Either you attended or missed (the second one is pretty impossible) our latest Technology Salon, you must read the article about it in the latest issue of the Boar! 

"In my experience, attending the TEDx salon was eye-opening, introducing me to ideas surrounding technology that I had never considered before", writes Ellie May. You can find the full article in print all around campus!

Also, browse the pictures on our flickr page. 

TEDxWarwick2013: A Ted Perspective

I’ve finally found some time to stop and think after the actual event! Looking through the folders and editing the photos really made me ponder about the 6-month journey.

For starters, I never actually got over the fact that I’m actually part of the TEDxWarwick team. Having followed TED videos and having seen TEDxWarwick in the background of some of them, I was really excited to know that I’d be so close to a TED event as a undergraduate at Warwick. Six months down the road, even after countless Ted-and-TED jokes and a succcessful 2013 event, this fact is still rather surreal to me.

These sentiments are not simply brought about by hearing TED talks, but also by working with like-minded people on the team. When I say like-minded, I don’t mean that every person on the team is the same. We come from different walks of life, we speak different languages, we all enjoy being involved in TED at varying degrees. We are very different. And some more different than others. Yet, we enjoy each other’s company and ideas, knowing that our collective effort will bring us somewhere – indeed, it has.

To the TEDxWarwick 2013 team: thank you for being there for me. I really enjoyed working with each of you. Tim and Alex, you guys are so good at handling so many things at once I suspect either of you have found the secret to human cloning. Give a TED talk about it next year? Sharika and Operations, my Tuesday 10am-s are not the same again. Liam, I still remember our first skype session that got me into filming and media. Enjoyed every bit of it! Melody and Sharon, both of you have artistic minds with deadly adobe skillz to match. Vishal and Content, you guys did amazing work with the speakers! What would a TED event be without speakers? Rish and ER, you guys are way too cool with all those partnerships going on. Bukola, what could we do without you arranging all the information for us. Community, you guys are awesome as well. And David: the team joker, the executor, and the executioner all in one person. Let’s just say that the lawyers’ league will never be the same once you graduate. =) The simple things that people do for one another on the team really warm my heart. Am really glad to have been part of the success of TEDxWarwick 2013. To quote a friend, TEDxWarwick 2013 was “the best I’ve been to this whole year!” High five team!

What next? The road ahead is uncertain, especially after such a successful event. Building Bridges was an awesome idea that aptly encapsulated the ethos of TED and all the efforts of the team propelled it forward. Bridges – intellectual, social, friendships – were definitely built this year. It was truly enriching doing so many different things and meeting so many awesome people through the event. Unfortunately, we can’t have a similar theme next year and remain credible as an exceptional TEDx society. It seems daunting for any of us who intend to stay on the team. Nevertheless, what we need is something very simple: one idea. An idea to spark a whole event, bring fantastic people together and make TEDxWarwick 2014 another success.

So why is TEDx such a big thing to me? Indeed, in the grander scheme of things, it is not. TED is but one organisation; a great idea, but possibly a trend that will fade in decades to come. What really strikes me is not all the hype about revolutionary ideas or the excitement about wonderful people. It is not even the similarity of the brand to my name! Rather, what fuels my passion is the power of the simple things: a small shift in perspective; a bit of effort to make a difference; a slight nudge that causes a landslide of change. A tipping point. We are so close to change.

Now and again, someone challenges the status quo with a groundbreaking idea. Occasionally, someone else notices its importance and plucks up the courage to lend their support. Yet another sees the potential and jumps on the bandwagon – and if the conditions are right, the idea starts to gain momentum and begins to enjoy increasing influence. Numbers are important – movements depend upon participation. But it is important to avoid imposing a new status quo, to keep changing, evolving, adapting and questioning. So, even more important than great ideas are the people that extend and dispute them, challenging accepted wisdom.

At only 19, Molly Lopresti is a hugely accomplished, highly unconventional musician. Ben Yeger, soldier turned peacemaker, is one of the few brave enough to openly seek non-violent and collaborative solutions to the ongoing Israeli-Palestine conflict. Making the choice of sacrificing the personal comforts of Singaporean middle-class life, Dr Tan Lai Yong upped sticks and moved to Southern China to deliver desperately needed medical support and training to rural villagers.

