TEDxSalford

Massimo Marchiori – Italian Mathematician & Computer Scientist

Professor Massimo Marchiori is an Italian mathematician and computer scientist currently a research scientist at the MIT Computer Science Lab and research professor at the University of Venice. He was the creator of HyperSearch, a search engine where the results were based not only on single page ranks, but on the relationship between single pages and the rest of the Web. Afterwards, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin cited HyperSearch when they introduced PageRank, Google’s magic formula that sorts Web pages by counting the number and quality of links to each from around the Internet.

Massimo has been chief editor of the world standard for privacy on the Web (P3P), and co-author of the companion APPEL specification. The computer scientist has also developed the World Wide Web Consortiums Internet privacy standards. He has also been awarded the TR35 prize by Technology Review (the best 35 researchers in the world under the age of 35). Professor Marchiori is currently focusing on XML, semantic web, privacy, query languages, search engines, information retrieval, knowledge management, social technologies, mobile technology, complex systems, counter-terrorism &  small-world systems.

Tawakkol Karman - Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Tawakkol Karman was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 in recognition of her work in non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peacebuilding work in Yemen. Upon being awarded the prize, Tawakkol became the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, as well as the youngest Nobel Peace Laureate to date, at the age of 32.

Karman is a mother of three as well as a human rights activist, journalist, politician, President of Women Journalists Without Chains organization and senior member of the Al-Islah political party. She is a member of the advisory board for the Transparency International organization and for several international Human Rights NGOs. Bold and outspoken, Karman has been imprisoned on a number of occasions for her pro-democracy, pro-human rights protests. Amongst Yemen’s Youth movement, she is known as “Mother of the Revolution,” “The Iron Woman” and recently, “the Lady of the Arab Spring.” A journalist by profession and human rights activist by nature, Karman responded to the political instability and human rights abuses in Yemen by mobilizing others and reporting on injustices. She has entered into many dialogues and written several articles, calling for abandonment of extremism, violence and terrorism, for the dialogues between religions, sects and for co-existence between the peoples, cultures and civilizations.

Jamie Edwards - Teenage Nuclear Scientist

Not many 13-year-olds would describe themselves as an “amateur nuclear scientist.” That’s precisely what Jamie Edwards calls himself. When most kids his age are off playing video games, Edwards stays late after school to work on a control panel for a nuclear fusion reactor. At 13 years old, Jamie Edwards became the youngest person ever to achieve nuclear fusion by colliding the nuclei of hydrogen atoms via inertial electrostatic confinement in his school lab. When Jamie told his headmaster about his plan to build the nuclear reactor and asked for funding, the reply was “Will it blow up the school?” Jamie got the funding, and rest assured, the school still stands.

For his next project, Jamie – who wants to be a nuclear engineer or work in theoretical physics – has his sights on building a miniature hadron collider.

Brooke Magnanti - Research Scientist & Anonymous Blogger

Brooke Magnanti, one of Observer’s “Faces of 2009” and Guardian newspaper’s “Best British Weblog 2003,” is a research scientist and author, having obtained her doctorate in Forensic Pathology from the University of Sheffield, and author of The Sex Myth, a popular science book looking at the impact of topics such as sex work and adult entertainment from an evidence based point of view. While completing her doctoral studies, Magnanti supplemented her income by working as a London call girl known by the working name Taro. Her diary, published as the anonymous blog, Belle de Jour: Diary of a London Call Girl, became increasingly popular as speculation surrounded the identity of Belle de Jour and was later adapted into the hit TV series Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

Brooke has been featured by more than 100 media outlets including the Sunday Times, Independent,New Scientist, Grazia, The Scotsman, HardTalk, Sky News, This Week and Newsnight. She is a columnist for the Telegraph’s Wonder Women, former science editor of Cliterati, and has contributed pieces to the Guardian, Big Issue, and Town. Brooke was featured in an episode of Stephen Fry’sPlanet Word and is a popular public speaker on the themes of biometric and forensic science, sexualisation and popular culture, and internet anonymity and identity.

Jack Sim - Founder of the World Toilet Organisation

Jack Sim, also known as ‘Mr Toilet, is the founder of the World Toilet Organization. By age 40, Jack Sim was a successful entrepreneur running 16 businesses. He had enough money to retire, so he started searching for a neglected cause to which he could devote his time and effort. Realizing that people don’t want to talk about toilets, he set about making the humble commode into a media darling, founding the World Toilet Organization in 2001 and holding a special day every year to draw attention to sanitation. This year, the United Nations voted to make World Toilet Day, 19 November, an official UN observance.

 He wants to restructure the field of sanitation worldwide. Providing humanity with clean, safe and convenient toilets is a familiar goal, but it remains a distant one because of cultural taboos, poor funding and a lack of political will. About 40 percent of humanity still lives without access to improved sanitation, and Jack believes the only way to meet the immense demand is through an orchestrated global campaign and the use of market forces to bring sanitation to everyone.  Sim was named one of the Heroes of the Environment for 2008 by TIME Magazine.

Juliet Mitchell – Psychoanalyst and Socialist Feminist

Professor Juliet Mitchell is a renowned British psychoanalyst and social feminist She is a Fellow of the International Psychoanalytical Association and the British Psychoanalytical Society. She is also an Emeritus Professor of Psychoanalysis and Gender Studies, University of Cambridge where she is a Founder-Director of the Centre for Gender Studies. Among her widely translated books are: Women: the Longest Revolution, Psychoanalysis and Feminism, Mad Men and Medusas, Siblings, Sex and Violence.

She is best known for her book ‘Psychoanalysis and Feminism. Freud, Reich, Laing and Women’ (1974), in which she tried to reconcile psychoanalysis and feminism at a time when many considered them incompatible. Peter Gay considered it ‘the most rewarding and responsible contribution” to the feminist debate on Freud, both acknowledging and rising beyond Freud’s male chauvinism in its analysis.

Anthony Zboralski  - Hacker & Security Expert

Anthony Zboralski is a computer hacker who has worked as a security expert for nearly 20 years.  He has experience performing penetration tests, security assessments and related services for industries areas ranging from manufacturing through telecommunications and banking to government. Some of his activity as a teen was recorded by security expert and technologist Bruce Schneier: “In 1994, a French hacker named Anthony Zboralski called the FBI office in Washington, pretending to be an FBI representative working at the U.S. embassy in Paris. He persuaded the person at the other end of the phone to explain how to connect to the FBI’s phone conferencing system.”

Since then Zboralski has turned his attention to information security. He has assisted numerous governments and dozens of Fortune 500 companies to help test the security of systems and highlight their vulnerabilities. He is now founder and CEO of Belua, an experimental search engine dubbed “the anti-google project”.

Sophia Wallace - Conceptual Artist & Photographer

Sophia Wallace is an American conceptual artist and photographer. Through the use of images, video and mixed media, she explores alterity. Wallace’s focus is how otherness is constructed visually on the gendered, sexualized, racialized body. Wallace has presented her work in major exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad, including Kunsthalle Wien Museum, Art Basel Miami, Scope NY, Taschen Gallery and Aperture Gallery among others. She was awarded PDN’s Curator Award, Critic’s Pick by the Griffin Museum, American Photography AP-25 and ArtSlant’s Showcase Award. Her work has been reviewed in BLOUIN Art Info, The New Yorker, Salon, Huffington Post, Fast Company, Hyperallergic and Bitch Magazine, among other publications.

Recently, Wallace received critical acclaim and viral exposure for ‘Cliteracy’, a project addressing citizenship and body sovereignty using the medium of text-based objects, unauthorized street installation and interactive sculptural forms. Wallace holds a BA from Smith College and an MA in Photography from NYU and the International Center of Photography. In 2012, she was a Van Lier Fellow. Recent residencies include the Art Law Residency, Wassaic Residency and the Artist Lab Residency at CENTER.

Benjamin Clementine - English Singer & Songwriter

Benjamin Sainte-Clementine is a charismatic singer-poet, pianist, composer and affecting performer. He hails from London, Edmonton Green, but started his artistic career whilst traveling in Paris, 2009, aged just 19. He has a unique vocal style and a hugely eclectic range, often infusing his lyrics with literary references. Though a musician, he also considers himself a writer. He has also been highly praised for his distinctive tenor vocals.

Clementine is entirely self-taught musically. Growing up, Clementine had little exposure to music and it was this naivety that now made his singing so confusing to classify. In his teens he had caught Anthony Hegarty performing Hope There’s Someone on television; then on the radio he’d heard the avant-garde French composer Erik Satie. Unconsciously, he had married the spirit of these two influences with poetic lyrics to produce his own material, both original and epic.

