Theme: Tūrangawaewae—A Place of Belonging

We're are proud to invite you to New Zealand's biggest TEDxYouth event: TEDxYouth@Christchurch.

TEDxChristchurch and TEDxYouth@Christchurch have joined forces to bring you an entire weekend of TEDx celebrations from 24-25 August, at a place very special to us: The Christchurch Town Hall.

Day 1 is brought to you by the TEDxYouth@Christchurch team—who brought you TEDxYouth@AvonRiver event last year—and features a half-day event at the James Hay Theatre. This event is specifically produced for youth, by youth. If you'll be 25 or younger on 24 August, grab your ticket and get ready to be inspired, intrigued, and challenged by the stunning speaker lineup the team has carefully curated over the past year.

Day 2 is for everyone and, after two years of more intimate events, we're going BIG. Join us—and 1,700 of our closest friends—for a full-day event in the Douglas Lilburn Auditorium. It'll be a jam-packed ride with insightful and inspiring speakers, a delectable menu of local food, and of course, the famous red dot.

Tickets are only available in limited release amounts, so don't delay in securing your seat at our biggest event yet.

Christchurch Town Hall
86 Kilmore St, Christchurch Central
Christchurch, Canterbury, 8013
New Zealand

Anna Clark

Researcher

Anna Clark is a Masters candidate in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Otago. A conservationist at an early age, Anna was quickly drawn to science and the workings of the natural world. Later, field experience in pest control sparked a curiosity in the potential for more effective and humane alternatives. Anna's Masters research project aims to identify genes that have a sex-specific effect on mammalian fertility and may be suitable targets for gene drive systems to control invasive rodent populations. In her community, Anna is currently involved in a restoration project on the Otago Peninsula and is also vice-president of the Pacific Island Science Student’s Association at Otago. Any remaining time is spent exploring New Zealand's vast and rugged wilderness or diving in our incredible marine environments. These experiences continue to fuel her motivation to save New Zealand's unique, internationally treasured and endangered ecosystems.

Aurelia Torkington

Artist

Aurelia is a social media influencer and art student currently living in Wellington. They’re most well known for their bold makeup looks but use that platform to educate their young audience on current social issues surrounding queerness, mental health and body positivity. They grew up in a family of nerds and have been attending the conference Foo Camp for years, only recently beginning to lead sessions on social media and youth mental health. Three documentaries later, Aurelia’s goal is to lead a conversation in New Zealand about social media use in teenagers and how we can make it safe online without trying to limit their online presence. Beyond that, they have experience in computer programming, interactive fiction and most importantly, assembling the perfect big mac!

Chessie Henry

Author

Chessie Henry is the author of We Can Make A Life, a family memoir which was recently awarded the E.H. McCormick prize for General Non-Fiction at the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Originally from Kaikoura, she now lives in Lyttelton, Christchurch, where she works as Content Specialist for social change agency Brown Bread. Her personal essays have been published on The Spinoff, The Wireless, and she has an MA in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters.

Jamie Beaton

Entrepreneur

Jamie Beaton is the young entrepreneur who co-founded Crimson Education, a multi-million dollar online tutoring company which supercharge students' ability to get accepted into the world's most competitive universities. Jamie applied to 25 of the top universities around the world and was the first New Zealander to be accepted to all of them. He attended Harvard, and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Applied Mathematics & Economics as well as a Masters in Applied Math. Jamie was awarded NZ Young Innovator of the Year Award in 2015, and was a finalist in 2016. In 2017, he spoke at the UN about eradicating poverty and was listed in Forbes Asia 30 Under 30. Jamie is a Rhodes Scholar and is pursuing a Doctor of Philisophy in Public Policy at the University of Oxford. In 2019, Jamie graduated as the youngest ever Arjay Miller Scholar at Stanford Business School with an MBA and MA in Education.

Kristie Amadio

Eating Disorder Recovery Coach

Kristie Amadio is founder and CEO of Recovered Living, which offers which offers online eating disorder recovery coaching as well as 24/7 live-in support to people both domestically and internationally. After 14 years of battling her eating disorder and seeking treatment in both Australia and New Zealand—where she was told she was ‘chronic’ and should expect to struggle with food and body image issues for the rest of her life—Kristie flew to America for intensive treatment and made a full recovery. Kristie was stunned by the gap and unequal access to support and resources both here and overseas, so she resolved to make cost effective support available to everyone, no matter where they lived. By working online and living with people in recovery all around the world, Kristie Amadio is adding a new dimension to the platform used to treat eating disorders.

Lucy Gray

Climate Activist

Lucy is a 12-year-old climate activist and songwriter. She found her passion in climate action in 2017 and started a climate action group in her school, encouraging young people to come along and learn about climate change. When the international school strikes reached New Zealand, Lucy saw that were strikes registered all across New Zealand, but none in Christchurch, so she decided to lead the Christchurch strike; she also founded the Christchurch School Strike for Climate (SS4C) group and is now also a co-convenor of the national School Strike for Climate NZ team, a group created by students, for students, to plan and run strikes, and to urge the government to act urgently on climate change. Lucy has another passion—music. She wrote a song about changing the way we act, and standing up for what is right, called ‘Rise Up’, which she has performed at the strike and other future focused events like National Young Leaders Day and Festival for the Future.

