edvin." she conveys basic wine knowledge through videos and illustrations. Meyer started her wine journey in California, where she worked for 2 wineries. Subsequently the half Swiss half American moved to Bordeaux where she studied Wine Marketing and Management and interned for a wine merchant. Today she is the head of Marketing & Communication at Weinkellereien Aarau and passionately develops Edvin: A source for wine knowledge. Ignoring all wine rules.

Nikolai Fuchs

Nikolai, born 1963, is a trained a studied farmer and agronomist. After having been an advisor for 120 farms he became the director of the biodynamic research center in Germany and the head of the international agricultural section at the Goetheanum, Dornach (Switzerland). He was also the head of the Brussels office of Demeter International, as well as the president of Nexus Foundation in Geneva. Currently, he is the co-director of GLS Treuhand in Germany, as well as a member of the supervisory council of BioBoden cooperative and a board member of BioHöfe Foundation.

Tim Lomas

Dr. Tim Lomas has been a lecturer in positive psychology at the University of East London since 2013. Tim completed his PhD at the University of Westminster in 2012, where he focused on the impact of meditation on men's mental health. His current main area of research involves creating a lexicography of untranslatable words relating to wellbeing (www.drtimlomas.com/lexicography). Tim has published two books on the project in 2018, and it has also been featured in articles in prominent publications including TIME, The New Yorker, and Scientific American.

Xi Zhang

Zhang Xi, Chinese architect, studied in ETH Zurich and went back to China and co-founded EXH Design Shanghai in 2006. In 2016 the company expended back to Switzerland. Now she works and lives between Zurich and Shanghai, switching locations every month. In 2016 their book ''Swiss quality Chinese Speed'' - a monograph edited by Eduard Koegel is published by Jovis Verlag.