James B. Glattfelder – Complex Systems Theorist

James Glattfelder is currently a researcher in the Department of Banking and Finance at the University of Zurich where is trying to understand the interactions in the world’s economy from a complexity and big data perspective.  First, a physicist and then a researcher, he found himself amazed by the level of understanding we have in regards to the physical world and universe around us. He wondered: how can we move toward a similar understanding of human society?

This question led him to the study of complex systems, a subject he now holds a Ph.D in from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. In 2011, he co-authored the study “The Network of Global Corporate Control,” which went viral in the international media and sparked many controversial discussions. The study looked at the architecture of ownership across the globe, and computed a level of control exerted by each international player. The study revealed that less than 1% of all the players in the global economy are part of a highly interconnected and powerful core which, because of the high levels of overlap, leaves the economy vulnerable. He aims to give us a richer, data-driven understanding of the people and interactions that control our global economy. He does this not to push an ideology — but with the hopes of making the world a better place. In his spare time, he is writing a book about physics and philosophy, arguing how reality, knowledge, and certainty are elusive concepts.

Jack Andraka - Teenage Inventor, Scientist and Cancer Researcher

A paper on carbon nanotubes, a biology lecture on antibodies and a flash of insight led 15-year-old Jack Andraka to design a cheaper, more sensitive cancer detector.

After Andraka’s proposal to build and test his idea for a pancreatic cancer detector was rejected from 199 labs, the teen landed at Johns Hopkins. There, he built his device using inexpensive strips of filter paper, carbon nanotubes and antibodies sensitive to mesothelin, a protein found in high levels in people with pancreatic cancer. When dipped in blood or urine, the mesothelin adheres to these antibodies and is detectable by predictable changes in the nanotubes’ electrical conductivity. In preliminary tests, Andraka’s invention has shown 100 percent accuracy. It also finds cancers earlier than current methods, costs a mere 3 cents and earned the high schooler the 2012 Intel Science Fair grand prize.

He has been featured in several documentaries including Morgan Spurlock’s Sundance Film Festival entry “ You don’t know Jack”, Linda Peters’ award winning film “Just Jack” as well on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, CNN, BBC, Fox, Rede Record de Televisão and many radio, newspaper and magazine articles around the world

Bruce Hood - Development Psychologist

Bruce Hood is an academic, writer and presenter whose work is focused on cognitive development. He earned his Ph.D. from Cambridge University, has worked at MIT and Harvard and is currently chair of developmental psychology in society at the University of Bristol. His research interests include the cognitive processes behind adult magical thinking and is the author of three popular science books: SuperSense, The Self Illusion and The Domesticated Brain.

Bruce has been awarded the Alfred Sloan Fellowship in neuroscience, the Young Investigator Award from the International Society of Infancy Researchers, the Robert Fantz memorial award and is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. He is also a Fellow of the Society of Biology (UK) and the Royal Institution of Great Britain. He has made numerous radio and TV appearances on shows like Radio Four’s Infinite Monkey Cage and BBCs The One Show and Science Club. In 2011 he was selected to present the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures broadcast on both BBC Four and BBC Two and generated the largest viewing audience since the Christmas Lectures returned to the BBC.

Caprice Bourret - Entrepreneur, Model and Media Personality

Caprice became a household name around the world through her modelling and media appearances. Arriving in England from Southern California she became one of the most photographed women in the world appearing on over 300 magazine covers. Following her success as a model she added a variety of television appearances to her media portfolio. Voted GQ Magazine’s Woman of the Year and Maxim’s International Woman of the Year 3 years running she appeared in a documentary for Channel 4 ‘Being Caprice’ and featured in many other prime time shows.

For her acting career she received rave reviews in London’s West End playing the lead role in The Vagina Monologues and the musical ‘Rent’, and her life currently revolves around running and financing her own company ‘By Caprice’ which has grown since it’s inception in 2006 to include lingerie, swimwear, sleepwear and bedding. All her products are designed, modelled, financed and marketed by Caprice herself.

Jay Bregman - Founder/CEO of Hailo

Jay Bregman is the Founder / CEO of Hailo – a network that matches passengers and licensed taxi drivers using a tool which helps to make cabbies’ days more sociable – and profitable. Hailo has raised $50M in investment from an all-star cast of investors including Union Square Ventures, Accel Partners, Wellington Partners, Atomico Ventures, Richard Branson and KDDI. Together they’ve funded Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and Tumblr, founded Skype, and brought loads of other fanatistic companies to life all over the world.

Previously Jay founded eCourier.co.uk which was voted London’s most inspirational business by the Evening Standard in 2007. The idea for this business came from a personal frustration with same day couriers. So he decided to do something and act on his frustration. The result is a 6m business built in four years, recently ranked 53rd on the Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 and sixth on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 rankings of the fastest-growing and most innovative technology companies in the country. Mr. Bregman holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an MSc from the London School of Economics. Jay was named on the Times’ 100 People to Watch in 2012.

Lucy Hawking – Journalist & Author

Lucy Hawking is an author and the original creator of the George Greenby books, a series of adventure stories which aim to explain complex science to a young audience through dramatic storytelling. Lucy works with a range of distinguished scientists on the George Greenby series, including her very well-known father, Stephen Hawking. Currently, the George Greenby series is in development with Canadian animation studio Nerd Corps Entertainment to become an animated television series.

Lucy studied Modern Languages at Oxford before becoming a journalist. She wrote for newspapers and magazines and then moved into publishing with two comedy novels for adults. While working on the George series, Lucy spent a year as Distinguished Writer in residence at the Origins Project, ASU where she was also Visiting International Scholar at the Institute of Humanities Research. Recently, Lucy was made a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in recognition of the work she has done in explaining science to a young audience.

Robin Ince - Comedian, Actor & Writer

Robin Ince is a British stand-up comedian, actor and writer. On his own and as part of the BBC4 radio show The Infinite Monkey Cage, Robin Ince makes science-friendly comedy with pals like Brian Cox, Ben Goldacre and Simon Singh. TIMC just won the Best Speech Programme at the 2011 Sony Radio Awards, the first science program to win in … aeons. They recently took the show on the road as “Uncaged Monkeys,” about which the Telegraph’s critic said, “I was expecting more knickers thrown at the stage, to be honest.”

Onstage, Ince conducts live experiments into the science of comedy and laughter. He and his team set out to discover secret of timing, discover if people are born funny, and if computers can tell jokes.

He says: “Most scientists I know have movies and novels in their houses, whereas there are novelists whose houses I’ve been to who don’t have any science books.”

Kate Russell - Technology Reporter & Author

Kate Russell is a journalist, reporter and author who has been writing about gaming, technology and the Internet since 1995. Best known for weekly appearances on BBC technology programme Click, she is a frequent face on TV, radio and in magazines as a technology expert, with regular columns in National Geographic Traveller and BBC Focus. She is author of two books; Working the Cloud, a business book about the internet and Elite: Mostly Harmless, her debut science fiction novel based in the gaming world of Elite, which achieved over 400% of its funding goal on Kickstarter.

In addition, Kate speaks regularly at technology events and conferences and in schools and universities, inspiring the next generation of technologists. She is also very involved in UK and global policy meetings to help shape the way the internet is governed. For more information visit http://katerussell.co.uk

Note: More speakers and performers to be announced in the coming days! 

Thad Starner – Technical Lead at Google Glass

Professor Thad Starner is the founder & director of the Contextual Computing Group at Georgia Tech and a Technical Lead/Manager on Google’s Project Glass. He is considered as one of the original pioneers of wearable computing as well as a researcher in human-computer interaction, augmented environments, and pattern recognition. He is a strong advocate of continuous-access, everyday-use systems, and has worn his own customized wearable computer continuously since 1993.

Thad received a PhD from the MIT Media Laboratory, where he founded the MIT Wearable Computing Project.  Starner was perhaps the first to integrate a wearable computer into his everyday life as a personal assistant, and he coined the term “augmented reality” in 1990 to describe the types of interfaces he envisioned at the time.  His groups’ prototypes on mobile context-based search, gesture-based interfaces, mobile MP3 players, and mobile instant messaging foreshadowed now commonplace devices and services. Thad is a founder of the annual ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers, and his work has been discussed in many forums including CNN, NPR, the BBC, CBS’s 60 Minutes, ABC’s 48 Hours, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

George Smoot – Astrophysicist & Nobel Prize Winner in Physics

Astrophysicist, cosmologist and Nobel Prize winner George Smoot studies the cosmic microwave background radiation — the afterglow of the Big Bang. His pioneering research into deep space and time is uncovering the structure of the universe itself and he is considered as one of the most brilliant living physicists today. He made a cameo appearance as himself in an episode of the ‘Big Bang Theory.’