Defying classification, Nikky Smedley refuses to accept the established conventions on education, continuing to push the boundaries of teaching techniques and contest the traditional paradigms of learning. Finally, Sir Philip Craven, without the use of his legs since suffering a climbing accident at 16, is currently President of the International Paralympic Committee and has transformed the entire arena of disabled sports over his illustrious career.

Space is an increasingly precious commodity, and one that we will have to adapt to if we are to live sustainably as a species. Increasing urbanisation, combined with ever-increasing populations in developing areas, will require a radical shift in the way we think about spaces both rural and urban. This session aims to address these issues head-on while considering the immutable role of human communities, both real and virtual. One size does not fit all: context is just as important as it ever was. Consequently, communities must be able to support themselves in terms of both resources and human relationships. The future is more bottom-up than top-down.

We will hear from three connoisseurs of the city, experts on the future of urban spaces. Rick Robinson aims to harness vast urban datastreams to build smarter, more efficient cities. In considering the relationship between the inhabitants of a city and the science operating within it, Kate Cooper highlights the vital problem of food futures. Dickson Despommier offers a solution: vertical agriculture, taking place in the heart of the urban metropolis.

Lifelong champion of the vulnerable, Rob Williams of War Child explores the challenges facing the forgotten children of conflict – those that need cohesive, responsible society more than anyone. The inspirational Bob Nameng has dedicated himself entirely to forming just such an environment in the heart of Kliptown, one of Johannesburg’s poorest neighbourhoods.

Every two days we create the same amount of information as we did from the dawn of mankind up until 2003. We are constantly bombarded with facts, figures, dates, times and headlines; so much so that it is becoming increasingly difficult for us to make sense of all that is happening around us. Visualising the Intangible celebrates the individuals who, amidst a hodgepodge of information overload, uncover similarities and build connections between disciplines and ideas.

The beauty of visualisation is that it enables us to better perceive the phenomena of science and the implications of everyday events. Fabian Oefner brings colour and life to the principles of physics and chemistry, using reactions and magnetic forces to capture stunning photographs. Attempting to conceptualise the vastness of our Earth and its interlinked ecosystems – especially under a changing climate — can be daunting. Bob Bishop’s vital work provides us with models and images to let us see how our world is responding to these changes.

Equally difficult to perceive are the billions of transactions that occur everyday between people. Understanding how we interact in real time can pave the way for better forecasts and predictions of the future, and forms the focal point of Lucrezia Reichlin’s work. She has developed a model which allows us to visualise economic performance in the moment.

Ultimately, it is the breathtaking gift of Derek Paravicini which truly embodies this session. Despite his blindness, Derek ‘sees’ music like no other. Able to recall any piece of music he has ever heard, Derek reveals the emotion and passion that lies behind music and sound.

When searching for a theme for TEDxWarwick 2013, we wanted to find something which embodied the scientific, technological and cultural milestones of the past year. In May, Cubify released the first affordable 3D printer aimed at home consumer use. June saw promising steps towards the discovery of a Higgs boson-like particle at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. In August, the landing on Mars of the rover Curiosity ushered in flashbacks to 1969. Felix Baumgartner defied belief by becoming the first human to break the sound barrier unassisted by free falling from 39 kilometres high in October.

All of these feats challenged our understanding of what we considered humanly possible. These radical steps towards expanding the breadth of human knowledge are opening up new worlds (literally) in science and technology. Perhaps more importantly, these advancements offer further testament that the realm of the ‘impossible’ is shrinking year by year, inspiring generations to come.

The interconnectedness of today’s society – what TED dubs as ‘radically open’  - has led to widespread excitement over these groundbreaking events in communities across the globe. Realising this, we wanted a theme that celebrated not only these revolutionary achievements but also the very act of globally disseminating the ideas for which they stand.

The advent of an open world has enabled us to share ideas and influence each other on a level previously unimaginable. It has never been easier to message a friend or colleague on the other side of the world. With three quarters of the world’s population now in possession of a mobile phone, even some of the world’s poorest and most excluded communities are rapidly connecting with others to learn, share and discuss. We felt it would be important to highlight how these connections between people, ideas and disciplines are being used to do fascinating things.