Theme: The Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect is a word used to describe the idea that something small, as simple as the flapping of a Butterfly’s wing, has the potential to cause huge change. We live in a world where change is constant and often happening at the hands of the powerful. The Butterfly effect stands as a reminder against this, as it shows us that small actions in our everyday lives can have rippled effects which can accumulate to big changes.

This year we chose to dedicate our event to the Butterfly Effect in order to both celebrate and showcase the power of small changes. With speakers from a range of topics and perspectives, including urban farming, psychology, and the linguistic roots of the Russia Ukraine conflict, we invite our audience to look into the future and reflect on the past, in order to fully embrace the potential small moments hold.

Roy Bennett Theatre, United World College South East Asia
1207 Dover Road
Singapore, Central Singapore, 139654
Singapore

Danielle Chan

Co-Founder of Citiponics

Danielle Chan is a co-founder at Citiponics, which currently operates Singapore’s pioneer commercial car park rooftop urban farm. Citiponics is able to grow a variety of produce through its proprietary technology, Aqua Organic System, a zero-waste farming system designed to grow food sustainably, safely, and productively. In her upcoming Ted Talk, Chan will share her journey in transforming an underutilised rooftop space into a place for food production and explore its positive impact on our local communities. As a person who believes in pursuing different interests and career duality, she is also involved in building user-centric products at a SEA technology company. Her passion lies in problem-solving at the intersection of design, business, technology, and sustainability.

Hlib Olhovsky

National Committee Scholar - Ukraine

Hlib Olhovskyi is a Grade 11 student at UWCSEA and this year's National Committee scholar from Ukraine. He has lived there for his whole life, and experienced both its contexts: an urban and a rural one. He spent his early childhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and after turning four, he moved to a small agricultural village to live with his grandparents. Growing up there for most of his life, he was still able to contrast city life to the village one, and it gave him lots of perspectives as well as ambition and determination. He is interested in music, reading, cycling and just having a good conversation. He is passionate about studying and learning languages in particular, as well as meeting new people. He hopes his TEDx experience will be meaningful, helping people to gain an insight into the importance of the topic, as well as giving him an opportunity to explore it and reflect on his beliefs.

Jonathan Marshall

Psychotherapist and Founder of Marshall Consulting

Dr Jonathan Marshall bridges clinical psychology with executive coaching to help clients achieve higher levels of performance and well-being. He has held positions at the three top universities in Singapore and now heads the boutique human development firm Marshall Consulting. He explains that “Learning to use our minds both to heal and also to fulfill our own sense of potential is essential to deeper fulfillment. Working with CEOs and elite martial artists may seem different from dealing with trauma, but both involve managing our minds in difficult situations.” A third-generation Singaporean, he started his leadership work as a Naval officer. Later he joined the 20-person start-up that became Yahoo! Mail. His degrees are from Stanford University and his post-doctorate fellowship was at Harvard University. In this talk, he looks at the unlikely consequences of past painful events — how they create further pain or great success years, or even generations, later.