George Smoot looks into the farthest reaches of space to the oldest objects in the known universe: fluctuations in the remnants of creation. Using data collected from satellites such as COBE and WMAP, scanning the cosmic microwave background radiation (a relic of the heat unleashed after the Big Bang), he probes the shape of the universe. In 1992 he and his Berkeley team discovered that the universe, once thought to be smooth and uniform at the largest scale, is actually anisotropic — or varied and lumpy. Smoot continues to investigate of the structure of the universe at the University of California at Berkeley, mapping billions of galaxies and filaments of dark matter in hope of uncovering the secrets of the universe’s origins.

Clayton Anderson – NASA Astronaut

Clayton Anderson was the Mystery Speaker for TEDxSalford 2013 – his identity was revealed on the morning of the event exclusively on BBC Breakfast. In 1998, Clayton was a 29 year old aerospace engineer who wanted to fulfill his childhood dream of going to space. One agency was stopping him from getting there: NASA. The government agency had rejected Anderson’s application for its astronaut training programme 15 times. But Anderson is one of those people whose dogged perseverance is inspiring. But so many rejections over so many years can wear the most determined and Anderson decided that his 16th application would be his last one. Fortunately, that last attempt was all he needed.

Selected as a Mission Specialist by NASA, Clayton is the veteran of two space flights. Anderson has logged 167 days in space including 38 hours & 28 minutes of Extra-Vehicular Activity in six spacewalks. He completed over 5 months aboard the International Space Station in 2007 and served aboard the STS-131 crew in 2010. He has served as a crew member on the space shuttles Atlantis and Discovery and is the recipient of several awards and honours for his services for NASA and the Space Programme.

Tariq Ramadan – Public Intellectual & Philosopher

Tariq Ramadan is the Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at the Oxford University and President of the European Muslim Network. Through his writings and lectures he has contributed substantially to the debate on the issues of Muslims in the West and Islamic revival in the Muslim world. He is active both at the academic and grassroots levels, lecturing extensively throughout the world on theology, ethics, social justice, ecology and interfaith as well as intercultural dialogue.

TIME Magazine has twice recognized Ramadan: first in 2000, naming him one of the world’s top 100 innovators of the 21st Century (one of the world’s top 7th religious leaders), and again, in 2004, as one of the world’s top 100 most influential intellectuals. Ramadan was named by Foreign Policy magazine on its list of 100 top global thinkers in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012 and was voted the 8th top most intellectual person in the world on the list of Top 100 Public Intellectuals by Prospect Magazine (UK).

Lucy Siegle – TV Broadcaster, Writer & Journalist

Lucy Siegle is one of the UK’s most recognisable opinion-forming journalists on environmental issues. She has been an Observer columnist since 2004 and also contributes features and comment pieces. Her mission is to re-brand ecology and wider environmental issues as relevant and accessible and she launched the Observer Ethical Awards in 2005.

Her work is underpinned by rigorous research and scientific debate (she does not believe in the healing power of crystals). After guest slots on BBC Breakfast, Newsnight and Live Earth, her playful authority was spotted by the makers of The One Show, BBC1 in June 2007 and she was commissioned to present five films on recycling. She quickly established herself as a regular reporter, and has now made countless topical, current affairs and eco related films for the show and appears regularly in studio. She is also a regular expert host for television including: The Money Programme for BBC News 24, UKTV Food, Sky News Sunrise, GMTV and Tonight with Trevor McDonald.

Aubrey de Grey – Seeker of Immortality

A true maverick, Aubrey de Grey challenges the most basic assumption underlying the human condition — that aging is inevitable. He argues instead that aging is a disease — one that can be cured if it’s approached as “an engineering problem.” His plan calls for identifying all the components that cause human tissue to age, and designing remedies for each of them — forestalling disease and eventually pushing back death.

He has developed a possibly comprehensive plan for such repair, termed Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS), which breaks the aging problem down into seven major classes of damage and identifies detailed approaches to addressing each one. A key aspect of SENS is that it can potentially extend healthy lifespan without limit, even though these repair only needs to approach perfection rapidly enough to keep the overall level of damage below pathogenic levels. With his astonishingly long beard, wiry frame and penchant for bold and cutting proclamations, de Grey is a magnet for controversy. A computer scientist, self-taught biogerontologist and researcher, he has co-authored journal articles with some of the most respected scientists in the field.

The Scary Guy - World Peace Activist & Modern Day Philosopher

The Scary Guy FRSA is quite possibly ‘The Most Powerful Agent For Change’ on the planet today! His sole mission is ‘The Total Elimination of Hate, Violence and Prejudice Worldwide’. These were the first words that Scary spoke when he began his mission in 1998. Since that day, Scary has worked with over 10 million people around the world promoting peace through the teaching of his core theories on ‘Awareness, Understanding, Acceptance and Love,’ of all people.

With his face fully tattooed, and often describing himself as the worlds’ only living social experiment, Scary’s research is based in having to learn how to redefine his own life in order to stop living as a victim of other peoples’ words and actions – whilst maintaining his integrity and learning how to love and understand all people. Scary’s work identifies an enormous cultural and educational void in our educational systems. For years, nations have experienced the relentless growth of what Scary describes as the world’s number one social disease; hate, violence and prejudice, which Scary sees as polarising our youth and societies and precluding us from achieving the true potential of our common humanity.

Eleanor Longden – Research Psychologist

Eleanor Longden overcame her misdiagnosis of schizophrenia to earn a master’s in psychology and demonstrate that the voices in her head were “a sane reaction to insane circumstances.” Despite what traditional medicine may opine, Eleanor Longden isn’t crazy — and neither are many other people who hear voices in their heads. In fact, the psychic phenomenon is a “creative and ingenious survival strategy” that should be seen “not as an abstract symptom of illness to be endured, but as complex, significant, and meaningful experience to be explored,” the British psychology researcher says.

Longden spent many years in the psychiatric system before earning a BSc and an MSc in psychology, the highest classifications ever granted by the University of Leeds. Today she is studying for her PhD, and lectures and writes about recovery-oriented approaches to psychosis, dissociation and complex trauma.

Graham Hughes – Record Breaking Adventurer & Filmmaker

Graham Hughes is an adventurer, filmmaker, television presenter and Guinness World Record holder from Liverpool, England. Between 2009 and 2012, he became the first (and only!) person to successfully visit every sovereign state in the world without flying – alone and on a shoestring budget. Along the way he was imprisoned in Africa (twice), got drunk with the Prime Minister of Tuvalu and was miraculously saved from Islamic fundamentalists by a ladyboy called Jenn.

He wanted to show that the world is ‘not some big, scary place, but in fact full of people who wanted to help you.’ He used buses, taxis, trains and his own two feet to travel 160,000 miles, 201 countries in exactly 1,426 days – all on a shoestring of just $100 a week. Along the way Graham shot an 8-part TV show for Lonely Planet and wrote about his adventures on his award-winning blog, theodysseyexpedition.com.

Dave Erasmus – Serial Entrepreneur & Innovator

David Erasmus is a serial entrepreneur who has turned his sights to the third sector and is a leading advocator of marrying innovation, technology and social responsibility. He is a special advisor to Lord Wei of Shoreditch advising him on solving social problems through technology.

Dave Erasmus is currently the founder and CEO of social giving platform, Givey. Dave is passionate about the area of philanthropy and giving, serving as a founding member of the Ambassadors for Philanthropy and is part of The Big Society’s Nexters scheme. Having travelled the world following the sale of Broadplace, an online SEO firm, Dave set out to ask business leaders what could be done to help improve the world. Dave worked with local entrepreneurs in South Africa to help them form their own company before moving back to the UK and starting to work on mobile projects. All of this led Dave to create Givey as a simple way to donate over social platforms such as SMS or Twitter.

Joanne Harris – Award Winning Popular Author

Joanne Harris is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Blackberry Wine and Chocolat which won the Creative Freedom Award and was nominated for the Whitbread Award, one of Britain’s most prestigious literary prizes. Chocolat was adapted into a box-office hit motion picture, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, which was nominated for several Academy Awards including Best Picture.

