TEDxSalford

TEDxSalford: Sharing the Quests of Passion and Defying the Stereotypical

February 13, 2012 Blog Leave a comment

Introduction & the Theme of Exploration

A full day independently organized TEDlike conference was held at the Lowry in Salford Quays, with the aim of engaging a passionate audience and allowing them to gain a better understanding of the biggest issues faced by the world, leaving them with a desire to help create a better future. The initiative, licensed by TED, was led by Mishal Saeed, an International Relations & Politics student at the University of Salford and Uzair Farooq Butt, an Engineering graduate from Oxford University. Based on TED’s model to bring together some of the world’s smartest thinkers and doers, greatest visionaries and most-inspiring people together under one roof – the conference received some great reviews. It had local attendees as well as many from around the country; and had an impact beyond the confines of the venue as it was live-streamed globally.

While defining the vision and strategy of the project, the Curators wanted to celebrate brilliance and diversity. The team endeavored to provide a truly inspirational experience for the audience by bringing together some extraordinary people with remarkable stories to share. The theme of this year’s conference was exploration, with the aim of encouraging attendees to discover and explore not just the known or unknown but be able to create a path that appeals to them – their own path – via exploration of the mind, exploration of the soul and exploration of challenging oneself to the limit.

‘It is a pleasure to see Salford become part of the worldwide TEDx community and contribute to promote and inspire innovation, creativity and ingenuity using the power of ideas’– Martin Hall, Chancellor of Salford.

The conference was opened by Professor Adrian Graves, Deputy VC of Salford who warmly welcomed everyone to the city of Salford.

Human Rights

The Speaker line-up began with the most important aspect of human life – a talk on human rights given by an internationally renowned human rights activist, Irene Khan – who is also the Chancellor of Salford and Director-General of World Law Organization (IDLO) and was the first female and Asian to be Secretary-General of Amnesty International. Her heart-wrenching session condemned human rights violations around the world and encouraged the fight against oppression and injustice.

Adventurism

The theme of the conference was exploration – and we had three brilliant explorers who have each achieved spectacular feats uniquely impressive on their own accord. Ed Stafford, a Guinness record holder, known as the man who conquered the Amazon, shared his adventure of cheating death while undertaking one of the most dangerous journeys. Stephen Venables, who has a preference for un-trodden paths and unclimbed mountains, is the first man Briton to forfeit the Everest without supplemented oxygen. 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. These explorers have received some prestigious awards and accolades for their achievements and have been featured heavily by the media (including BBC & the National Geographic Channel) for their relentless courage and commitment in challenging themselves to achieving the seemingly impossible. They shared their experiences with the audience and taught everyone how continued passion and perseverance can push one to reach the limits of human potential.

Science

Dario Autiero, the leader of the OPERA Collaboration at CERN was also present at the conference and had come from Lyon, France. He was the scientist in charge of analyzing, validating and presenting the results of the ground breaking experiment of neutrino particles which have been proven to be faster than the speed light. The speed of light is widely regarded as the Universe’s ultimate velocity limit. The idea that nothing can exceed the speed of light in a vacuum forms a cornerstone in physics – He shared his insights of the experiment along with his colleague, Dr. Umut Kose, a researcher at CERN who had come to attend the conference from Italy. The Scientists shared with the audience some interesting facts about the neutrino experiment and what the findings could mean for the future of Physics.

To add even more from the field of Science, we had an award winning molecular Biologist and Cambridge graduate as a guest speaker: Dr. Heather Whitney came to join us from Bristol. She specializes in plant-animal interactions. Her talk gave a unique and interesting perspective on the animalistic nature of plants.

Diversity

Salford and Manchester’s own talent presented a local dimension of diversity to the event. John Robb – the vocalist of Goldblade, gave his talk without any presentation slides – but he had the audience hooked onto his every word. Tom Hingley – former lead vocalist of Inspiral Carpets, gave an interesting session on the importance of protecting copyright and preserving originality. Trevor Cox, a renowned Science communicator spoke about the dynamics of sound, captivating the hearing senses of the people present in the room and giving them an opportunity to glimpse into this unique field.

Magic & Music

As if reality was not enough, Stuart Nolan was the magician of the event and had the audience dazzled and gripped on every word. He had the viewers under his spell as he performed an unexplainable magic trick/illusion. A written description wouldn’t do justice to his magnificent performance, hence we will let the videos satiate your suspense.

Our second performance was by Classical Revolution Manchester, who brought with them sweet, serene and melodious chamber music. Bruno Walter’s saying describes their passion perfectly in the following words: ”Music springs from and is replenished by a hidden source which lies outside the world or reality. Music ever spoke to me of a mysterious world beyond, which moved my heart deeply and eloquently intimated its transcendental nature. Our inmost yearning, our deep desire for harmony in an extra-musical, transcendental sense feels affirmed, confirmed and calmed by music, and in this sense music seems to me a message a lofty ethical message that brings good tidings to the ethical part of our being from the mysteries of the world of sound.”  They soothed the senses, relaxed and connected the souls in harmony with the tunes, setting in very well with the theme of exploration.

The Past & the Present

The theme of exploration cannot be complete without story-telling narratives. Julie Summers, a writer, broadcaster and historian shared a factual story of courage about her grandfather and made the listeners question the fallibility of human memory and how we all create a narrative for our lives which may or may not have anything to do with historical facts.

