Instilled with the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. TEDx Sao Paulo is a nonprofit conference that will bring together more than 30 thinkers from areas of knowledge diverse as technology, science and business, to talk about their best ideas in 5 or 15-minute talks. The theme for this first installment of the event is: What does Brazil have to offer the world now? TEDx Sao Paulo will happen on November 14th, 2009, and it will be free of charge.

Sao Paolo
Brazil

Fernanda Viégas

is a researcher and computational designer. Viégas has specialized in transforming data and statistics into visualization graphics. Her field of work has been dubbed ‘data visualization,’ and one of her most important projects was developing the website Many Eyes. In addition to accessing and posting comments on graphics that present visual statistics as diverse as the U.S. unemployment by state and the number of followers on Twitter, Many Eyes allows anyone to create their own graphics using the available data sets. The philosophy behind the system – created within IBM and used by The New York Times – is to foster public debate of diverse data. The idea is that more visual the data, the more information is perceived and consequently discussed.

Guti Fraga

is a journalist, actor and the creator of project Nós do Morro. Guti was a successful actor and stage director and, in 1986, he decided to set up a theater company with young residents of the Vidigal slum, in Rio de Janeiro. He started teaching drama classes to a few students at a community center run by an Austrian-German priest and the company now has its own facilities and a 50-seat theater, and offers training courses in performing arts (actors and technicians) and media arts (screen writers, directors and technicians). Every Brazilian movie or TV soap opera today features actors who were in Nós do Morro, including Jonathan Haagensen, one of the 35 members who were in the Oscar nominated motion picture City of God (2002). But visibility is not what drives Guti Fraga. His true motive is a desire to build a collective, multiplying effort, and, above all, the dream of reaching other dreamers.

Flavio Deslandes

is a designer from Rio de Janeiro living in Denmark since 2000. Flavio Deslandes has developed more than ten different types of bikes using hand-picked, hand-cut Brazilian bamboo. Over the years, Deslandes has developed special machinery, tools and procedures for working with bamboo. One of is bike designs has a bamboo frame, bamboo seat-post, bamboo handlebars and bamboo fenders. The stress test of the bike commissioned by Biomega, which he designed with renowned British designer Ross Lovegrove, showed that the bike could withstand 50% more stress necessary. The machine used in the test, however, was not so lucky: some of its parts broke. Bamboo is also environmentally friendly: it is similar to grass and in only three years it can grow up to 20 feet. Trees need to be replanted, while bamboo just grows back.

Regina Casé

was born on a Carnaval day, in Botafogo, the heart of Rio de Janeiro. She studied media, philosophy and history – but never graduated. Instead, she pursued a career as an actress and founded the Asdrúbal Trouxe o Trombone troupe in the 1970s. At age 23 she won the Moliere Award with her play Trate-me Leão. Her many successful projects as an actress include comedy show TV Pirata, in 1988, a landmark in Brazilian comedy starring Casé and other household names such as Guel Arraes, Luis Fernando Verissimo and members of Casseta e Planeta. In 1989, she met researcher Hermano Vianna and this led to a turning point in her career. Together, they created a group of studies and professional partnerships that caused her to shift the focus of her work from art to anthropology. This partnership gave way to Brazil Legal, Muvuca, and Central da Periferia, among others.

Paulo Saldiva

is a militant scientist who researches the impact of urban pollution on the health of citizens. Saldiva is the head of the pathology service the cardiology institute at USP’s Medical School and the coordinator of CNPq’s Instituto Nacional de Análise Integrada de Risco Ambiental (Brazilian Institute for Integrated Analysis of Environmental Risk). He rides his bicycle to work everyday, crossing the main roads in the city of Sao Paulo, and believes this saves time and makes him healthier. And this should come as no surprise, since his research shows that the pollution intake of Brazilian drivers is equal to 4 times the level accepted by the WHO and that the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease is increasing everytime the public transportation system goes on strike.

Ronaldo Lemos

is the Technology and Society Director at Fundação Getúlio Vargas’ Law School and at Creative Commons Brazil. Born in Araguari (state of Minas Gerais), he is the only Latin American among the nine members of the Creative Commons high circle. His published books include Direito, Tecnologia e Cultura and Tecnobrega: Pará O Pará Reinventando o Negócio da Música. The latter presents an analysis of how the music industry has been reinvented in the Digital Amazon, where music bypasses major labels and flows directly from the marginal outlets to huge parties. Having studied in public schools until age of 16, he is now a fellow professor in the Center for Brazilian Studies at Oxford. He was also the curator of TIM Music Festival between 2005 and 2008 and writes a weekly column in Folha de Sao Paulo and a monthly column for Trip magazine.