In 2012, she became one of only four female members of the “Millionaires’ Club,” the elite group of authors who have achieved a million sales of one book in the UK since records began. Since then, all Harris’ books have been UK bestsellers. Her wide-ranging choice of subject matter means that her work often defies categorization, and she has a predilection for difficult or challenging issues. Her books are published in over 40 countries and have won a number of British and international awards. In 2004, Joanne was one of the judges of the prestigious Whitbread Prize and in 2005 she was a judge of the Orange Prize. She was recently awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honour List for her services to literature.

Nitin Sawhney – Renowned Musician, Producer & Composer

One of the most distinctive, versatile and important musical and cultural voices in the UK, this world-class producer, songwriter, DJ, multi-instrumentalist, orchestral composer and cultural pioneer’s output as a musician is astonishing. He has scored for and performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, and collaborated with and written for the likes of Paul McCartney, Sting, The London Symphony Orchestra, AR Rahman, Brian Eno, Sinead O’Conner, Anoushka Shankar, Jeff Beck, Shakira, Will Young, Taio Cruz, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Ellie Goulding, Cirque Du Soleil, Akram Khan, Mira Nair, Nelson Mandela and John Hurt.

Performing extensively around the world, he has achieved an international reputation across every possible creative medium. Often appearing as Artist in Residence, Curator or Musical Director at international festivals, Sawhney works tirelessly for musical education, acting as patron of the British Government’s Access-to-music programme and the East London Film Festival and acting as a judge for The Ivor Novello Awards, BAFTA, BIFA and the PRS foundation. He is a recipient of 4 honorary doctorates from British universities, is a fellow of LIPA and the Southbank University, an Associate of Sadler’s Wells and sits on the board for London’s Somerset House and Whitechapel Gallery.

Nicki Wells – British Singer, Songwriter & Composer

Singer-songwriter-composer-producer Nicki Wells, having recently gained a first class honours degree in music, has been working on her solo debut album as well as multiple collaborations with various artists and producers including the acclaimed Nitin Sawhney. She has already been featured on his work from album recordings to performances in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Opera House and Sadlers Wells and is featured on the recent BBC hit series the ‘Human Planet’.

In January of 2011, Nicki composed the score for Tanika Gupta’s theatrical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’, receiving critical acclaim as it toured theaters and playhouses throughout the country. Having already performed in countries as a singer to sell out audiences in regions as diverse as Australia, the Middle East, the Far East & Europe, she has astounded audiences all over the world with her incomparable ability to traverse the gaps between old and new, east and west and contemporary chic and classicism. Nicki Wells will be performing as part of Nitin Sawhney’s presentation at TEDxSalford 2013.

Simon Singh – Best Selling Author & Science Communicator

Simon Singh is an award-winning science broadcaster and the best-selling author of Fermat’s Last Theorem. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker on science, cosmology, mathematics and information security and regularly appears on TV & Radio to discuss these issues. Simon Singh’s parents emigrated from the Punjab in India to Britain in 1950. He grew up in Somerset, and studied physics at Imperial College London, before completing a PhD in particle physics at Cambridge University and at CERN, Geneva.

In 1990 he joined the BBC’s Science Department, where he was a producer and director of programmes such as Tomorrow’s World and Horizon. In 1996 he directed Fermat’s Last Theorem, a BAFTA award winning documentary about the world’s most notorious mathematical problem. The documentary was also aired in America as part of the NOVA series. The Proof, as it was re-titled, was nominated for an Emmy. His other publications include Big Bang, Trick or Treatment? and The Code Book.

John Robb – Renowned Punk Rock Musician & Music Journalist

John Robb is the vocalist for the punk rock band ‘Goldblade’. Based in Manchester, he has also written several books on music and frequently appears as a journalist/commentator on documentary/light entertainment music shows.

Robb was inspired by the DIY ethic of punk to form Membranes in 1977, the band releasing several albums in the 1980s. In 1994 he formed Goldblade, who have released several albums including 2005′s Rebel Songs and 2008′s ‘Mutiny’ and single “City Of Christmas Ghosts” featuring Poly Styrene on shared vocals. Robb has appeared as a pundit on many television programmes including Channel 4′s “top 100″ shows, BBC’s I Love the 60s/70s/80s/90s series and Seven Ages of Rock, as well as offering expert pop culture opinion on several TV debate shows and both BBC and Channel 4 news. He has contributed to BBC 2′s The Culture Show as well as several appearances on TV documentaries, and he is also a regular on BBC radio commenting on pop culture. He has been a regular contributor to Sky’s The Pop Years and co-produced and presented a ten-part series on the history of punk rock.

Quinton Fortune : Former South African & Manchester United Footballer

Quinton Fortune is a South African footballer who has represented a number of European clubs including Manchester United, Atletico Madrid and Bolton Wanderers. In 1991, at the end of the Apartheid, Fortune, only 14 was able to leave South Africa and moved to England where he played for the Tottenham Hotspur junior team. After having trouble obtaining a work permit, Fortune moved to Spain, where he played for Atlético Madrid. Manchester United purchased him from Atlético Madrid and he made his first appearance for the club on 30 August 1999, against Newcastle United. Fortune proved himself a capable and dedicated performer in a number of positions, he was known as ‘Mister Versatile.’ It was Fortune’s strength as a defender, rather than his qualities as an attacker, that Sir Alex Ferguson depended most on, and Fortune was often deployed as a central midfielder or as a left-back. Fortune also represented his country in 2 World Cups- France 98 and Japan-Korea 2002.

As of 2012, Fortune has returned to Manchester United. He trains with their reserve team whilst working on his coaching badges, which he aims to complete in 2014 Fortune has worked as a UNICEF ambassador at many occasions while playing at Manchester United. More recently he has also been actively involved in the campaign One Goal for education in South Africa. This campaign ran through the 2010 FIFA World Cup to promote education for all. He travels extensively across the world as a Man Utd Legend/Ambassador for their partner events and programs. He also works with TV Channels like Sky Sports, ITV, and MUTV as a match day pundit.

Rachel Elnaugh - Entrepreneur & Former Dragon at BBC’s Dragons Den

Rachel Elnaugh is one of Britain’s highest profile female entrepreneurs. Having started her working life as an office junior, at the age of 24, she created Red Letter Days, the market leading experiences brand, on a shoestring budget. Red Letter Days generated a turnover in excess of £100 million in her 16 years at the helm and pioneered the UK’s £250 million experiences sector. This earned her an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2002, short-listing for the 2001 Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year Award and the Growing Business Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2002.

In 2005, Rachel shot to fame as one of the original ‘Dragons’ in the first two series of BBC’s Dragons’ Den in which hers was the sole female perspective amongst the five investing entrepreneurs known as the “Dragons. Rachel has given evidence to Parliament on the development of an Enterprise Culture in the UK and has both participated in and spoken at the All-Party Parliamentary Committee for Small Business. She has acted as a judge for the EMDA Enterprising Britain Awards, the Accountancy Age Awards, the Grazia Businesswoman of the Year Awards and the National Business Awards.

Lemn Sissay – Award Winning Poet, Author & Playwright

Dr Lemn Sissay MBE is associate artist at Southbank Centre, patron of The Letterbox Club and The Reader Organisation, ambassador for The Children’s Reading Fund, trustee of Forward Arts Foundation and inaugural trustee of World Book Night. He has been a writer from birth and foremost a poet.

Lemn is author of a series of books of poetry alongside articles, records, broadcasts, public art, commissions and plays. Sissay was the first poet commissioned to write for London Olympics. His Landmark Poems are installed throughout Manchester and London. They can be seen in The Royal Festival Hall and The Olympic Park. His Landmark Poem, ‘Guilt of Cain’, was unveiled by Bishop Desmond Tutu in Fen Court near Fenchurch St Station. His award winning play ‘Something Dark’  directed by National Theatre of Wales artistic director John McGrath has been performed throughout the world  and his stage adaptation of Benjamin Zephaniah’s Novel ‘Refugee Boy’ at West Yorkshire Playhouse tours Britain in 2014. He has made various  BBC Documentaries on or with writers such as Gil Scott Heron, The last Poets, JB Priestley, Edgar Allan Poe and poetry films broadcast to the nation.  His head is in London where he’s based, his heart is in Manchester where he is not, his soul is in Addis  and his vibe is in New York where his mother lives.  He blogs openly for personal reasons.