Dawn Gibbins (MBE), a philanthropist and a well-renowned entrepreneur energized the audience using the art of Feng Shui and spread waves of positivity and optimism. She is known to have a heart of gold. The listeners were fascinated by the story of her family business of Flowcrete and were intrigued by her liveliness and optimism.

In their unique ways, they outlined the beautiful aspects of life. These two story-tellers put their passion, heart and soul into telling their extraordinary stories which the audience is sure to remember.

Mystery Speaker: Col. Ron Garan – NASA Astronaut

One of the highlights of the conference was having an Astronaut from NASA – Colonel Ronald Garan had joined us all the way from Houston, Texas, US. His talk was sensational as he described the limitlessness of the theme of exploration. Giving us a virtual space tour, he shared his experiences of being in space. His talk invoked the emotions of the audience as he expressed that from space, human conflicts and territorial divisions are not visible, with two exceptions: the disputed line of Kashmir bordering India-Pakistan, and the Palestinian-Israeli division was visible even from space. He said that it broke his heart to be able to observe these conflicts and to see a testimony of human suffering even from space. It inspired him to be active and dedicated to social causes, including Fragile Oasis. He also presented his newest project – Unity Node – an international effort with the aim of connecting humanity’s change makers to the challenges of our planet – and to each other – through a universal, open source platform that will help achieve common goals.

His talk was beaming with heart-touching lessons- ‘You don’t have to be in orbit to have the orbital perspective, and you don’t have to accept things the way they are.’ Unity Node is invested in reducing that sobering contradiction that we see when we look down at our world. It has the vision that now is the time to improve life on Earth so that it is not only visibly beautiful, but where life is beautiful for all.

The FUTURE

“It is not the fruits of past success but the living in and for the future in which human intelligence proves itself.” - Friedrich von Hayek 

The Future is the most cosmic, mind-expanding, and philosophically enlightening topic the human mind can entertain. It is also the source of most of our most pressing practical problems and issues. Because the future has such great value and significance, we should do our best to understand it and actively and intelligently participate in its creation. For these reasons and to compliment our theme of exploration, we had two globally renowned futurists: Anne Lise Kjaer, based in London, has pioneered the concept of Multidimensional Thinking – developing future concepts by analyzing scientific research in conjunction with social, cultural, emotional and spiritual shifts in society. In her talk, she spoke about the rise of the importance of women in professional life and predicted that the most successful companies will need to embrace females in their organizations.

Prof. Vito Di Bari – is known as one of Europe’s most renowned innovators and global futurists. He came to attend the conference all the way from Miami, Florida. He gave very valuable insights of the future emphasizing that as we live in a period of significant, if not monumental, change – Socially, technologically, and psychologically, humanity is being transformed. This contemporary transformation of humanity is pervasive, fundamental, and multifaceted. Because of the great turmoil and historical significance associated with our age, it is absolutely necessary to bring some mental order and understanding to the present chaos and complexity of our times, to see the main pieces of the puzzle and the pattern of it all, to evaluate the different viewpoints, theories, and possibilities, and to gain some sense of direction for tomorrow. But just as importantly, we need to find ways to thrive in a reality that is more fluid, more open and uncertain, and more expansive and complex than in the past. We need to evolve.

Change – complexity – uncertainty – expansiveness – these are both the challenges and the opportunities of what is emerging around us – the double-edged sword of the future. Instead of attempting to avoid or resist the inevitable flow of time, we should consciously and intelligently face tomorrow. We should become educated on the future. We need to evolve our capacities for understanding and thinking about the future – to develop our future consciousness, that is, our awareness of the possibilities, complexities, challenges, and opportunities of the future and our psychological and social capacities to flourish in this reality. Apart from these lessons, Dr. Vito gave us his own life’s example that to be prepared for the future one needs to keep challenging oneself. He told us that he had left Italy, in search for bigger and greater challenges, demonstrating that in the end, it is the challenges which make the journey more valuable.

The ingredients of this project

TEDxSalford truly lived up to the description of TEDlike experiences: ‘the ultimate brain-spa’, and even more importantly, we were able to share not just ideas worth spreading but ideas worth doing. The conference would not have been the same without the TEDxSalford Management team’s efforts: Vlad Victor Jiman, Matt Hoffbrand, Michael Speleoto, Lissy Holz, Ian Jackson, Tim Alonso, Daniel Swanson, Silviu Alex, Anca, Gerry, Christopher Hackett, Denitsa, Sonya, Emel, Kalina, Bency.

The support of our sponsors and partners cannot go without acknowledgement: Gold sponsors: Manchester Science Parks and LO’real. Bronze sponsor: Salford’s Student union. IT partners: Wendy Cockcroft, Sparkle, Nathan Rae Productions. Food partners: Lime UK, Eat Natural.

Food for thought – for the curious cats.

Due to the extremely high demand, we will be planning another conference soon. The bar has been set high.

Our Curator & Licensee – Mishal Saeed will be traveling all the way to California at the end of this month to attend TED 2012 – so that in future those of you, who couldn’t get a ticket for TEDxSalford because of the attendee limit, can get one next time. Watch out for an even bigger, better and bolder experience!