Theme: Resilience

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).

UST Global Trivandrum
Technopark Phase II, Service Road
Kulathoor
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, 695 583
India

Aharsh MS

Aharsh is a tech entrepreneur and a visionary. He co-founded Accubits Technologies, an AI and blockchain focused development and solutions company. Within a year, he and his team saw monumental success and expanded into six countries. He has also designed token economics for several organizations worldwide. He believes that decentralization and tokenized organizational models will revolutionize all walks of life.

Anson P D Alexander

Anson P D Alexander is an individual with diverse interests, he has a bachelor’s in Political Science and Law as well as a Masters in Social Work, has among many laurels been selected as the Young Cartoonist of Kerala (2005) and the South Zone Inter-University winner in Theatre (2016). These diverse interests culminated into him founding Kanal, an NGO that focuses on Legal Literacy, Child Abuse Prevention, Cyber Law, Substance Abuse, Gender Equality and Sex Education

Aparna Gopan

Aparna Gopan loves to make elephants dance and is the founder of “Elefant in the Room”. It is a provocative movement which runs theme-based campaigns against taboos. She has run campaigns in Bangalore, Goa, Kenya and is currently launching a new campaign series in Trivandrum. She is a Kanthari international leadership graduate and a student of history who feeds on loud thoughts, conversations and stories. She has worked as a writer, catalyst, creative head, gender and communication specialist for various international non-profits and start-ups. In 2016, her written work was published by World Pulse and was awarded as one of the featured stories for 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.

Archana Gopinath

A civil engineer with a Masters in Project Management, Archana Gopinath shifting her focus from the construction industry to more community-driven projects, she led the Infrastructure and Overlays Committee for the National Games in the state of Kerala. She founded The Reading Room in Thiruvananthapuram — a community space focussing on interaction, communication, and inculcating reading habits in children, through the medium of books, workshops and events. As she moved her base to the city, Archana founded the social media collective — Where In Trivandrum (WIT) — a Facebook community aimed at helping society and in building social discourse in the city of Thiruvananthapuram. A strong believer in the power of human connections, Archana was instrumental in using her platform WIT to coordinate supplies and volunteers during the recent flood crisis faced by the state of Kerala.

Nanma Gireesh

Nanma is a Civil Engineer with post-graduation in Translational Engineering who co-founded an interdisciplinary consultancy firm called NestAbide, currently focussing on Amphibious housing technology and lake rejuvenation projects. As a solution to the sinking houses in Munroe Islands, Kollam, Kerala, the concept of the amphibious house was first studied. She visited and researched on 32 amphibious houses that are built on the banks of Maas River in Maasbommel, Netherlands, with the help of few professors and natives. Taking inspiration from how Holland sees water, flood and nature, She started and is currently working on implementing the amphibious housing project in Kerala. She is also an avid painter, dancer and nature lover.

Prasanth Gangadharan

Founder, Learning initiative

Prasanth Gangadharan founded Learning Alternatives (LA) in a bid to bring back the joy that comes with learning & exploration, often missed by the conventional schooling methods. He makes learning fun & more effective for children by designing programs at the LA Centre for Beyond School Learning Experiences in Trivandrum which involve arts, theatre, science experiments and projects and most importantly the art of storytelling. He is also the Managing Trustee of Saves9 Trust, a public charitable organisation that seeks to create learning and living spaces for individuals with special needs. An avid story teller, Prasanth’s passion for teaching has led him to design a participative story telling format for children called StoryCircle and he conducts story based training workshops not only for children but for their parents and teachers as well.

Prasanth Gangadharan

Prasanth Gangadharan founded Learning Alternatives (LA) in a bid to bring back the joy that comes with learning & exploration, often missed by the conventional schooling methods. He makes learning fun & more effective for children by designing programs at the LA Centre for Beyond School Learning Experiences in Trivandrum which involve arts, theatre, science experiments and projects and most importantly the art of storytelling. He is the Managing Trustee of Saves9 Trust, a public charitable organisation that seeks to create learning and living spaces for individuals with special needs. Prasanth’s diverse experience in teaching includes stints as a class teacher in an alternative school in Bangalore, teaching in business schools, designing action learning programs, working with children with special needs and home-schooling. An avid story teller, Prasanth’s passion for teaching has led him to design a participative story telling format for children called StoryCircle and he conducts story based training workshops not only for children but for their parents and teachers as well.

Sally Varma

Sally Varma is an animal rights activist. Her wish to create peaceful coexistence between humans and animals brought up Sally Varma to shift her career from journalism to animal welfare. Believing that the world belongs to every living creature that is a part of it, she started a small initiative called Save A Life. Although it all started as a Facebook page, the initiative helped rescue and rehome many animals from all over Kerala. It also helped to spread awareness on animal welfare & its impact on human lives and the malpractices to which animals, especially farm animals, are subjected due to factory farming and cruel transportation methods. She has worked as a community engagement officer for the NGO Humane Society International/India and was involved in an ABC (animal birth control) program for Street dogs in Malappuram district of Kerala. She has completed her para-veterinary course from Worldwide Veterinary Services (WVS), Ooty and was honored by the President of India as one of the 100 women achievers of India for her work in Animal Welfare.

Sreelekha R

R. Sreelekha is an accomplished police officer in the State of Kerala. Apart from being the first woman IPS officer from the state of Kerala, she is also the first woman in Kerala to become the Director General of Police. After joining the police force, she took upon a multitude of roles, ranging from the Managing Director of Kerala State Cooperative Rubber Marketing Federation to the Managing Director of the Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala to ADGP Vigilance to the Inspector General of the Crime branch to the Transport Commissioner and so on. She is also renowned for bridging the gender gap and working for women empowerment and represented India in the United Nations to form protocols to combat woman trafficking. Apart from her services, she has also authored several books in Malayalam, three of them on crime investigation and runs a blog in which she shares her thoughts and touching real-life stories she heard within her prison boundaries.

Vasuki K

Dr. K Vasuki is a 2008 batch IAS official from Tamil Nadu and is currently serving as the District Collector of Thiruvananthapuram (at the time of writing). Ahead of assuming office as the district collector, Dr. Vasuki served as the Director of Suchitwa Mission. In her tenure as the Director of Suchitwa Mission, Dr. Vasuki was noted for her efforts in implementing a green protocol and for her emphasis on eliminating plastic waste and quoting it down as “My waste, My responsibility” which is the first ever waste management protocol launched in the state. Her obstinate determination and ingenuousness towards her work have won the hearts of millions especially during the recent crisis faced by the state of Kerala in India, where she had the mammoth task of co-ordinating rescue operations, channel supplies and update the public about the situation in the district for the flood victims.