Luiz Algarra

is a Social Network Designer and Organizational Consultant. He has always been a pioneer in media, radio, TV and Internet. When the Constituent was the hot topic, he articulated, set up, aired and publicizes TV LIVRE-CANAL Sorocaba: the first wide range underground television network in Brazil. He is now a founding member of Papagallis, a network of people working to help people find their individuality and balanced flow of action, even when there is no consensus of ideas and opinions. When applied to the Internet, his fresh look resulted in projects like da TV Escola Digital Interativa, commissioned by the Brazilian Ministry of Education and UNESCO, Vivo’s network of sustainability and education. Certified by Humberto Maturana and Ximena Dávila, he is an ambassador of Instituto Matríztico in Brazil and an advocate of Cultural Biology, a new way to look at the human life and experience.

Casey Caplowe

is co-founder of Good Magazine, a magazine whose content is aimed at people who wish to live well and do good. In 2006, it was considered one of the hottest releases of the year by Samir Husni, a.k.a. Mr. Magazine, one of the greatest magazine experts in the world. In addition to its printed version, Good is available online with multiplataform content, always true to its mission of driving change in the world. From its graphic design to its system of signatures, the publication stands out for presenting a new perspective to information. With “Choose Good”, for example, you can choose which Non-Profit Organization will benefit from your subscription and determine the value of the donation. Born under the sign of Gemini, 28-year-old Caplowe has managed to build, from GOOD, a community of people and institutions committed to improving the world.

Eduardo Moreira

has a Philosophy degree from UFMG, but is better known by his work as an actor, director and founder of Grupo Galpão, a Belo Horizonte-based theater troupe. Galpão is one of the best known theater companies in Brazil, especially due to its research in street theater and folk languages. Performing in public squares and alternative venues in over 300 cities throughout Brazil and 19 countries in Latin America, North Americas and Europe, Galpão has surpassed the mark of 2000 performances. Its work is an important factor in the popularization of theater, reaching audiences in various age groups and social classes, and turning its performances into citizenship events. Eduardo Moreira has directed performances at Galpão Cine Horto, the group’s cultural space in Belo Horizonte, which promotes its educational and theatrical pedagogics and has created plays in partnerships with companies such as the American “Dell Arte”, based on Blue Lake, California and Brazilian companies “Clowns de Shakespeare” based in Natal (state of Rio Grande do Norte) and “Teatro da Cidade”, based in Sao Jose dos Campos (state of São Paulo).

Carlos Buby

is a Babalorixá (Candomblé sacerdot) born from a Catholic family in the countryside of the state of Alagoas. At age 7, he and his family moved to Sao Paulo. As a young man, he had his musical awakening, having won, in 1967, the first and third prizes at a traditional Brazilian music festival, for two songs which were later censored by the dictactorial regime. This caused him tremendous frustration, which led him to engage in Umbanda looking for answers to existential and spiritual matters. He eventually gave up his musical career, turning down promising contracts with major record labels, in order to live his life by the guidance of Caboclo Guaracy, the spiritual entity which guided him. Carlos Buby has always been an avid investigator of natural phenomena, and in 1973 he founded Templo Guaracy, and since then has been the head of all 14 temples in Brazil, Europe (Portugal, France, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium) and North America (California, New York, Washingtonand Canada). Over the years, he has developed an elaborate cosmogonic model based on the African-Brazilian tradition, which sheds a light on the understanding of the dynamics of life on Earth. He has recently consolidated the principles that gave rise to Guaracyan philosophy, using a humanistic, universal, apolitical and non-religious approach.

Denis Russo Burgierman

is a Journalist. He worked as editorial director at magazine Superinteressante nd was in charge of special projects at Editora Abril. Among the many controversial stories he pursued as a journalist are topics like homosexuality as a reflection of the wide sexual diversity in the animal world. In 2008, in an attempt to better understand the world, he went to California, where he attended one year of Knight Fellowship, one of the most sought-after journalism programs, at Stanford University. Having been used to the constraining deadlines and lack of resources and space in the Brazilian press, Burgierman also took the opportunity to enjoy the freedom he had at Stanford and experience, his adventurous side. During a break, he and his wife rode over 600 miles by bike to Los Angeles, discovering the pleasures of having a beer after having saved water for a whole day and cycling across plantations and beaches. Although he is a ‘print man’, he learned more from his Silicon Valley buddies than just the wish to rule the world. He is currently the Content Director at WebCitizen, a company whose proposal is to stimulate civic engagement and use digital culture to reduce the distance between citizens and their governments.

