Our speakers from 2014 continue to light up the world: Nathan Filer's talk has 95,000 views and counting, whilst Yeonmi Park's talk has had well over 10,000 views.
Yeonmi's book came out in September! It made us even prouder to have hosted her, and given her a platform to tell her story.
Margaret Heffernan (who spoke at our 2012 event), has just published a book for TED, which we highly recommend, entitled The Big Impact Of Small Changes. Links to these 3 talks can be found here.
TED is a nonprofit organisation devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, California, with simulcast in Palm Springs; TEDGlobal is held each year in Oxford, UK. TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily, and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide.
TEDx (x = independently organised event)
The ‘x’ indicates that this is an event organised independently of TED, but in the same spirit. A TEDx is a local program of self organised events that bring people together in a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, speakers gather to spark deep discussion and connection within a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organised (subject to certain rules and regulations).
There are hundreds of amazing TEDTalks you can view online at TED.com. We’ve picked a couple of favourites to get you thinking – but of course it is what interests and inspires you that makes the best material.
Sugata MitraBuild a School in the Cloud |
Shawn AchorThe happy secret to better work |
Beeban KidronThe shared wonder of film |
Our event is once again free for 16-19 year olds. We have invited schools from all over the UK, offering 40 places per school. Currently, we have given away all our free places; if you have any inquiries about tickets, please get in touch.
Tickets are available now. There are a limited number of tickets available for university students and the general public also on sale.
This year’s event will be held at Bath Forum, a huge, beautiful building that was originally an art deco cinema. This means we can invite four times as many students. The event will run from 9.30am – 4.30pm on November 17th 2016. We ask all students to arrive at 9am.
iCalendar • Google Calendar • Outlook • Outlook Online • Yahoo! Calendar
2011 Event Speakers 2012 Event Speakers 2014 Event Speakers
The Bath Forum, 1A Forum Buildings, Bath, Avon BA1 1UG
Bath has a vast trove of beautiful architecture, but there’s always a new old treasure to discover – The Forum isn’t part of the city’s heritage trail, but remains an incredible building. The former Art Deco cinema is administrated by Bath City Church.
Having opened its doors to the public as a cinema in 1934, this remarkable venue celebrated its 80th birthday in May 2014. The cinema remained in operation until 1969; the site was also a bingo hall and a dance school, but had fallen into disrepair before Bath City Church took the building over in 1989. The biggest venue in Bath, and third largest in the South West.
Today, The Forum represents a true reflection of typical Art Deco-era splendour including lacquered wood fixtures and fittings and gold-leafed flourishes all subtly vying for your attention. In the elegant auditorium, the iconic green cinema seats offer a spacious, luxurious audience experience.
TEDxYouth@Bath is 9.30 – 16.30
Schools are asked to arrive at 9 a.m
Each session will start promptly and late arrivals will only be allowed in at suitable breaks.
The programme order will be announced on Monday 14th November.
| 9:30 – 11 | Session 1: Throwing the doors wide open |
| Break (20 mins) | |
| 11.20 – 12.30 | Session 2: Activists, adventurers and artists |
| 12.30 – 13.30 | Lunch Year 12-13 Students are requested to stay in the building. Lunch is provided. A host of activities are available including the Dyson Foundation bringing creative engineering challenges. The speakers will be around to talk to as well as our sponsors. |
| 13.30 – 15.00 | Session 3: Exploring more deeply |
| Break (15 mins) | |
| 15.15 – 4.30 | Session 4: Bringing it home |
‘We have been overwhelmed by the positive response from schools. We’re so excited by the extraordinary range of speakers we have this year and we’re also excited to see what ideas the students come up with themselves in our competition.’ – Charlotte Calkin
You too can be involved!
We have saved one space for a student speaker (under 19) to present their own ‘idea worth spreading’. Ideas must be submitted before 20th October.
Our speaker coach will work with the successful contestant to create a TED talk for the event and we will cover all expenses for the winner to attend the event.
Email us at info@tedxyouthbath.com or fill out the form below.
Not many people get to survive being shot 6 times at close range. Frank Gardner, a TV reporter for BBC News, is one of the few who have. In 2004 Frank was ambushed by terrorists while filming in Saudi Arabia. His colleague, Simon Cumbers, was killed; Frank survived with extensive injuries.
He later returned to work, reporting for TV, radio and online on international security, terrorism and events in the Middle East. A fluent Arabic speaker, Frank chose Arabic & Islamic Studies for his degree at Exeter University, a course that included a memorable year in Cairo. He went on to live with the Bedouin in Jordan before running a bank in Bahrain then working in Dubai as the BBC’s Gulf Correspondent. He says he has been lucky enough to visit every Arab country except Mauritania and his fascination with the region continues today.
