Theme: Shake & Shift

TEDxChiangMai 2019 “Shake and shift" - TEDxChiangMai 2019 "เขย่าความคิด - ปรับเปลี่ยนมุมอง" ---September 7 (Saturday). TEDxChiangMai 2019 “Shake and shift (through the eyes of women)” was held at the Northern Science Park (NSP), Chiang Mai University.

Northern Science Park (NSP)
Chiang Mai University
Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, 50100
Thailand

Antika Sawadsri

Inclusive Design Architect

Dr. Antika Sawadsri (ผศ.ดร.อันธิกา สวัสดิ์ศรี) is the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at KMITL and is the President of the Council of Deans of the Architecture Schools of Thailand (CDAST). Her academic background concerning the design process on Inclusive Design in public places, her PhD research at Newcastle University, UK, focusing on how disabled people negotiate with public facilities. She is continuously involved in learning and teaching how to implement universal or inclusive design concepts in the Thai context.

Bunnaroth Buaklee

Activist

A former journalist, Bunnaroth Buaklee (บัณรส บัวคลี่) is an activist and a member of the Hug Chiang Mai Association. Moving to Chiang Mai from the south in 2004, he became involved in community activities and has developed a deep connection with the city. He strongly believes in human rights and has an intense passion for environmental issues, especially the smog pollution problem. Bunnaroth began to tackle and write about this problem as it began becoming more noticeable than when he first moved to Chiang Mai. In the years since, he has witnessed the issue becoming normalized as people became increasingly used to it. Because of this, to eliminate the problem, he decided to initiate a new project #เชียงใหม่จะไม่ทน (Chiang Mai ja mai thon, Chiang Mai will not endure this).

Chokwan Kitty Chopaka

Cannabis Nerd

Kitty (Chokwan Kitty Chopaka or in Thai ช่อขวัญ คิตตี้ ช่อผกา) is the Founder & CEO of Elevated Estate, an industry-leading Cannabis- focused exponent, incubator, fund and consulting firm. Elevated Estate is an authoritative source of information and a vital community hub for the cannabis industry in Thailand and beyond. Kitty’s background in corporate law, digital strategy and technology has enabled her to be a unique voice for cannabis advocacy. She is also part of The Highland Network core team, an organization dedicated to the goal of legalizing cannabis in Thailand.

De Kai

AI Scientist and Musician

Author of the forthcoming book “Artificial Children”, Dr. De Kai (ดร. เดอ ไค) works across disciplines in language, music, artificial intelligence and cognition. A distinguished research scholar at the University of California at Berkeley, his PhD thesis was one of the first to construct probabilistic machines that learn to understand human languages. He is one of 17 scientists worldwide named as a Founding Fellow by the Association for Computational Linguistics. Recruited directly from Berkeley as founding faculty of the now world-ranked Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, he started HKUST's internationally-funded Human Language Technology Center, shaping new language and music AI paradigms. Recognized as one of the 100 most influential figures in Hong Kong by Debrett’s. De Kai was one of eight inaugural members selected by Google in 2019 for its AI ethics council ATEAC (Advanced Technology External Advisory Council).

Jidanun Lueangpiansamut

Novelist

Jidanun (Lee) Leuangpiangsamut (จิดานันท์ เหลืองเพียรสมุท) started writing when she was 12 years old; her first publication came out when she was at university. Since then, she has gained a number of literary awards and in 2018, at the age of 25 became the youngest Thai honoree to be awarded the S.E.A Write Award for her collection of short stories “สิงโตนอกคอก” (sing toh nohk kohk). Jidanun not only creates works of literary fiction but also writes stories involving fantasy, horror and gay affairs. From writing in different ways, she has learned about the diversity of thought, attitude and age inside the publishing industry, and about coping with rapid change caused by the digital revolution.

Jittiporn Kruenate

Innovation Driver

Dr. Jittiporn Kruenate (ดร. จิตติ์พร เครือเนตร) is Vice President of the Science and Innovation Center of PTT Global Chemical PLC. She graduated with a Ph.D. degree in Polymer Science and Technology from the University of Manchester and then worked for the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) for 14 years, researching into the use of new bioplastics for agricultural applications. Her research team garnered national and international awards such as the EUREKA award (2004), and the Innovative award by the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT, 2005). Her success led her to be recognized as a “Young Global Leader (YGL)” by the World Economic Forum in 2009.

Kawita Vatanajyankur

Artist

Kawita Vatanajyankur (กวิตา วัฒนะชยังกูร) graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2011 and has since received recognition for her work across Australia, Asia, the USA and Europe. She has shown her work in The Island in the Stream exhibition in the 57th Venice Biennale, the Bangkok Art Biennale, the Saatchi Gallery in London and the Asia Biennale of Performing Arts at the Melbourne Arts Centre. In 2015, she was a finalist in the Jaguar Asia Pacific Tech Art Prize. Kawita is currently represented by Nova Contemporary (Bangkok), the Alamak! Project, Clear Edition & Gallery (Tokyo) and the Antidote Organization (Australia). Her work features in the National Collection of Thailand, the Singapore Art Museum, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Maiiam Contemporary Art Museum and in university and private collections worldwide.