Osvaldo Stella

is a Mechanical Engineer with a Ph.D. in Ecology and a Project Coordinator of the Climate Change Program of IPAM (Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia). As an active environmentalist, he is in charge of several research projects focused on Energy Planning and Climate Change. One of these is a pilot project at the Sewage Treatment Plant in Barueri (state of São Paulo), which studies the generation of electricity from sewage treatment-generated biogas. Stella also helped implement Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Forestry projects, involving, for example, the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, in programs such as Iniciativa Verde and Carbon Free. He is also one of the authors of Energia no Brasil: Para que? Para quem? Crise e Alternativas para um pais sustentável, published by Editora Livraria da Física.

Adozinda Kuhlmann

better known as ‘Dona Adozinda’, has 75 years of experience as an educator. At the age of 92, she is still active, teaching people with physical and mental disabilities to read and write, and giving tutoring classes. Following her father’s lessons, she shows the utmost dedication, persistence and enthusiasm in everything she does. She also writes poetry and song lyrics, including two songs written especially for singers Zeca Pagodinho and Roberto Carlos. Every year, on her birthday, over 300 people stop by her house, located in Santo Amaro, Sao Paulo. ‘I blow out the candles several times, starting at 7 am,’ she says.

Antônio Veiga

has a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from PUCRS. He is currently the Director of the Instituto de Psicologia Clinica e Pesquisa no Desenvolvimento Humano (Institute of Clinical Psychology and Research in Human Development) and a professor in a Post-Graduation program. His teaching activities focus on his transpersonal therapy method (TRT), based on his own technique of memory regression. His study involves detailed survey of psychic (mental, emotional, intuitive and somatosensory) possibilities of human beings through different states or degrees of consciousness. In his spare time, he likes to write chronicles and collect minerals.

Roberta Faria

is a journalist and the co-founder of Editora MOL, a publishing company that develops customized solutions in content media, producing journalism and design for the strategic needs of its target public in information and entertainment. With Sorria magazine, first released in 2008, the company has introduced a business model that defies market rules and editorial models.

Sandro José de Souza

is a biologist, with a degree from the Federal University of Paraná (1989) and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Universidade de São Paulo (1993). From 1995 to 1998, he was a Pew Latin American Fellow at Harvard University. He is currently an associate member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. In the area of genetics, his work is focused on bioinformatics and genomics, specifically with applications in cancer and molecular evolution.

Maria Alice Setubal

is a sociologist with a Master’s degree in Political Science from USP and a doctorate in Educational Psychology from PUC-SP. She currently splits her time between the board of Cenpec (Center for Studies and Research in Education, Culture and Community Action) and Fundação Tide Setubal. Although her father is Olavo Setubal, one of the most powerful bankers in Brazil, she chose to dedicate herself to education full-time and face the harsh reality of an occupation that respods to an urgent demand of social inequality. Without giving in to welfarism, she aims to engage communities in finding solutions.

Valério Paz Dornelles

has invented a new way to build walls – and his inspiration came from seeing his 7 years old son play with Lego. Created in 2000, his new construction system was based on building blocks of different sizes, which fit together like lego pieces. This reduces the time for raising the walls by half and prevents the waste of materials. In addition to the bricks, the company provides all equipment, projects and staff to perform the services. In 2008, the method was included among the 101 largest Brazilian innovations by consultancy Monitor Group. Furthermore, Tecno Logys was the first construction company in the world to join the Endeavor Institute, which promotes entrepreneurship.

Vitor Araújo

is 20 year-old pianist and one of the most promising classical musicians in Brazil. But he is not happy with this label. Instead, he prefers to mix his interpretations with elements of pop music, jazz, rock and even forró. For him, the most important thing is fighting the pre-conceived idea that says classical music is difficult. Since discovering the piano at age 9, Vitor has tirelessly practiced. He has played professionally since he was 16. TOC – Live at the Teatro de Santa Isabel, his first CD / DVD, released by Deckdisc in 2008, features his arrangements for songs like Villa-Lobos’ Dança do Índio Branco, Radiohead’s Paranoid Android and Luiz Gonzaga’s Asa Branca. Vitor has performed at festivals like Abril Pro Rock, in Recife, and at Olinda’s International Music Festival (MIMO). For about two years, he was a part of project Seu Chico, which bring musicians together to play songs by Chico Buarque.

