TEDxUmeå on Jan 17, 2013: "Leadership, creativity and innovation"

On Thursday, January 17, 2013, TEDxUmeå will be held at Umeå University, Arts Campus. Invited are renowned thinkers and leaders, from Sweden and abroad, to speak on this year's theme: "Leadership, creativity and innovation". Creativity and innovation are key elements everywhere, especially in a seemingly remote destination as Umeå, and leadership is, as always, paramount.

"Umeå is a young city with two strong universities that is closely connected to the business life, through science, research spin off companies and incubators. The interest for learning, innovation and creativity therefore comes natural to us. By arranging this inaugural TEDx event, we want to focus on 'ideas worth spreading'", says chief curator Mikael Nygren, founder of Ledarskapscentrum.

"People in Umeå are creative and innovative. The "do-it-yourself" mentality is strong among our inhabitants together, which results in a large and growing creative class, new enterprises and innovative research. With TEDx we get a new arena important for exchanging ideas", says Anna Olofsson, Head of City Marketing, City of Umeå.

"Umeå university want's to encourage collaboration and are actively seeking new ways to enhance knowledge transfer. TEDx is an exciting concept and in line with our ambition" says Deputy vice-chancellor Agneta Marell.

For more information, please contact:
Mikael Nygren,
Ledarskapscentrum
070-699 19 88
mikaeln@ledarskapscentrum.se

Umeå University, Arts Campus
Östra Strandgatan 30
Umeå, Västerbottens län, 903 33
Sweden

Mattias Lundberg & Jan Bylund

Mattias Lundberg is a Licensed Psychologist and an Associate Professor of Psychology at the Department of Psychology at Umeå University. He is also an author and has published eight books. Mattias is known for his ability to explain complex psychological questions in an easy and often entertaining way. Jan Bylund is a comedian, tv-host and entertainer who belongs to the first generation of standup-comedians in Sweden. He is also a well known speaker and an appreciated host at large events.

Random Bastards – Frida Dee

Frida Degerlund goes by the stage name "Frida Dee," is 21 years old and lives in Umeå where she is born and raised. A year after high school, she released her first single "Say Goodbye" on Spotif. In 2014, Frida Dee hooked up with Random Bastards, Gonza-Ra and Erk from Trainspotters. She has also been seen on Music Wizard in P3, and Uxu festival. Her newly released single is called "Without You"

Åke Sellström

CBRN (research and training in security and vulnerability) has been Åke field of work for 30 years. He has served as Director of the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), Advisor to the UN Secretary General and UN weapons inspector, and he cofounded The European CBRNE Center in Umeå.

Ambra Trotto

A tortuous path brought her from a little town in the province of Bologna, Italy, up to Umeå. From architecture, studied at the University of Florence, she slowly but certainly drifted towards interaction design. She fell for it at the Eindhoven University of Technology, where she defended her PhD thesis in 2011. She currently leads the Umeå studio of Interactive Institute Swedish ICT, where they provide their partners with the Unexpected. She is also senior lecturer at the Umeå School of Architecture, where she works as a liaison with other Departments of the same University, in particular within the Arts Campus, and internationally.

Annika Nordlund

Annika Nordlund is associate professor in psychology. Director of Research, Transportation Research Unit (TRUM), Umeå University. She is interested in the human dimension of the environmental problems in the world. Her research interest is broadly found within the areas of environmental and social psychology and more specifically within the influence of psychological factors in different types of environmentally relevant behavior.

Carl-Johan Boraxbekk

Neuroscientist Carl-Johan Boraxbekk at Umeå University is studying how we can improve brain function across the lifespan, and how we can reduce age related decline in brain function.

Ida Östensson

She is a founder of the equality foundation Crossing Boarders that works with methods for equality for an equal society where the power takes Responsibility. She is also one of the initiators of the Fatta-movement that fights against sexual violence and for Consent in practice and legislation. Ida also has a background in skateboarding culture and started both local and national organizations for girls in skateboarding. This year, she released the book “Skateboard – not just for girls”, where effects of efforts of these organizations is presented to inspire others to make a difference. Ida is a strong feminist voice in Sweden, she questions and comments on everything: the recent elections in Sweden, the impact of masculinity norms on boys’ grades and Swedish sex crimes legislation.

Maria Perstedt

Museum Director and Head of the Museum of Women’s History in Umeå. A cultural historian and devoted “museum person” with 25 years of professional experience from various museums of cultural history: Sörmlands Museum (Municipal Museum of the Region of Södermanland), the Museum of Medical History and the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm, among others.

Michela Magas

Michela Magas is a visionary and innovator who brings together the worlds of science and art, design and technology, and academic research and industry. With a track record of 20 years of innovation she’s a double “art-meets-science” award winner, founder of the Music Tech Fest as well as co-founder and currently CEO of both Stromatolite Design Innovation Lab in London and Sonaris Systems in London and Barcelona, which have developed future concepts for a series of international clients including Apple, Nike and Nokia.

Nina Westman

Nina Westman is a glass artist and blower with a background in acting and stage designing. She has earned at MFA from Konstfack University College of Arts, Craft and Design. Her work is interdisciplinary and includes glass design, performance art and installations. She often walks the line of applied and performance art, herself and within the circus company Circus Glass Royale.

Peter Bardenfleth-Hansen

Peter Bardenfleth-Hansen is the Nordic director at Tesla Motors, one of the world’s most innovative companies that designs and produces electric cars and strive to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable mobility. Peter has been at Tesla since 2010 he has been a driving force behind the company’s tremendous growth in the Nordic Region over the past years. Today, Peter continuous to lead the overall expansion of Tesla Motors in the Nordic and Baltic regions.

Rochelle King

Rochelle King. Global VP of Design and User Experience at Spotify with over 15 years of experience working on consumer facing products. As a senior designer at Spotify she manage the teams that are responsible for user research and designing the product experience. She is also working on the book “Designing with Data”. Prior to Spotify, Rochelle was also VP of User Experience and Product Services at Netflix.

Simon Lindgren

Simon is a Professor of Sociology at Umeå University. His research is about how groups and individuals organize and interact through digitally networked media. Among other things, he has headed research projects on digital piracy, activism online, and social media as tools for dealing with collective trauma. In his most recent project, he will analyze how young people communicate with peers on the internet to deal with mental distress. His publications cover these themes, as well as others such as subcultural creativity and learning, popular culture and visual politics. He is also engaged in developing mixed-methods strategies and tools for analyzing discursive and social network dimensions of the evolving digital media landscape.

Veronica Augustsson

Veronica Augustsson is Chief Executive Officer of Cinnober Financial Technology, the leading independent provider of advanced solutions for demanding trading and clearing venues around the world. Augustsson has more than ten years’ experience within the company, holding a number of key positions. Prior to becoming CEO, she was Head of Sales. Veronica holds a Master’s Degree in computer engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm.