TEDxHawkesbury held its in augural event at Richmond School of Arts last Saturday and it has been declared a great success by organizers, speakers and the enthusiastic audience.
TED is a nonpartisan nonprofit established in 1984, dedicated to spreading ideas that spark deep conversation and meaningful change through the pursuit of knowledge.
Merging Technology, Entertainment and Design to create the acronym for the name, TED is now a global platform translated into 100 languages, dedicated to their mission of “Ideas worth Spreading”. TEDx are smaller independently organized events designed to spread ideas within communities through a TED-like experience.
This event brought 9 speakers to share diverse ideas on everything from platypuses to why the future isn’t as bad as it looks. The common thread linking these talks was a powerful realisation: when we choose to lean in, lift up, and lead on, we can Unbreak The Future together.
The theme is a call to identify cracks in our social, environmental and technological world and to face those problems with a mindset of creativity, courage and care. Tapping into the spirit of resilience that binds the Hawkesbury community, event organizer David Simpson aimed to shine a spotlight on future-focused energy. The line up of speakers brought together brilliant homegrown minds and those from further afield, with some as young as 14.
“I’m very proud of our speakers who presented ideas they had been working on for months, if not years. It is an event designed to bring together a community to discuss and exchange ideas, this is a connection I believe our community needs now more than ever. TEDxHawkesbury was a success by every metric; we sold out, received rave reviews, and, most importantly, brought our community together.” said David Simpson
Nathan Zamprogno, a teacher of critical thinking and independent councillor on Hawkesbury Council was a perfect fit as Master of Ceremonies.
“Both roles have taught me that innovation, connection, and meeting to share and debate good ideas are at the heart of fixing the problems we have in our community and the broader world."
Nathan encouraged two of his students to speak at the event and their talks gave the attentive audience a taste of our future gamechangers. He reflected on the Richmond School of Arts as the choice of venue.
“The School of Arts is celebrating its 160th anniversary, being opened in 1866 by Sir Henry Parkes. Schools of Arts and Mechanics Institutes were founded around Australia in the 19th century on charters that included providing venues for public education, civic debate, and disseminating what they called ‘useful knowledge’. The TED slogan 'Ideas worth spreading’, makes me feel like TEDx events are a modern instantiation of this principle.”
"This event has presented to a Hawkesbury audience wisdom about things as diverse as Artificial Intelligence, mental health, community service, trauma, ecology, disaster resilience, critical thinking and leadership. Having our speakers present from the same stage that once hosted debates about Australian Federation is a big thrill. I certainly hope this sold-out event indicates we’ve started something that will continue.”
TEDxHawkesbury is a volunteer run event supported by event partner Prismatic and Sydney Business Chamber. For more information visit the TEDxHawkesbury website tedxhawkesbury.com Recordings of all the talks will be available through the site.
