TEDxCardiff, Saturday 22 April 2017.
What is TEDx Cardiff?
TED was founded in 1984 as a non-profit organisation devoted to spreading ideas through a series of short, powerful talks. Speakers cover a huge range of topics, from science to business via local and global issues.
TEDx are local events organised globally to give people across the world the opportunity to stimulate dialogue on how to change the world. The organisers of TEDxCardiff are passionate about demonstrating the world class talents that Wales has to offer as well as inspiring the local community to do brilliant things. Our aim is that people come to the event with an open mind and leave feeling inspired with their perceptions of the universe changed, triggering a need to do something differently with their life or their outlook.
TEDxCardiff, the event with the mantra ‘ideas worth spreading’, has its biggest ever show at a new venue in 2017, with space for 450 people, but the £25 tickets sold out within hours!
We want to provide an alternative for those who didn’t get tickets, and perhaps don’t even know about the event. We are encouraging communities across Cardiff to come together to watch it online for free. We particularly want to get the message out to people who may not think of TEDx Cardiff as an event for them. Or perhaps they couldn’t afford £25. Maybe they aren’t able to get out and about - the elderly in care homes, prisoners, people who are homeless, for example, but also local community groups who would welcome this as a chance to get together to learn about new ideas.
Who is speaking at the event?
Speakers at the event will cover diverse topics. For example, Samantha Evans and Shauna Guinn, known as the ‘First Ladies of ‘Cue’ thanks to their street-food phenomenon Hangfire Southern Kitchen will line up alongside world record holding adventurer Ash Dykes.
Four years since they quit their careers and set off for America in search of the secrets of slow and low American barbecue, Samantha Evans and Shauna Guinn will be sharing their story from the TEDxCardiff stage. The pair experienced an epic adventure through the Deep South which saw them cook for a rodeo in Houston, help an old Appalachian mountain man fix an even older drum smoker and learn spice rub recipes they have to take to the grave.
On their return, the two brought the slow and low style to a pop-up restaurant in The Canadian pub on Pearl Street and their journey since has been as remarkable as the road trip that inspired them. Awards have included the BBC Food & Farming ‘Best Street Food’, WalesOnline’s ‘Coolest Women’ and Observer Food Monthly ‘Best Value Eats’ accolades, while they’ve created sodas, beers, had a cookbook released with a major publisher and opened a permanent home in Barry.
Joining them on the line-up is Ash Dykes, a two time world record holder for becoming the first person to complete a solo and unsupported trek across Mongolia, and becoming the first person to traverse the entire length of Madagascar via its eight highest Mountains.
He said: “I feel honoured to be asked by TEDxCardiff to speak at their 2017 event and really look forward to sharing what I'm truly passionate about. I'll be taking the audience around the world with me, talking about facing fears, going against the odds, learning from mistakes and doing what you believe in. I hope the audience leaves with a whirl of enthusiasm and positivity to face and master whatever goals or ambitions they have.”
Previous talks in Cardiff have been typically diverse with Neil Monteiro exploring science and mystery, Joseph Liu discussing how to reshape your career and Tori James telling how she was inspired by a jar of jam to become the youngest British woman and first Welsh woman to climb Everest.
Further information
The event’s gold sponsors are Cardiff University and the Waterloo Foundation, who has gifted their sponsorship to National Botanic Garden of Wales.
A short video of the last TEDxCardiff from 2015 is here: https://vimeo.com/125260795
You can read more at: www.tedxcardiff.co.uk
How can you help?
We are looking to recruit a small team of volunteers to help us reach out to community groups and be available on the day to support community centre’s in setting up a livestream to the event. You will need to:
• Be available on Saturday 22nd April, ideally between 11.30am and 6pm, but if you can only spare a few hours in the morning to set things up, that will also work.
• Available for a couple of hours in the weeks running up to the event (time and date to be agreed with community centre) to test a livestream.
• Be able to travel to a location in Cardiff – either city centre or suburbs.
• You don’t have to be technical, but you do need to be able to connect a computer to a screen, and access the internet. The equipment will be provided by the community centre that you work with. You need to feel confident troubleshooting basic connection problems. You’ll be given some basic instructions, and you will have the number of the livestream team on the day should you need help.
• If possible, we’d like help finding community groups to participate on the day, but this is not essential.
How to apply
Drop an email to Laura Dewis, Sponsorship and Partners Manager at TEDxCardiff (laura.dewis@gmail.com) with a short paragraph on why you would like to be involved and how your skills are compatible with the volunteering opportunity.
TEDxCardiff 2015
A look behind the scenes of TEDxCardiff 2015 by Callapro Films - http://www.callapro.co.uk For more info about TEDxCardiff head to http://www.TEDxCardiff.co.uk