Riot Jazz - An Eclectic Mix of Funk, Soul, Hip-Hop & Aggressive Jazz

A twisted mix of funk, soul, hiphop and aggressive jazz – sculpted round the LIVE 9-piece Riot Jazz Brass Band. Anchored in the same New Orleans swamplands as the Hot 8 Brass Band and Youngblood Brass Band, the Riot Jazz Brass Band navigate a minefield of original peace-lovin’ aggro jazz, hip-hop samples, funked-up favourites and re-interpreted dubstep, drum’n’bass and dancefloor bangers that never fail to send limbs flying!

Since their maiden voyage in Manchester 2008, the Riot Jazz Brass Band has been the bare-breasted galleon figure of the Riot Jazz flotilla. Captained by Nick Walters (who recently completed a Masters in Jazz Trumpet) and fronted by the prodigious MC CHUNKY, these brass-wielding sentinels of live music and good times have infected ear-holes, dance floors and festival fields far and wide. Tours of the UK and Europe have established The Riot Jazz Brass Band as band in their own right and earned them a faithful and diverse following. Festival performances include Glastonbury, Fusion Festival (Germany), Big Chill, Bestival, Camp Bestival, Kendal Calling, Soundwave Croatia, Parklife and EuroCultured: Dublin/Finland.

Hetain Patel – Award Winning Visual Artist

In his compelling stage works, Hetain Patel uses powerful imagery and storytelling to examine questions of identity. In 2004, having graduated just a year earlier, Hetain Patel received the decibel award from Arts Council England, East Midlands. Since then, his photography, video and live works have been exhibited nationally and internationally. His work examines various sensory forms of language, communication and cultural identity. Often using his own body as a site for these discussions, he strives to find a connection with his heritage through the exploration of physics, rituals and Indian classical music. Employing techniques ranging from fashion photography to tabla drumming, he is interested in processes. This he believes is often where work becomes less culture specific and more about the general communication between bodies.

“What determines our identities anyway?” asks Hetain Patel. As a child, Patel wanted to be Bruce Lee; later, he wanted to be more like his father, with a different kind of bravery. From this question, his new show Be Like Water examines shifting identities of all kinds, using dance and bold imagery to power a story of self-examination and self-creation. Interestingly, in the piece, Patel collaborates with the Taiwanese dancer Yuyu Rau, who often stands in for him to tell his own story.

Salil Shetty – Secretary General of Amnesty International

Salil Shetty joined Amnesty International as the organization’s eighth Secretary General in July 2010. A long-term activist on poverty and justice, Salil Shetty leads the movement’s worldwide work to end the abuse of human rights. He is the organization’s chief political adviser, strategist and spokesperson and takes Amnesty International’s campaigns to the highest level of government, the United Nations and business.

Salil Shetty is leading an ambitious growth project for Amnesty International with plans to strengthen the human rights movement in the developing world and emerging economies. This comes at a time when human rights are dominant in the news agenda, inspired by the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. Prior to joining Amnesty International, Salil Shetty was Director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign from 2003 to 2010. He played a pivotal role in building the global advocacy campaign for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals – eight goals to fight poverty, illiteracy and disease.

Ken Shamrock – The World’s Most Dangerous Man

Kenneth Shamrock is an American mixed martial art legend, UFC Hall of Famer and former WWE/TNA wrestler. With Shamrock’s unparalleled impact on the sport as a fighter and wrestler, he can only be described as an icon. Best known for his participation in the Ultimate Fighting Championships, The World Wrestling Federation, Pride Fighting Championships, Pancrase, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, no other fighter possesses the credentials that have rightfully earned Shamrock the title coined by ABC of “The World’s Most Dangerous Man.”

Ken, garnering no less than 14 World and other Major Championships, holds the distinction of being the very first athlete elected to the UFC Hall of Fame. Ken’s involvement in children’s issues brings his own story full circle.  He meets often with various organizations that share his commitment to troubled children, and he freely donates his time to meet with kids in schools, juvenile facilities, recovery centers, hospitals, and churches wherever he travels. Ken currently heads a new project in the Northern Nevada Desert that will eventfully house and care for over 200 at- risk boys and girls, passing on the education, training, hope, and encouragement that Bob Shamrock bequeathed to him so many years ago.

John Robb – Renowned Punk Rock Musician & Music Journalist

John Robb is the vocalist for the punk rock band ‘Goldblade’. Based in Manchester, he has also written several books on music and frequently appears as a journalist/commentator on documentary/light entertainment music shows.

Robb was inspired by the DIY ethic of punk to form Membranes in 1977, the band releasing several albums in the 1980s. In 1994 he formed Goldblade, who have released several albums including 2005′s Rebel Songs and 2008′s ‘Mutiny’ and single “City Of Christmas Ghosts” featuring Poly Styrene on shared vocals. Robb has appeared as a pundit on many television programmes including Channel 4′s “top 100″ shows, BBC’s I Love the 60s/70s/80s/90s series and Seven Ages of Rock, as well as offering expert pop culture opinion on several TV debate shows and both BBC and Channel 4 news. He has contributed to BBC 2′s The Culture Show as well as several appearances on TV documentaries, and he is also a regular on BBC radio commenting on pop culture. He has been a regular contributor to Sky’s The Pop Years and co-produced and presented a ten-part series on the history of punk rock.

Etienne Stott – London 2012 Olympic Gold Medallist from TeamGB

In keeping with the TEDxSalford tradition, we are pleased to confirm our mystery speaker’s appearance  for this year’s conference.  Our mystery speaker for TEDxSalford 1.0 in January 2012 was confirmed to be none other NASA Astronaut Ron Garan who had just returned from a six month stint aboard the International Space Station the previous month.

This year’s mystery speaker is also someone who has achieved an extraordinary feat in the previous couple of months. He/she was part of Team GB’s squad for the London 2012 and is one of the few sportspeople to have achieved the distinction of winning a gold medal for Britain in these Olympics. The speaker had also recently battled a severe career threatening injury which almost ended his/her sporting career. The only other hint we will give you at this stage about his/her identity is that this Olympic Champion’s hometown is none other than our very own Manchester!

Julie Meyer MBE – Founder and CEO of Ariadne Capital

Julie Meyer is one of the leading champions for entrepreneurship in Europe. With over 20 years investment and advisory experience helping start-up businesses, she is the well known founder & CEO of Ariadne Capital, co- founder and Managing Partner of the Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs Fund, founder of Entrepreneur Country and co-founder of First Tuesday. Julie has added a successful media career to her business commitments, recently joining BBC’s Online Dragon’s Den, in addition to her regular contributions to Business Week, Computing, FT Digital Business & Spectator Business.

She sits on the Boards of  INSEAD, Medikidz, Vestergaard Frandsen and Jellybook. In 2011, she was asked to be on the  Secretary of State’s Entrepreneurs Panel and the Secretary of Health’s Innovation Panel. In  2012, Julie was honoured to receive an honorary MBE, for her ‘services to entrepreneurship’.

Joe Incandela – Team Leader of the Higgs Boson Experiment at CERN

Professor Joseph Incandela is the head of the CMS Experiment at CERN – the experiment aiming to determine the presence of the Higgs Boson. He is the first scientist from a U.S. institution to be elected spokesperson of an experiment at the LHC. The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment is one of the two experiments running on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to determine the existence of the Higgs boson. Professor Incandela leads the experiment which has between roughly 3,000 scientists from 179 institutions in 41 countries. He had earlier co-led the search for the “top quark” at CERN and his work was instrumental in the final discovery of the top quark in 1995.

On July 4 2012, Joe Incandela made the historic announcement to a worldwide audience during a press conference at CERN that a new particle resembling the Higgs boson had been discovered – “We know it must be a boson and it’s the heaviest boson ever found,” were the memorable words uttered by him during the announcement.

Debra Searle MBE – Adventurer & TV Presenter

Debra Searle is a renowned British adventurer, author and TV presenter. The media worldwide went crazy for the story of the 5ft 5″ young lady who carried on rowing the Atlantic solo when her husband, an experienced oarsman, left the boat after developing an uncontrollable fear of the ocean. Yet, she dared to believe and 111 days later she rowed into Port St Charles, Barbados, to a rapturous welcome. Debra, who was loving life at sea in a 23 foot plywood boat, saw no reason to stop and rowed on to become the youngest and only the third woman in the world to have rowed an ocean solo.

Debra Searle is also an extremely successful businesswoman and became Managing Director of her first company at the age of 23 and today manages to combine business with her life-long ambition to be a professional adventurer. Other adventures have included sailing around Antarctica, the longest canoe race in the world, L’Etape du Tour, and setting a new world record for crossing the channel. Debra is the author of two books and is a regular presenter for the BBC with credits including Grandstand and Extreme Lives.