Khaetthaleeya Morris

Rock Climber

Rock climbing has helped Khaetthaleeya (แคทลียา มอริส) shift her perspective. Winning a place in Thailand’s national rock-climbing team, she has trained her mind to concentrate and be patient. She has learned how to fail and start right back up again, how to live with nature and how to preserve it; she says these have been valuable skills for her. With her experience, Khaetthaleeya started “Chiang Mai Rock Climbing”, believing that the opportunity to work with communities helps her to build a sustainable society and preserve the environment.

Metinee Kingpayome

Model & Actress

Metinee Kingpayome (เมทินี กิ่งโพยม), also known as Lukkade, was born in 1972 in Washington DC and lived in New York City for 20 years. She moved to Thailand in 1992, the year she won the Miss Thailand World Competition. Representing Thailand in the Miss World pageant, she was crowned Miss Continental Queen of Asia. She became one of Thailand's first supermodels and a fashion runway and magazine cover regular, as well as winning a Thai Oscar for best actress in a Thai movie called “The Box”. She became a regular television host and guest and pioneered on the music Channel [V] Thailand. Her recent role as a mentor for six seasons on “The Face Thailand” prepared her to be head trainer in preparing Miss Thailand 2019 to win back the 2019 Miss Universe crown for her country.

Nadine Ferris France

Health & Wellbeing Expert

Nadine has a master’s degree in global health and is a social entrepreneur, communicator, writer, trainer, facilitator and civil society activist with over 25 years’ experience in health, HIV, education and gender matters. She works with the United Nations, with non-governmental organizations, universities & individuals. She is the founder of The Work for Change and she is particularly passionate about the power of self-stigma and shame and has carried out research and designed programs that strive to understand the beliefs and thoughts that cause self-stigma across many countries in Asia and Africa. She works with young people, people living with HIV, survivors of gender-based violence and sex workers. After residing and working in Thailand for 12 years, she now lives with her two Chiang-Mai born children in Ireland, where she is the Executive Director of the Irish Forum for Global Health. She is a certified facilitator of the work of Byron Katie and an executive and life coach.

Natwilai Utoomprurkporn

Tech Entrepreneur

Natwilai (นัตวิไล อุทุมพฤกษ์พร) has a bachelor degree in mechanical engineering from Chulalongkorn University and a masters degree in the UK in Global innovation design. Natwilai (Pae) is the founder and CEO of TRIK, an award-winning drone 3D mapping and 3D reporting software for structural inspection. Pae is an engineer, innovator, and creative technologist. She has a long list of awards in innovation, design, software engineering. On top of being selected as one of the top 100 Asian Stars in UK tech and she was selected as one of the Forbes 30 under 30 (of Europe in 2018) as one of the future leaders to watch.

Note Panayanggool

Artist & Musician

Note Panayanggool & Melanie Giles-Clapp (นท พนายางกูร & เมลานี สุโกศล แคลปป์). Note a.k.a Notep (No-Tep) is a musician and Bangkok-based artist who focuses on creating art and music connecting to viewers’ spiritual rather than physical experience. Note has found her true passion is to merge her creative work with her interests in energy and spirituality, using art and music to inspire and heal, helping others find their inner peace and true energy. Her 2nd solo Exhibition, “Energy Diary 02” focuses on breathing and meditation. As a musician, she has created work for commercial campaigns and art installations and has performed live at festivals worldwide. Note’s performance at TEDxChiangMai 2019 featured Melanie Giles-Clapp and her instrument, Gong Bath. Melanie is a certified Reiki Master Teacher, Radiant Child & Kundalini Yoga instructor offering her services to those seeking balance and wellness within their lives.

Oranuch Lerdsuwankij

Tech Entrepreneur

Oranuch Lerdsuwankij (อรนุช เลิศสุวรรณกิจ) is CEO and co-founder of Techsauce, a leading technology and innovation media company that organizes Techsauce Global Summit, the largest technology conference in Southeast Asia. Selected as one of Thailand’s young female entrepreneurs by top10asia.org, she is recognized as one of the pioneers in building the Thai startup ecosystem. Oranuch holds a master’s degree in information technology management and graduated in telecommunications engineering from the King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL). After graduating, she worked for more than 12 years in product and marketing for tech-related companies such as dtac, TA Orange and Atos Origin.

Ploysri Porananond

Tourism Anthropologist

Associate Professor Dr. Ploysri Porananond (พลอยศรี โปราณานนท์) obtained her PhD in cultural tourism studies from Leeds Metropolitan University, UK, a program she happened upon by chance when she saw a poster on the wall advertising the tourism studies program during registration for a master’s program in management at the Free University of Brussels. That casual glance was to put her career on the path of tourism studies. Ploysri Porananond is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Journal of Tourism Research. At present she is a senior research fellow at the Knowledge and Innovation Center, College of Arts, Media and Technology, Chiang Mai University. She lectures and conducts research in many universities around Asia and frequently acts as a keynote speaker at international conferences. Her talk focuses on water blessing and throwing during the Songkran Festival, a topic that she has researched over many years.