Anisio Campos

is a living legend of Brazilian auto racing. A former pilot, he has 60 years of experience in designing and building cars. His designs are deeply personal, unlike most in mass market. Anisio has created bold designs, such as the first national buggy, manufactured by KADRON, the Puma DKW, the Hollywood Berta race car, and the Carcará, a Brazilian record-breaking speed car. Among his more recent projects are models 828 and 012, developed for Obvio!, a Brazilian manufacturer of company three-seat compact cars. The models have not yet been put into mass production for lack of an engine supplier, but have been highly praised in seven trade shows in the United States since 2006. Obvio! has been purchased by Vrooom, a Brazilian integrator of high performance electric cars for which Anisio designs.

João Paulo Cavalcanti

is an ad man who has always had a keen eye for what’s new around the world. The agency he has founded with his partners, BOX1824, is one of the main companies in market research and consumer behavior trends in Latin America. BOX uses new techniques to detect what people think and desire, especially in the emerging markets of BRIC – Brazil, Russia, India and China. Scattered around the planet, its researchers work in the field to find what’s new and tell it to their clients, which include Nike, Pepsi, Nokia and Itaú. In 2006, João Paulo and his partners founded LiveAD, a media innovation company. Last year, LiveAD won a CannesLion for the collaborative project Mil Casmurros, in which participants recorded themselves reading excerpts of Machado de Assis’ book and uploaded them to the Internet.

Samara Werner

left her career as a systems developer at a large company to work in education. She is currenrly a Project Director at Oi Futuro, an institute that invests in information technology and communication as a means of promoting the development of people. With an Electrical Engineering degree from Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro and a post-graduate diploma in Software Engineering from PUC-RJ, Samara oversees projects like the Advanced Center for Education (Núcleo Avançado em Educação – Nave), a program that develops innovative educational solutions through games and multimedia programming, Novos Brasis, which funds NGOs, and Tonomundo, a digital inclusion project in public schools. Developed in partnership with UFRJ, Tonomundo has won over ten awards and currently benefits nearly 500 schools and 400 thousand students.

Danilo Mendes

is an Advertiser who left the world of large enterprises to help founf a start-up in a segment that is increasingly crucial to the world: water. With his work at Brahma and Tetrapak, and later in Nokia, Siemens and LG, Danilo has specialized in marketing and sales, from product design to consumer channels. In 2007, he decided to apply this knowledge to the new company he founded with four partners: HNF Water, which develops innovative solutions in water. With a degree in advertising and marketing from ESPM, Danilo has a post-graduate business management diploma in from FGV and an MBA in marketing from USP. In his spare time, he likes to take photographs, a hobby he exercised during college, when he worked as assistant photographer and director in advertising films.

Francisca Simões Cavalcanti

is an Agronomist with a post-graduation degree in plant science from the Univesidade Federal do Ceará, and founder of the UFC Garden of Medicinal Plants. For 17 years, she was head curator of the Prisco Bezerra Herbarium-EAC at the UFC, conducting botanical collection expeditions throughout the Brazilian Northeast. Her chief mission is providing scientific validation for the pharmacological effect of medicinal plants.

Fabio Colletti Barbosa

is a São Paulo citizen who believes it is possible to do business while caring for people and for the environment. President of the Santander Group Brazil, he began implementing his strategy for business sustainability in the year 2000, at Banco Real, which is now part of the group. This strategy includes offering lines of credit for companies that wish to comply with environmental standards and cutting companies that harm the environment off its client list. The plan became the object of a study at Harvard and earned Banco Real several awards in the area of sustainability. As president of the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban), Fabio takes the concept of socially responsible company beyond the group he presides, and is a positive influence over the entire market. One of his mottos is win-win-win, or “making it work by doing the right thing the right way.”

