Theme: Re:Think

Fake news. Political unrest. Climate crisis. They’re all symptoms of society in flux. The world is a messy, chaotic place full of isolation and ignorance. Working together we can overcome all things, but we need to answer difficult questions: Where is all this leading? What can I do? What does our future hold?

In a world where everyone's at odds we need to remember we're stronger together. This year TEDxBrayfordPool offers an antidote. A place and time to come together, to build bridges and reengage in our community.

Breathe. Re:Think.

University of Lincoln
Brayford Pool
Lincoln, Lincolnshire, LN6 7TS
United Kingdom

Adam Fox

Actor, Poet, Performer

Adam is a spoken word poet, actor and all round creative- type born and bred in Lincoln. After almost 10 years of performing and telling other people's stories; Adam took a step into a new world and started creating his own stories to tell as a scriptwriter and incidentally found spoken word poetry by accident. He has been writing and performing his poetry ever since his accidental discovery of rhyme and verse. He tends to focus his writings on the idea that there is much more to living than existing - A mantra he intends to live by.

Ben Simmons

Musician

Ben is a singer/songwriter originating from Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. Intrigued by the arts at a younger age, he discovered his passion for music when he found his mother's old acoustic guitar in the attic. During his years in higher education studying the performing arts, Ben grew his songwriting with implications of gentle folk and a gritty blues style, drawing inspiration from a selection of favourite artists such as John Mayer, Ed Sheeran, Kaleo and Ben Howard.

Daniel Magnone

Geochemist & Lecturer

Daniel is a geochemist and lecturer in the School of Geography and Centre for Water and Planetary Health at the University of Lincoln. His research focusses on how people interact with the environment chemically; both how the earth's chemistry shapes human lives and how human behaviour effects chemical processes in the environment. In particular, he focusses on understanding nutrient and contaminant processes in soils, rivers and groundwaters. He has published in internationally respected scientific journals and has worked in the UK and Cambodia. He completed his PhD at the University of Manchester in 2016 where he held the university's President's Doctoral Scholar Award.

Deb Hodson

Laughter Yoga Practitioner & Psychotherapist

The dynamic duo Denise and Deb met many years ago at college. They are psychotherapist, clinical hypnotherapists and laughter yoga instructors who combine all these modalities together and deliver feel good sessions that cover a myriad of topics from stress, anxiety and finding your inner child to enhanced connection. They also help businesses achieve a creative and authentic workplace leaving room for growth and development relevant and innovative. Laughter helps you access your inner feel good chemicals and these lovely ladies consider it their pleasure to share laughter with you.

Denise Denise Tooley-Okonkwo

Laughter Yoga Practitioners & Psychotherapists

The dynamic duo Denise and Deb met many years ago at college. They are psychotherapist, clinical hypnotherapists and laughter yoga instructors who combine all these modalities together and deliver feel good sessions that cover a myriad of topics from stress, anxiety and finding your inner child to enhanced connection. They also help businesses achieve a creative and authentic workplace leaving room for growth and development relevant and innovative. Laughter helps you access your inner feel good chemicals and these lovely ladies consider it their pleasure to share laughter with you.

Happy Hunting

Musicians

Bridging the gap between Pop and Folk with close harmonies and dark melodies, Lincoln's alternative Folk duo Happy Hunting, features Cat Fullbrook and Josh Reast. Happy Hunting have played in theatres across the UK and in 2017 they made their stamp on the Folk scene by supporting huge Folk stars, Cara Dillon & Sam Lakeman. Since releasing their debut EP, Happy Hunting have appeared at several folk festivals throughout the year and have performed at 2018's Great British Folk Festival, alongside artists like Clearwater Creedence Revival, New Celeste and Jon Boden

Heidi De Wolf

Cultural Anthropologist

Heidi De Wolf is a community-focused Cultural Anthropologist, applying her analytical & creative problem-solving expertise to all things culture, group dynamics & behaviours in her work as independent Organisational Development & Change Consultant, as well as in her voluntary work & her own community. She has a keen interest in how the internet, digital technologies & emerging business models are providing more & more opportunities to positively change the way people, communities & businesses can choose to connect/re-connect, collaborate, innovate & make a real difference in the world. She hopes that her talk will provide an alternative perspective on how technology can be an enabler & catalyst for a positive future (#TechForGood).

Leo Scott Smith

Tech Entrepreneur

Leo founded Tended in 2017 with a mission to create intelligent, accessible and affordable safety solutions that are available to all. He has since grown Tended into an award-winning tech startup and has been named the “most likely person to put Lincolnshire on the map for tech” by CityX. Leo oversees all business activities and has implemented a successful strategy that has allowed Tended to scale at an exponential rate, having grown from just 1 person to 24 in just 20 months, closed £1.4m in funding and secured deals with some of the world’s leading companies and insurance providers. With a passion in tech and business, Leo developed two successful businesses prior to Tended. He has also been involved in various charities and projects, from working on a large EU funded projects, through to managing large teams of volunteers in disaster zones.

Lisa Spring

Educator

Lisa is a reintegration support officer at The Pilgrim School; a specialist provision for those with medical needs. Lisa grew up in Cornwall before attending the University of Lincoln to study psychology. Whilst there, she fell in love with a Lincolnshire lad and has made the county her much loved home for the last 17 years. Beginning her career in the Prison Service facilitating a drug rehabilitation programme, by the age of 25 Lisa was one of the youngest managers of the programme in the country. After becoming a mum, Lisa knew she wanted to focus on championing change in young people. She moved into secondary education and set up a pastoral support system in a grammar school in an area of deprivation. In doing so she massively challenged thoughts and attitudes that Grammar schools do not have many pastoral issues. Now working at The Pilgrim School, Lisa specialises in supporting and safeguarding more vulnerable groups of young people.

Rachael Lamb

Lecturer in Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Rachael is Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Haydn Green Institute at the University of Nottingham. Her expertise lies at the intersection of innovation, change management and communication and her research centres on addressing how organisations can create and maintain an entrepreneurial and innovative culture. Rachael also teaches Entrepreneurial Creativity and Innovation Management on the Nottingham University Business School's MBA and MSc programmes. Prior to working in Higher Education, Rachael worked in industry for 20 years, supporting executive leaders in managing change and innovation. She has worked with many high profile organisations including the National Health Service, Rolls-Royce, Waitrose, National Grid and the Royal Bank of Scotland and has consulted with SMEs on utilising creativity for business growth funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

Ryan Lovett

Community Activist

Ryan started his journey against litter pollution around two years ago when he began to notice litter along our roads whilst working on the railway up and down the UK. He realised he had to try do something about it and it had to be something everyone could get on board with. Being a town councillor, he aims to work with other councils and community groups in launching his initiative across the UK.

Sean Morton

Senior Lecturer in Nursing

Sean has been a nurse for nearly 30 years, his background is in Neurosurgical, Trauma and Emergency Nursing. Sean trained at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London and have worked in London, the USA and the East Midlands. His working career has included working as a nurse in junior and senior positions and he has held Healthcare Quality Improvement and Workforce Development positions in the USA and the UK. Now his passion is for teaching nursing and he has held positions as Assistant Professor of Nursing at Grand Canyon University in America, Lecturer in Nursing at the University of Nottingham and now Senior Lecturer in Nursing at the University of Lincoln. Sean also has a passion for equality in the workplace, this has included many opportunities to promote STEM based subjects and raising the profile of nursing as a scientific subject and a rewarding profession for all.

Steve Peace

Learning & Development Specialist

Steve is a Learning & Development professional and Managing Partner of Newland Partners Ltd. He specialises in people and organisational development and has had experience within various B2B/B2C organisations covering Leasing, Consumer Finance and Asset Management to roles within Human Resource, Credit Control and Compliance functions. Steve has been managing teams and individuals for over 20 years with a primary focus on developing people and organisational resources. Steve is qualified at various levels of FCA compliance and AAT accounting and holds a CIPD diploma in L&D management. Steve delivers all types of learning, training and development that range from junior roles up to senior management and executive level. Steve has a fundamental belief that any successful, or growing business, who are striving for a culture of improvement and performance can only be realised through the drive and development of your most valuable resource....people.

Tanya Akrofi

Writer & Storyteller

Tanya is a writer and storyteller from Brighton. She lives in North Lincolnshire, with her husband and 5 year old son, Elijah Gentleheart. Having originally trained as a solicitor, she left the profession to follow her passion for collecting stories. Born in Ghana, Tanya and her parents moved to London when she was 5. She grew up surrounded by the mysticism, magic and larger than life characters of the Ghanaian oral storytelling tradition: tales of ordinary people trying to make sense of their place in the great cosmos. As a result her stories explore the universal themes of love and belonging and reflect her passion for magical realism and grown-up fairy tales. She is currently studying for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Lincoln and runs a “true life tales” storytelling circle in Brigg. She is on a crusade to share the transformative power of storytelling.

Taryn Johnston

Publisher

For Taryn Johnston, words are everything. Passionate about stories, whether they're personal or business related, she runs two independent publishing companies (FCM Publishing and Chronos Publishing) and a media agency (FCM Media). Having worked in marketing and project management for most of her career, Taryn started her own web and marketing business in 2008. In 2017 she was invited to lecture in marketing at the University of Lincoln and is now an associate lecturer there in parallel to her business activities. Over the last twelve months she has released two celebrity autobiographies, seen one of her authors gain their own TV show partly due to the strength of her book and had another of her authors become a finalist in the Business Book of the Year Awards. With the recent launch of Chronos Publishing, Taryn is expanding the company and is speaking at several events this year.

Zoe Burnett

Eating Disorder Advocate

Zoe is currently in recovery for a-typical anorexia and lived in this disorder for 14 years, she’s now 26. For over half of her life she believed she was not good enough, she believed if she were slimmer, she would be better. Now Zoe is letting go of this and focusing on her positive qualities, she is extremely charitable, and currently fundraising for a sky dive for BEAT in August. Zoe has a degree in Music and Education studies and loves playing the flute; her other hobbies include surfing and baking. Zoe was a young career and still cares for her disabled mum and has two beautiful nieces which she also helps to care for. She currently works as a nursery practitioner and love being around children (because at heart she’s still a big kid!). Zoe is very sociable and finds it easy to talk to others, especially about her experiences and passions.