Geoff Burch – The Alternative Business Guru

Geoff Burch is a bestselling author and leading business expert. Geoff Burch has a wealth of experience in illustrating the thinking required to find business success. He was voted Best Business Communicator of 2011 by the UK Speechwriters’ Guild and speaks regularly for a variety of corporate clients. His books cover such diverse topics as the art of persuasion, commonsense in business and self employment.

As a regular contributor and presenter on television and radio, Geoff is also the star of the recent hit business show on BBC television, All Over the Shop, which focused on small businesses helping them to survive and thrive. His humorous style and easily explained advice worked well and created a strong following amongst the independent business community. As a prolific writer, Geoff has many chart-topping business books published around the globe and is commonly hailed as the most original guru in business.

Paul Zenon – Britain’s Leading Trickster

Paul Zenon is Britain’s leading magician – and funny with it. He has performed in around thirty countries in every conceivable location. He has literally hundreds of television appearances to his name including three top-rating hour-long one-man specials on Channel 4 and one on ITV. Paul has appeared in venues ranging from the Mirage, Luxor, Orleans and Tropicana Casinos, Las Vegas, to an aircraft carrier in the Adriatic, and a London Palladium Royal Variety Show to the back of a truck in a Bosnian war zone.

Paul Zenon appears regularly in the media as an authority with regard to all things weird and wonderful, including the history of Variety and magic (with Houdini as a speciality), the paranormal (as a sceptic) and con-men, scams and hustles. Paul is a long-term favourite on the international comedy club and corporate circuits and in recent years has had recent sell-out appearances at festivals in Edinburgh, London, Brighton, Auckland, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne, both with his own shows and as a regular in the Olivier Award-winning La Clique.

Sir Ian Wilmut OBE: Leading Cloning Pioneer

Sir Ian Wilmut is a world-renowned embryologist and specialist in regenerative medicine. He is best known as the man who led the team that in 1996 first cloned a mammal, a Finn Dorset lamb named “Dolly”. Dolly was the first ever clone derived from an adult cell. The research resulting in Dolly’s birth stemmed from efforts to genetically engineer sheep and cows in order that their milk would contain human proteins with medicinal properties, such as human antibodies.

More recently he was the founding Director of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine in the University of Edinburgh. The Mission of this rapidly expanding Centre is to develop new treatments for human disease through innovative research with stem cells. The new Centre covers the full spectrum of research – from basic mechanisms of stem cell biology, to clinical trials with stem cells and their derivatives. The aim of his own research is to be able to produce human cells for use in research and in future for treatment of diseases, such as motor Neuron Disease. In his talk he will describe the way in which the cloning research has provided revolutionary new opportunities in regenerative medicine.

Ray Hammond – Europe’s Most Experienced Futurist

Ray Hammond is one of the world’s most experienced and most widely published futurists. For over 30 years he has researched, written and spoken about how future trends will affect society and business. As global warming, globalization and the environmental threat continue to be priorities on the world’s agenda, Ray is one of a few commentators equipped to communicate how these massive challenges will affect our futures, the way we do business and the far reaching implications both socially, economically and politically.

Ray is a visiting lecturer at the Institute for the Future of Humanity, University of Oxford, a visiting lecturer at the London Business School and a contributing editor to the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland, U.S.A. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (F.R.S.A.). He is also a globally published novelist (Macmillan) whose three recent high-tech futuristic novels have won world-wide critical acclaim. In 2010 Ray was awarded the Medal of the Italian Chamber of Deputies for his services to futurology.

Martin Hall – Vice-Chancellor at University of Salford

Professor Martin Hall is a historical archaeologist and strategic leader. He took up his present role of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Salford in August 2009.

Professor Hall joined Salford from the University of Cape Town where he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor for six years. He has a career that has spanned both political change and transformation in South Africa and new directions in archaeology over the past four decades. He has written extensively on South African history, culture and higher education policy.

His current areas of focus include open access and innovation, inequality and its consequences and post-conflict mitigation and mediation. He writes weekly on these and other issues at his blog.

Jim Al-Khalili OBE – Physicist & Award Winning Science Communicator

Jim Al-Khalili  is a professor of physics, author and broadcaster based at the University of Surrey where he holds a chair in the Public Engagement in Science. He is active as a science communicator and has written a number of popular science books, between them translated into over twenty languages. He is a regular presenter of TV science documentaries, including the Bafta nominated Chemistry: A Volatile History, and presents the weekly Radio 4 programme, The Life Scientific. He is a recipient of the Royal Society Michael Faraday medal and the Institute of Physics Kelvin Medal.

He has also presented Atom, a three-part series for BBC Four, The Secret Life of Chaos, and Science and Islam, covering the leap in scientific knowledge that took place in the Islamic world between the 8th and 14th centuries. He’s also a regular on Radio 4 and on the BBC’s Horizon programme.

Akala – Renowned English Rapper & Poet

Akala is a renowned English rapper, poet, and journalist. Emerging from London’s hip-hop underground, in 2006 Kingslee ‘Akala’ Daley) won the MOBO ‘Best Hip-Hop’ award for his debut album “It’s Not A Rumour”.  Since then he has released his second album “Freedom Lasso” and toured extensively in the UK and around the world. He has also found the time to take his own energetic and original workshops all over the country working for clients such as the BBC, London Metropolitan Archives, Times BFI London Film Festival and various schools/youth clubs around the capital.

Breaking down the culture of cliché and stereotype that smothers the genre he loves is a major part of the mission he’s taken on, and gives impetus to this third album of pointed, perceptive hip hop music from the convention-defying emcee. Akala has performed at various UK festivals including V Festival, Wireless, Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds Festivals, Parklife and Isle of Wight.

Felicity Goodey CBE – Former BBC Journalist and Presenter

Widely known as the “woman who brokered the deal to bring  MediaCityUK to Salford,” Felicity Goodey is a former senior BBC journalist and presenter who discovered a passion for regeneration. She led the team which funded, built and established the country’s most successful arts-based millennium projects, The Lowry theatre and gallery complex. After ten years of leading The Lowry she was asked by Salford City Council to help set up a much bigger regeneration project and now chairs Central Salford, the largest Urban Regeneration Company in the country. In 2006/7 she led the consortium which won the highly contested bid to relocate a major part of the BBC to the North and devised the concept of mediacity:uk, a globally significant new media hub.

Felicity’s business career included founding, with colleagues, the Unique Communications Group, a broadcast production and corporate communications company; she was for many years a non executive Director of Nord Anglia PLC. She is a governor of The Manchester Grammar School, a director, and past President of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and a council member of Salford University. Honours include a number of honorary degrees, together with the CBE for services to regeneration and an honorary fellowship of the RIBA.

Davide Swarup – Renowned Percussionist and Pioneer of the “Hang”

Davide Swarup is a leading Italian percussionist and one of the world’s leading pioneers of the “Hang” Drum. The “Hang” is a percussion instrument with melody invented in 2000 by PANArt, an evolution of the steel pan. Family name “Hand pan”. It is produced by the two inventors, Sabina Scharer and Felix Rohner, in a limited production in Bern.

Davide went to India in 2000 and discovered his skills in drumming – and he listened for the first time, the Indian santoor, live! He returned to Italy but came back to India in 2002 to buy a santoor and decided to become a musician. In March 2005, a friend of his introduced him to the “Hang” and he fell in love with the instrument. His first three years were a full intense solo playing to discover the instrument and develop his touch. He hasn’t stopped since. He has become one of the leading pioneers of the “Hang” and has toured several continents performing live around the world. He will be giving a full blown performance of the “Hang” at TEDxSalford 2.0.

Dr. Andrew Cooper:  Academic Director for MediaCityUK

Dr. Andrew Cooper, former Associate Dean (Academic) in the College of Arts and Social Sciences is currently the Academic Director for MediaCityUK. During an 18 month secondment to the role, Andrew will work with Brian Longhurst, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Media and Digital Futures, and Jon Corner, the University’s MediaCityUK Director, taking responsibility for the leadership and management of all academic activity at our MediaCityUK facility.

Andrew has been leading the University’s MediaCityUK work-stream on Curriculum and Academic Delivery since September 2009, determining the programmes and research to be conducted from our new facility.

Diarmuid O Neill: Chief Executive of Retrak

Diarmuid O Neill is the Chief Executive Officer of Retrak, an organisation that works with street children in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. Enabling them to find a viable alternative to street life back in the caring environment of a family. Diarmuid has now worked in the Voluntary Sector in the UK & Internationally with youth organisations for over a decade, after beginning his career as a research scientist examining global warming.