Thalma de Freitas

inherited her musical talent from her father, arranger, composer, pianist and conductor Laércio de Freitas. This has earned her the nickname of “maestro’s daughter”. Thalma’s artistic career began in 1992 when she landed a part in the musical Noturno, by Cia dos Menestréis. In the years that followed, she was in other musicals, such as Hair and Nas Raias da Loucura. She has also worked as an actress in soap operas such as Laços de Família and Kubanacan and in films like O Xangô de Baker Street and Filhas do Vento, which earned her a Kikito prize for Best Supporting Actress at the Gramado film festival. But even while acting, she has never laid aside her musical career, and sang backing vocals for Zé Ricardo and Sandra de Sá. In 2004, Thalma released her second solo album, including classics like Jacob do Bandolim’s Doce de Coco and contemporary songs like Kassin’s Tranquilo. She is also one of the crooners in Orquestra Imperial. At TEDxSP, she will perform with her new project “Amor Imenso”, with Iara Rennó, Anelis Assumpção, Luz Marina, Flavia Maia, Tatiana Parra, Dani Gurgel and Patricia Ribeiro.

Jarbas Agnelli

Instead of choosing between making music and directing ads, Jarbas Agnelli chose both. In his AD Studio, designers and animators work side by side with musicians, coming up with ideas for films as the soundtrack is created. The idea of working with advertising came from his father, Laertes Agnelli, a respected art director, who gave him whole lessons on the topic when Jarbas was in his teens. Jarbas worked for influent agencies, such as DPZ and W / Brazil, the latter for 13 years. At the same time, music was his hobby: his band, Avenida Paulista, played in radios with its hit London is Not So Far. In 2002, Jarbas created the AD Studio, a production company that combines music and art direction. He won prizes at Cannes in 2000, 2001 and 2005 and he was the only Brazilian ever to win the Grand Clio, the most prestigious award in the American advertising industry.

Rannieri Oliveira

is a pianist bringing together influences from folk and Brazilian northeastern music icons who have inspired him throughout his career, like Nana Vasconcellos, Luiz Gonzaga, Heitor Villa Lobos and Jackson do Pandeiro. Incidental melodies and polyrhythms are combined with voices and effects to create his trademark sound. With this mix of Brazilian rhythms and sounds, Ranniere Oliveira has been acclaimed at major jazz festivals such as Tubingen in Germany, Festival Latino Americano in Milan, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and during his annual tours through Spain, France, Austria and Portugal.

Silvio Meira

is one of the greatest software engineering researchers in Brazil, and chief scientist at C.E.S.A.R. (Center for Advanced Studies and Systems of Recife), a private nonprofit institute for innovation that operates in the field of information technology and communication in two fronts: product development (in areas such as Digital TV, mobile, web applications, open source and artificial intelligence) and business incubation (already created more than thirty new IT companies). C.E.S.A.R. won the FINEP prize for the most innovative research institution in Brazil, was voted as an example of business setup by the World Economic Forum and received an honorable mention in the Stockholm Challenge, an award that brings together the best IT projects in the world. Silvio is also one of the most active articulators of Porto Digital, an initiative of the Pernambuco state government, which brings together over 100 companies related to IT (including C.E.S.A.R.) and has become the largest pole of technological entrepreneurship in the state, and possibly in the country.

Milena Boniolo

has a degree in Chemistry and researches water decontamination. In 2006 she won the CNPq’s Jovem Cientista prize with a study that proposed a simple and cheap solution to remove heavy metals from water using banana peels. Bananas are cut into small pieces, exposed to the sun and then beaten and sieved. The resulting powder cleans ions of uranium and other heavy metals from the water. The process also helps solve an organic waste problem: 20-40% of the six million tons of bananas produced per year in Brazil are wasted. Milena is currently studying the contamination by human and veterinary medicines in the the the Jundiaí river basin, in the state of São Paulo, where water shortage has been hindering economic growth. This type of contaminant is currently not monitored by national programs.

Augusto de Franco

is a writer, consultant and one of netweavers at Escola-de-Redes, a network of people dedicated to researching social networks and creating and sharing netweaving technologies. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he acted as an intellectual and a militant during the military dictatorship in Brazil, and later became involved with social action projects, working with Betinho and Ruth Cardoso. Augusto de Franco has over 20 books under his belt, including Capital Social, Por que precisamos de Desenvolvimento Local Integrado e Sustentável, Alfabetização Democrática, Escola de Redes: Novas Visões and Escola de Redes: Tudo que é sustentável tem o padrão de rede. More information on the author is available from his website.