Miles Lifton

Programmer

Miles Lifton is a 13 year old tech prodigy. By seven years old, he learned enough on YouTube to start university level programming. At ten, he won first place at South Florida’s largest conference for UX and developers, UX/DEV Summit. Today, he codes in eight languages. Miles has been a featured speaker at WordCamp Orlando 2017, WordCamp Miami 2017 and 2018, UX/DEV Summit 2018, and New York Tech Summit 2019. He is passionate about breaking down barriers to entry in tech. Currently, Miles is working on a project that will allow non-English speakers the opportunity to innovate in major programming languages.

Ray Shipley

Comedian

Ray Shipley is a Ōtautahi-based comedian, poet and librarian. In 2017, Ray was ‘highly commended’ at the National Raw Comedy competition, and this year, Ray was nominated for the 2019 Billy T Award. Ray has won the Christchurch Poetry Slam three times, and placed third in the National Poetry Slam in 2018. Along with telling jokes, Ray coordinates Faultline Poetry Collective, crochets for cash, and makes a very good cup of tea.

Sala Tiatia

Educator

Sala Tiatia is a local youth educator who has been involved in youth work for the last 30 years; his roles have varied from church ministry, community work and running youth work workshops about youth work for youth workers, right through to running leadership programmes in mainstream schools and alternative education. He is still working with youth and their whānau today, and is a huge advocate for everyone, especially men, to seek help in counselling, have a greater sense of self care and be intentional with their holistic health.

Swarm Crew

Dance Crew

Swarm Crew are an experienced and talented team of professional entertainers, based in Christchurch and Brisbane. Swarm Crew—collectively or individually—have performed alongside artists such as Ciara, Keri Hilson, 50 Cent, Lloyd, Guy Sebastian and Mase, just to name a few. The crew have performed at various arts and cultural festivals in New Zealand, Australia, USA, Korea, Thailand and Singapore, and are known for their dynamic, energetic and inspiring shows. From performing at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles to shutting down Orchard Road in Singapore, as well as taking the stage locally in front of 140,000 people at ‘Band Together,’ consider Swarm a shot of urban performance creativity.

Takunda Muzondiwa

Student

Takunda Muzondiwa is a Mt Albert Grammar school student and orator whose recent speech at The 2019 Race Unity Speech Awards made global headlines. She speaks about the challenges faced by her and other members of the diaspora as they struggle to maintain a strong connection to their culture. Her own experience as a dispora community helped her realise the commonalities with other minority groups going through the same experience, like Māori people here in Aotearoa experiencing their language fade right before them. Through her words, Takunda is determined to speak up and bring awareness to the systemic ways in which cultural erasure is enforced and encourage people to take action to prevent this.

Tāmati Cunningham

Kaitiaki

Tāmati Cunningham’s maunga is Te Ahu Pātiki, his awa is Koukourārata, his whare is Tūtehuarewa and his iwi is Ngāi Tahu. He is passionate about normalising Ao Māori and the Māori language, and empowering rangatahi Māori voice. Recently he was part of the group that created Environment Canterbury’s new Youth Rōpu; he is now one of the rōpu’s two manawhenua representatives. Tāmati is also a Year 12 Head Student at Cashmere High School, and was involved with Student Volunteer Army’s UCan High schools programme. He loves waka ama, rugby and boxing.

Vanessa Wells

Actor

Vanessa Wells has worked in the arts industry for almost 20 years, with a long history as a performer with the Court Theatre—regularly playing Scared Scriptless as a Court Jester—and occasionally treading the main stage (The Streaker and various children's shows). Her 2018 debut documentary film “East to East” was officially selected for NZIFF 2018 and FIFO Tahiti. "Give Kate A Voice", which Vanessa co-directed, was an interactive film created with NZOA to mark suffrage in New Zealand, and has been an honouree in the international Webby Awards, and is nominated for a Best Design NZ Award. Vanessa has visited Antarctica twice producing a touring educational children’s play, creating content for Sesame Street, and resulting in a short film Te Whakairo. Vanessa currently has a climate change feature documentary "The Climate Canary" in development and is on the board of WIFT NZ (Women in Film and Television).

Yippy Skippy

Music Duo

Yippy Skippy is the local musical duo comprising Elly Rydge and Rosie Burdett, who set upon writing music together that challenges societies 'norms' in a colourful, creative and fun way. Influenced by drum and bass, soul, funk and rock these women bring an array of sounds both melodically and percussively. They have years of experience working in cover bands, both have also received a Bachelor of Musical Arts. They like their music to have structure, yet don't mind blurring the lines at times to create something entertaining and genuine.