Diarmuid has been involved in 2 global coalitions – Safe Families Safe Children, promoting alternative care for street children; and in the Way Forward Project making recommendations to the US government on caring for street children. Retrak is also a member of the Beyond 2015 Campaign seeking to bring highly vulnerable children into the post-Millennium Development Goals agenda.

Andrew Thorp: Founder of Speakeasy/MojoLife

Andrew Thorp is a professional speaker, author and communication skills coach. He co-founded MojoLife, a training and consultancy company based in Manchester (UK) that uses storytelling to help companies become more distinctive and attractive. Andrew also interviews extraordinary people for MojoLife TV, an on-line showcase for inspiring stories of reinvention and creative thinking.

Andrew previously worked in the golf industry for 22 years as an interim manager, marketeer, journalist and coach. He refereed in the Ryder Cup Matches, ran golf tournaments worldwide and in 2009 published his first book, examining what businesses can learn from elite athletes about improving performance. Andrew spoke at the TEDxWarwick conference in 2010 and was recently interviewed on Radio 4 about his own story of reinvention.

Zachary Latif: Portfolio Manager at TLG Capital

Zachary Latif joined TLG Capital in 2011 to focus on credit and liquid markets. TLG Capital is a company that invests in frontier markets, specifically Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia & South East Asia. The core focus is directed towards consumer led growth in sectors like healthcare driven by the rising middle classes.

Zachary has traded emerging market debt and is a specialist in hard to value assets. He has also reviewed investment teams on projects as diverse from Uganda’s premier pharmaceutical plant to cancer health care facilities in West Asia to the establishment of a family medicine practice in Liberia (the only surviving clinic in Monrovia after the civil war in Liberia). Zachary has been invited to speak at numerous conferences and  has a widely-read monthly newsletter on asset allocation within the credit markets. He holds a Masters degree in Finance achieved at the age of 18 from Cass Business School in 2003.

Prof. Anthony Redmond OBE: Co-Director, Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute

Prof. Tony Redmond has been involved in international emergency medical assistance for over twenty years, responding to natural disasters, major incidents, conflicts and complex emergencies throughout the world. Professor Redmond is Co-Director of the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, Hospital Dean at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, and Professor of International Emergency Medicine at Manchester Medical School within the University of Manchester. He is also the Emeritus Professor of Emergency Medicine, Keele University, Staffordshire.

He is Director of the UK international Emergency Trauma Register which aims to improve the training and accountability of those who respond to large scale emergencies overseas and Chairman of the Foreign Medical Teams working group at WHO. He has recently been appointed by Manchester Academic Health Science Centre to head up its global health initiative, has an impressive track record of involvement in international emergency medical assistance, spanning over two decades – most recently when he headed up a medical team in China following the 2008 earthquakes and again in 2010 with the Haiti earthquake.

Speakers from TEDxChange 2012 (Livestream):

Melinda Gates: Melinda Gates serves as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She helps set the overall direction of the foundation, shaping strategies, reviewing results, and advocating for the foundation’s issues. Melinda will discuss family planning and how the power to plan changes the lives of women and their families and improves whole societies.

Jeff Chapin: Jeff Chapin is a mechanical engineer and product designer for IDEO. He specializes in designing sanitation solutions for the developing world and has conducted projects in both Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Jeff will challenge traditional perceptions of ‘design’ by emphasizing the importance of sustainable, market-based systems for developing societies.

Sven Giegold: Sven Giegold is a Member of the European Parliament and one of the founding members of Attac Germany. Sven has dedicated much of his career towards green industry issues. He will talk about the power of collective action and how the actions of individuals, communities, and progressive business can lead to critical changes at a national and international level.

Theo Sowa: Theo Sowa is an independent advisor and consultant, specializing in international social development with a particular emphasis on children’s rights and protection issues, especially in conflict situations. She is currently the Interim CEO of the African Women’s Development Fund, a pan African women’s grant making organization. Born in Ghana, she has lived and worked in many countries in Africa, as well as the UK, Europe, and the USA.  Her work includes advisory roles to African and other international women and children’s rights activists and leaders, plus policy development and advocacy with a variety of international agencies and organizations.

Baaba Maal: Baaba Maal is a Senegalese singer and guitarist born in Podor, on the Senegal River. Baaba sings primarily in Pulaar and is the foremost promoter of the traditions of the Pulaar-speaking peoples. He has released several albums. In July 2003, Baaba was made a UNDP Youth Emissary. In March 2012 he visited Mauritania with Oxfam to call attention to the humanitarian need resulting from the food crisis in the Sahel. Also an Ambassador for Nelson Mandela’s 46664 campaign, he has become an increasingly vocal champion for the rights of women and girls.

Irene Khan: Former Secretary General of Amnesty International

From 2001 – 2009 Irene Zubaida Khan was Secretary General of Amnesty International, the world’s largest human rights organization. As the first woman & Asian to head the organization, she led the organization through developments in the wake of the attacks of September 11 2001, resisting the backlash against human rights, expanding Amnesty’s work on economic, social and cultural rights, and launching a global campaign to stop violence against women. She is currently the Chancellor for the University of Salford.

Irene has been keen to draw attention to hidden human rights violations. In Australia, she drew attention to the plight of asylum seekers in detention. In Burundi, she met with victims of massacres and urged President Buyoya and other parties to the conflict to end the cycle of human rights abuse. In Bulgaria, she led a campaign to end discrimination of those suffering from mental disabilities.

Dario Autiero: Lead Researcher at OPERA Collaboration

Dario Autiero, of  the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Lyons, France, leads the OPERA Team’s analysis of the faster-than-light neutrino tests at CERN. The Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus (OPERA) is a scientific experiment for detecting tau neutrinos from muon neutrino oscillations. It is a collaboration between CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Gran Sasso, Italy.

In September 2011, Dario Autiero of the Institut de Physique Nucléaire de Lyon presented findings that indicated neutrinos were arriving at OPERA about 60 nanoseconds earlier than they would if they were travelling at the speed of light. These results are as of yet unexplained. The experiment was recently repeated with a different technique but yielded similar results. In his talk, Dario will focus on the neutrino velocity results arising from the neutrino experiment and possible explanations for this anomalistic behaviour.

Anne Lise Kjaer: Futurist and Trends Specialist

Anne Lise Kjaer is a renowned global futurist. She delivers out-of-the-box thinking and is a sought after inspirational speaker. Anne Lise works with some of the world’s leading brands including ACNielsen, Nokia, IKEA, Sony, Toyota, Unilever,and McKinsey. She has an exceptional eye for ‘the next big thing’ and an original and inspiring way of translating fledgling concepts into viable commercial propositions.

The Financial Times wrote: “Anne Lise’s unique world vision is as fertile as Dali’s only she creates social prototypes based on nascent trends”. In particular she facilitates a new understanding for the consumer of the future, Anne Lise says: ‘if the challenge is to create clarity out of complexity then that means getting to know – and identify with – your customers. Only then can you understand what they will want from you.’ Today her client base numbers over 200 international corporations. Despite her global vision, Anne Lise retains strong links with her home country, where she is regarded as a leading commentator.

Col. Ronald Garan: Mystery Speaker

Ron Garan is a NASA astronaut recently returned from a six month mission of exploration and scientific research onboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer for Expeditions 27 and 28, traveling 65,340,224 miles in 2,2624 orbits around the Earth during 164 days in space.  During his mission, Garan participated in his fourth spacewalk, working outside in the vacuum of space for six and one half hours. He completed his first spaceflight in 2008, as a Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle Discovery, when he accumulated 20 hours and 32 minutes in three spacewalks.  A retired Colonel in the United States Air Force, Garan is a decorated fighter pilot, a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Engineers Without Borders, and founder of the Manna Energy Foundation.

In addition to being a space explorer, Ron has a strong belief in the ability of social entrepreneurship and appropriately targeted philanthropy to solve many of the problems we face here on Earth. His life is committed to using the perspective of living and working in space to improve life for all.

John Robb: Vocalist for GoldBlade

John Robb is the vocalist for the punk rock band “Goldblade”. Based in Manchester, he has also written several books on music and frequently appears as a journalist/commentator on documentary/light entertainment music shows..