He was awarded the OBE by HM The Queen in 2005 for services to journalism, awarded Honorary Doctorates of Laws by six British universities and voted Journalist of the Year in the European Diversity Awards. His Sunday Times bestseller ‘Blood and Sand’, describes his 25 years of Middle Eastern experiences. His second book ‘Far Horizons’ is all about exotic travel destinations like Socotra and Djibouti. ‘Crisis’, his first novel and a bestselling spy thriller, was published in summer 2016.
Anna Freeman is a novelist, a multiple poetry slam champion, a creative writing lecturer at Bath Spa University and a producer for Bristol Old Vic. Her work is funny, slightly twisted and explores personal and social neuroses.
It’s about the messy, ridiculous, glorious state of being human and the need to laugh at ourselves, often. Her first poetry collection, Gingering the World from the Inside, is published by Burning Eye Books. Anna’s first novel, The Fair Fight, is a pulsating historical adventure set within the world of female prize-fighters and their patrons in 18th century Bristol. The Fair Fight won The Tibor Jones Pageturner Prize 2013, is published by W&N in the UK and by Riverhead in the USA, and has been optioned for TV drama by the BBC. More info at www.annafreemanwriter.com.
Charlie McDonnell is a Vlogger, Filmmaker and Musician from Bath, who currently resides in London. His Youtube channel, charlieissocoollike, currently has 2.3m subscribers. Charlie has 686k twitter followers, as well as 201k on Instagram and 313k on Facebook.
Charlie, who started posting YouTube videos in 2007, became the first Video Blogger in the UK to reach one million YouTube subscribers. Beyond his own channel, Charlie has worked on many online video projects, notably “Science of Attraction,” hosted by Derren Brown, and a vlog series from behind the scenes of Doctor Who for the BBC. He’s also worked with many brands to produce videos for his own channel, including Microsoft, Pixar and Disney, and is a regular participant in Radio 1’s Internet Takeover show. In his spare time, he enjoys hanging out with his girlfriend and their cat, Gideon.
At the age of just 21, Ronan Finnegan is creating charitable iPhone apps that incorporate donating into our daily lives. Ronan founded his company, orDonate, in October 2013 (whilst he was still a pupil at Beechen Cliff, Bath). He has grown up in Bath and lives in Marshfield just outside of the city. orDonate are creating iPhone apps that push users to donate when they usually would not.
orDonate’s first app, WAKEorDONATE is an iOS alarm clock app that makes users donate to their chosen charity if they decide to press ‘snooze’ rather than waking up on time in the morning! The app is live on Apple’s App Store, and has been very successful. Ronan has won TalkTalk’s fundraising digital hero award, and has been spoken about in media worldwide – he has even been the topic of conversation around Channel 4’s Come Dine With Me dining table!
orDonate’s second iPhone app, GYMorDONATE is an exercise routine app that makes its users stick to schedule by donating their money to charity if they miss a planned workout session. Location services on the iPhone tell the app whether the user is sticking to the workout regime that they have inputted. GYMorDONATE will be launching in late Autumn. Ronan works on orDonate as a digital nomad. Over the past couple of years he has travelled to 35 countries alongside developing and marketing his apps.
Bejay Mulenga founded Supa Tuck, an enterprise programme teaching students how to run and operate their own tuck shops inschool. Over three years they had reached over 5,000 young people,which led to the Supa Tuck social enterprise being featured in Lord Young’s ‘Enterprise For All’ report, June 2014.
Bejay had raised £35,000 from his local borough aged 13 to rebuild derelict rehearsal rooms and studio space for his youth club. Now aged 21 and co–founder of Supa Academy an experiential training company with clients such as Facebook, Barclays, River Island and EE, Bejay was recently one of five recipients of an award from Her Majesty the Queen for Enterprise Promotion.
Jacob Dunne was sentenced to 30 months in custody in November 2011 for manslaughter, after a drunken assault on James Hodgkinson on a night out. Upon release Jacob was approached by James’s parents; this is when Jacob realised he needed to turn his life around.
He met James’s parents during a restorative justice meeting. Jacob now speaks about how his life spiralled out of control and how this meeting brought him back from the brink. In March 2016 James’s parents and Jacob also took part in the ITV programme “Meeting my Enemy” where they discussed the restorative justice meeting.
Jacob now studies criminology at University. He has volunteered and worked across both public and private sectors in the criminal justice sector and the wider community. Jacob and Joan (James’s mum) are setting up a campaign called One Punch to talk about the dangers of a single hit.
Holly Tarquini began her career in television, spending 10 years in London as an independent Producer/Director for documentaries and factual entertainment programmes. After a sojourn in India, setting up and running a guest house for yoga students, she moved to the West Country.
The multi-tasking skills learned in broadcast media, combined with haggling and negotiation talents honed in India, proved a winning combination for running a film festival; she has spent the last 5 years increasing the profile of Bath Film Festival, helping to achieve the organisation’s aim of becoming an ‘outstanding film festival’. In 2014, Holly founded the F-Rating, a new feminist film rating that aims to highlight films made by and featuring women, which is now rolling out across the UK.
Having organised and led over 100 expeditions, John Blashford-Snell has built up a reputation as one of the world’s most renowned and highly respected explorers. In 1968 Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia invited the British Army to send a team to explore and make the first descent of the infamous Blue Nile. Captain John Blashford-Snell of the Royal Engineers was invited to select, train and lead the 60-strong party.
The success of this immense expedition led to even tougher assignments, such as the first vehicle crossing of the complete Darien Gap in 1971-2 and in 1974-5, navigating almost all the 2,700 miles of the great Zaire River. Both these ventures had strong environmental, medical and scientific objectives, which led to JBS and his colleagues forming the Scientific Exploration Society in 1969, their aim being to ‘foster and encourage scientific exploration worldwide.
In 1978, with the support of Prince Charles, JBS launched Operation Raleigh. By 1992 over 10,000 young men and women from 50 nations had taken part in challenges and worthwhile expeditions all over the world, returning home as true young pioneers intent on putting something back into their own communities. He works closely with a number of charities to help disabled youngsters. He is also involved with the young people of Merseyside, he is a Patron of the Moorlands Community Development in Brixton and is President of the Just a Drop charity, providing drinking water for remote communities and helping with sanitation projects.
Steven Appleby is an absurdist creator of comic strips for many newspapers, including The Guardian, The Observer, The Times and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. His other works include animated television series Captain Star, the musical play Crocs In Frocks, and over 25 books, including Normal Sex and Miserable Families.
The BBC Radio 4 series, Steven Appleby’s Normal Life, was based on his series of cartoons of the same name, and his paintings and drawings have been shown at numerous exhibitions. He contributed drawings to the sleeve of Pixies album Tromp Le Monde and illustrated The Good Inn, by Black Francis and Josh Frank. Steven lives, works, and daydreams in London.
Aimee brings 20 years of experience in leadership positions in large humanitarian and development organisations. She has worked in several humanitarian crises from the Tajik civil war to the earthquake in Haiti, the conflicts in the Balkans to the Syrian refugee crisis and the conflict in South Sudan.
Previous roles that Aimee has worked in include Country Director for Care in South Sudan, Humanitarian Policy Representative for Oxfam in Geneva and Middle East Director for Save the Children in Egypt. Aimee holds a BA in Political Science from Emory University and an MA in Political Science from Ohio State University.
Sarah Corbett grew up in an activist family. She has worked as a professional campaigner for six years, most recently with Oxfam. She started doing craftivism (craft + activism) in 2008 as a reaction to what she saw as the aggressive, quick-fix traditions of activism.
Due to demand Sarah set up the global Craftivist Collective in 2009; now, thousands of supporters across the world take part in her craftivism projects. Her hobby turned her into one of the leading spokespeople in the craftivism movement, speaking to the international media, contributing to six books and regularly giving talks and lectures around the world.
Sarah works with art institutions such as V&A, Southbank & National Portrait Gallery as well as charities such as Save the Children and Unicef. She has also collaborated with cult jewellers Tatty Devine and Secret Cinema, amongst others. Sarah also sells products, delivers workshops and exhibits her own craftivism work around the world. Her book “A Little Book of Craftivism” was released October 2013, distributed by PGUK & DAP worldwide. She has just completed her solo show, ‘Gentle Protest’, in Stockholm.
Charlotte attended her first TED conference in 2009 and has since been involved in many TED and TEDx events. She has organised TEDxYouth@Bath events in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2016 watching it grow from 120 young people to 1600. Alongside being the curator of TEDxYouth@Bath, Charlotte is an Executive Coach and Restorative Justice Practitioner. She has been CEO of her own design business for 18 years. Charlotte will be attending the TEDSummit in Banff in 2016.
Julian is a Bath-based writer and consultant who has worked with the UN, international NGOs and multinational companies on communications, training and health.
Most of the time Cathleen is a mum of four small children. She was a nanny for many families for many years and has also worked on events with production company Judgeday. Nowadays she dedicates what little spare time she has to design and website work with Bath Bespoke Web Design.
Caro has had a lot of jobs which don’t really amount to a conventional career. She has done service washes in a launderette, worked in Fleet Street, the music business, a newsroom, on a filmset, as a legal secretary, as a PA, and now runs a small farm tending vegetables; this involves taking care of animals, and smiling a lot at strangers who have come to stay at the B&B. She has also produced four amazing children, who had nothing whatsoever to do with this sentence.