ReOrientate featuring Puritad Arunkarn

Musician

ReOrientate, led by Dr. De Kai, is a Hong Kong based transcultural soul/pop collective acclaimed for its signature use of cross-cultural cognitive musical illusions in unique world music that draws from Silk Road idioms to interweave, translate, and reframe diverse traditional heritages adventurously blended with electronics, computer music, and virtual reality. ReOrientate uses cognitive illusions in its music. ReOrientate organically blends the rawest, traditional, primitive, human forms of expression in acoustic music through the magical cutting-edge possibilities of electronics and virtual reality. Humanity’s path toward survival in the AI era will be a merging of artificial cognition and human consciousness, as represented in ReOrientate’s cognitive science based blend of physical and virtual realities. ReOrientate’s performance featured Puritad Arunkarn, Thai music lecturer and composer at College of Music, Payap University, Chiang Mai.

Sawang Kaewkantha

Social Change Maker

Born to a farming family in Lampang and studied at the Chiang Mai Teacher’s College. After graduation, he taught English for five years before becoming a research assistant at the Anemia and Malnutrition Research Centre in the Research Institute for Health Sciences, Chiang Mai University. In 1992 he joined the International Rescue Committee’s Thai-Burma border program before joining HelpAge International in 1993. In 1999, he set up the Foundation for Older Persons’ Development (FOPDEV), becoming its executive director. Using community-based services, FOPDEV empowers older people and communities to provide care and support through income-generating activities, health-care accessibility, home care, risk reduction and anti-ageism. In 2012, FOPDEV founded BUDDY Homecare to provide disadvantaged people with training and jobs caring for older people. It aims to provide effective homecare for the elderly and develop volunteer-based care services for disadvantaged elders in need.

Soracha Dechaumphai

Biomedical Researcher

Dr. Soracha (อ.ดร.สรชา เดชะอำไพ) is a lecturer and researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering in the Faculty of Medicine at Prince of Songkla University. She received her Ph.D. in Nanoengineering from the University of California, San Diego in 2014, and undertook postdoctoral training in the university’s Nanoengineering Department. She holds a M.E. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Colorado State University and B.Pharm. from the Pharmacy School, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand. Her research focuses on the development of biomimetic nanomaterials and multifunctional nanoparticles in therapeutic treatment and diagnostics of infectious diseases and cancer. She is currently a member of the Global Young Academy (GYA). Believing that cross-disciplinary collaboration is vital for innovation, she aims to develop new nano-biomaterials that improve patients’ health in clinical practice.

Suchana Chavanich

Environmentalist

Dr. Suchana Chavanich (รศ.ดร. สุชนา ชวนิชย์) is the first female scientist from Thailand to have explored and conducted research in Antarctica and the Arctic, and to have undertaken exploratory diving at both the north and south poles. Her determination and outstanding research on marine resources in polar and tropical seas has also led Dr. Suchana to being appointed the Sustainable Ocean Ambassador for the Asia-Pacific Oceanic Area by the United Nations Ocean Conference and Agricultural and Food Marketing Association.

Warathida Chaiyapa

Policy Strategist

A lecturer at the School of Public Policy at Chiang Mai University, Warathida (อ.ดร.วรธิดา ไชยปะ) specializes in sustainability, energy and climate change. She has worked with NGOs, research institutes and energy companies. As a political scientist in international relations, her interest is oriented toward global challenges in sustainable development with a focus on clean energy deployment and energy efficiency as ways to mitigate climate change. Her current work includes, but is not limited to, the roles of oil and gas companies in the energy transition to low-carbon energy, the public perception of disruptive energy technology and the energy policy design process.

Yoshimi Horiuchi

Social Change Maker

Born in Kochi, Japan on July 12, 1983. Yoshimi was born nearly blind, losing all sight in her late teens. Educated in schools for the blind till grade 12, she went on to study language education at the International Christian University. Yoshimi’s life has been deeply influenced by her experience learning abroad: a year in the USA in her high teens, a year in Thailand during her university program, and a year at Kanthari International, an innovative institute in south India in 2009. Yoshimi founded the Always Reading Caravan in 2010, which was officially registered as the Bookworm Foundation (BWF) in 2018. BWF is committed to promoting the joy of reading, play and learning in Phrao District of Chiang Mai Province. It has a community library offering mobile library services in rural areas and two early-learning centers for hill-tribe children in the surrounding mountains.

Yujarej Somana

Designer

Yujarej Somana is a designer, design consultant, and the co-founder of various social enterprises including “Craft de Quarr”, a developer and distributor of hill-tribe products that aims to improve product design and market channels to help generate sustainable income and careers for the hill-tribe communities who make them. She is also the founder-owner of Ethnica, a Chiang Mai-based brand that is an example of how traditional culture can be woven into popular products. Ethnica stands out for its designs and for its production process that involves hill-tribe craftspeople as producers. Yujarej— also known as Khun Zilver—graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University. In 2018, she won an award for her social entrepreneurship and her works have been featured in Chiang Mai Design Week and other events and exhibitions.