Robb was inspired by the DIY ethic of punk to form Membranes in 1977, the band releasing several albums in the 1980s. In 1994 he formed Goldblade, who have released several albums including 2005′s Rebel Songs and 2008′s ‘Mutiny’ and single “City Of Christmas Ghosts” featuring Poly Styrene on shared vocals. Robb has appeared as a pundit on many television programmes including Channel 4′s “top 100″ shows, BBC’s I Love the 60s/70s/80s/90s series and Seven Ages of Rock, as well as offering expert pop culture opinion on several TV debate shows and both BBC and Channel 4 news. He has contributed to BBC 2′s The Culture Show as well as several appearances on TV documentaries, and he is also a regular on BBC radio commenting on pop culture. He has been a regular contributor to Sky’s The Pop Years and co-produced and presented a ten-part series on the history of punk rock.

Dawn Gibbins: Entrepreneur, MBE

Global Champion of Change Dr Dawn Gibbins MBE is the daughter of great British inventor Peter Gibbins, Dawn achieved worldwide business success with her father when they set up the environmental transformation institution Flowcrete in the early 1980’s. It grew from being a small start-up family business to a global giant, flooring the world of commercial and public environments from NASA to the 02 Stadium. Flowcrete has 30 offices globally and 12 manufacturing plants – Flowcrete’s strap line is ‘ For the world at your feet’ yep that’s all they did … flooring, seamless flooring.

Honours for her success include being crowned the Variety Club of Great Britain’s Legend of Industry, awarded Bank of America Businesswoman of the Year, Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year, Most Influential Person in British Manufacturing and the youngest industrialist to be invested with an MBE for Services to UK Industry.

Ed Stafford: Explorer – Amazon Man

Ed Stafford became the first person to walk the entire length of the Amazon River in August 2010. His adventure has been described as one of the most dangerous and difficult expeditions ever undertaken encountering venomous snakes, severe floods, electric eels, jaguars and hostile local tribes, one of whom held him for questioning about the murder of one of their tribesman. Since returning home to the UK his story has featured in over 300 articles around the globe.

Ed’s Amazon accomplishment has been described by Sir Ranulph Fiennes as being “in the top league of expeditions past and present”. In February 2011 Stafford was a nominee for the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year 2010 and then in March the same year he was awarded European Adventurer of the Year 2011. The Guinness World Records formally recognised Stafford’s achievement and he appears in the 2012 Guinness Book of Records.

Tom Hingley: Former lead vocalist of Inspiral Carpets

Vocalist Tom Hingley first emerged amidst the groovy fury of Manchester’s “baggy” or “Madchester” scene in the late ’80s as a frontman for the group Inspiral Carpets. After such vaunted Mancs as the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, the Carpets were one of the prime movers of that scene (and outlasted both of those other combos). Hingley went on to form a group called the Lovers with Jerry Kelly of the Lotus Eaters, then dropped out of sight, even working for a catalogue company for a time.

Hingley re-emerged in the new millennium as an acoustic singer/songwriter with his debut solo effort, Keep Britain Untidy. He followed that with another solo effort, Soulfire, continuing to tour extensively and to play gigs with the Lovers, who often featured Inspiral Carpets classics in their set list.

Prof. Trevor Cox: Renowned science communicator

Trevor Cox is a British academic and science communicator, a Senior Media fellow for EPSRC, and is President of the Insitute of Acoustics for the 2010-12 period. Cox has presented a range of popular science documentaries for BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 3 and BBC World Service, including Sounds of Science, Aural Architecture, Life’s Soundtrack, Science vs Strad, The Pleasure of Noise, World Musical Instruments, Dragon’s Lab, Biomimicry and Save our Sounds. He was co-originator and judge of BBC Radio 4’ ‘So You Want To Be A Scientist?’, a competition to find Britain’s best amateur scientist.

He has gained worldwide news coverage for stories such as “Does a duck quack echo?” and “The Worst Sound in the World”. He has also investigated the World’s scariest scream. In addition, he has appeared in features on BBC1, Teachers TV, Discovery and National Geographic channels, and as an expert in news items on a variety of television and radio channels.

Julie Summers: Author, Historian, Broadcaster

Julie Summers is an author, historian and broadcaster with wide experience of writing about and interviewing people who have experienced extreme situations.  She has worked with mountaineers who have climbed and returned from the world’s highest peaks, and written about those who have not.  She has interviewed men who worked on the Death Railway in Thailand as prisoners of the Japanese in the Second World War and with people who have been affected by war in childhood.

Her interest is in how people cope with these experiences once they return to everyday life.  A compassionate interviewer and practiced listener, Julie inspires confidence in her interviewees and has teased out some of the most extraordinary stories of survival and inner strength from men, women and children.  In her talk ‘This Game of Ghosts’ she explores some of these experiences and asks whether memory can be trusted and how much our own personal narratives are shaped by our perception of reality.

Stephen Venables: Renowned British mountaineer

Stephen Venables is a mountaineer, writer and broadcaster who prefers the untrodden path – he is the first Briton to have climbed Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen. Nearly all his Himalayan expeditions have been to previously unclimbed peaks. In the case of Everest, others had been there first, so he climbed a new route, without oxygen equipment, and established a new altitude record for surviving a night out in the open.

He has published twelve books, taken part in numerous television films and has just returned from his third crossing of South Georgia – on this occasion following other steps – Sir Ernest Shackleton’s. He has a horror of committee meetings, but couldn’t refuse the invitation to be president of the world’s oldest mountaineering association, the Alpine Club, during its recent 150th anniversary.

Dr. Heather Whitney: Award winning biologist

Dr Heather Whitney is a molecular biologist by training, but now uses ideas from across the scientific spectrum (from optical physics to beekeeping) to study plant-animal interactions. As both a researcher and speaker, she hopes to show that plants are much more sneaky than is usually suspected – they have to do everything that animals do (from finding a mate to coping with predators) but manage it without moving. Heather and her work have been featured on Radio 4′s Material World and The Naked Scientist.

As a scientist, Heather has won awards for her research and has recently been awarded a L’Oréal-UNESCO UK and Ireland for Women Award in Science Fellowship. She spent several years as a researcher at the University of Cambridge before moving to the University of Bristol.

Dr. Umut Kose: Researcher at CERN

Umut Kose is a leading researcher at the OPERA Experiment at CERN. The OPERA Experiment result on “the measurement of the neutrino velocity” has hit the headlines starting from June 2011. In this talk, Umut Kose will give a background talk about the history of  the OPERA Collaboration and their groundbreaking experiment.

Umut Kose was awarded his PhD in 2006 on the analysis of “antineutrino charm production and anticharmed pentaquark search in the CHORUS experiment”. Following his Ph.D. he worked as a PostDoc Fellow at Nagoya University, Japan, on the OPERA experiment analysing neutrino events recorded in the Emulsion Cloud Chambers (ECC). He is currently an INFN Fellow at Padova University, Italy, where he continues to search for neutrino oscillations in direct appearance mode in the “nu_mu–>nu_tau channel.”

Benedict Allen: Pioneering Explorer & TV Filmmaker

Benedict Allen, one of Britain’s most prominent explorers, is best known for his arduous expeditions to remote corners of the globe without the help of any technology back-up and surviving against all the odds in adverse conditions. By not using a film-crew and pioneering the use of a hand-held video camera, he allowed millions of people around the world to witness for the first time adventures unfolding genuinely in inhospitable terrain and has paved the way for the current generation of TV adventurers.

Benedict Allen has experience of surviving adversity in some of the world’s most remote location. An accomplished adventurer, he uses his experiences to inspire and motivate audiences around the globe to achieve their own personal goals and shows that is it possible to succeed even when faced with adversity. “Benedict is part of the history of television” says Mark Thompson, Director General, BBC. With that rare ability to enthral and educate audiences with a great story, Benedict’s presentations are a balanced mix of entertaining anecdotes and inspirational messages where he guides audiences through a world of adventure and emotion.

Prof. Vito Di Bari: One of Europe’s most renowned futurists

Vito Di Bari is an acclaimed futurologist and an authority on innovation. Mixing Italian strengths of creativity and design with strong scientific analysis, he explains future mega-trends and scenarios of our fast-pace changing world. He is the Innovation Designer of Milan’s World Expo 2015. He is recognized worldwide for his numerous innovative theories, and multitude of published works.

Exploring the future of technology applied to everyday life, Vito shows you how our lives will change and why. Connecting recent discoveries in media, nanotech and robotics, he explains how corporations and individuals will change their behaviours and attitudes. He expertly analyzes for his audiences the intersections between the future success of trends and the adoption of innovations and their impact on our lifestyles.