Speakers from Peterborough, alongside experts from across the UK and Europe, will step onto the stage at TEDxPeterborough, next Thursday (October 27).
Part of the global TED brand, TEDxPeterborough is being run by a team of volunteers in the spirit of TED’s mission of ideas worth spreading. With a theme of ‘Building For The Future’, TEDxPeterborough aims to educate, inspire and spark deep discussion among the community.
The ticketed event will take place at Peterborough College, Park Crescent, Peterborough from 9.30am to 5.30pm, with talks, TED talk videos and networking. Launched in 2009, TEDx is a programme of locally organised events that bring the community together to share a TED-like experience.
Some of the best talks from TEDx events have gone on to be featured on TED.com and garnered millions of views from audiences across the globe.
TEDxPeterborough curator, Asha Clearwater is thrilled with the line-up for this second event and has paid tribute to all the speakers who have had such a long wait for the big day. “Due to the pandemic and lockdown, this event should have taken place in 2020, but has been on hold for a long time,” says Asha.
“So, we’d like to say a big thanks to our wonderful speakers and our TEDx audience for keeping the faith and being patient as we’ve juggled diaries, dates and venues numerous times over the past two years.
She adds: “I’d also like to say a huge thank you to everyone at Peterborough College for stepping in as our venue at such short notice. Their professionalism, friendliness and willingness to support our event has been truly humbling and I couldn’t think of a better place to host TEDxPeterborough. With students helping with the video production and staging of this event, their involvement ties in perfectly with this year’s theme of Building For The Future.”
Rachel Nicholls, CEO of Inspire Education Group, said the college is delighted to be involved in the event. “As an organisation responsible for building thousands of successful futures every year, to be able to support such a well-respected platform with real work experience opportunities for our students is fantastic, and truly reminiscent of the TED brand’s mission to educate and inspire.”
Throughout the planning process, TEDxPeterborough’s voluntary team have been working hard to keep the event on track despite the challenges.
“It’s certainly been a long and winding road,” says Asha. “Venue changes, several date changes and two personal bouts of Covid, but the determination to share ideas worth spreading has never left me. The wonderful TEDxPeterborough show must go on, and it will. We can’t wait to welcome people to Peterborough College on October 27. It’s going to be an amazing day.”
Speakers at TEDxPeterborough are:
Jym Brown: Consultant, author, coach and speaker. He works with a range of businesses, professional sports teams and athletes using a unique blend of philosophy and psychology to improve processes, develop teams and individuals and increase performance.
Talk: Unlocking Human Potential, Jym explores how attitude and approach towards challenge, risk and truth may hold the key to unlocking and realising our unique potential.
Dr Anastasia Dedyukhina: Global thought leader on digital wellbeing, TEDx speaker, author. She founded an international network of 100+ digital wellbeing coaches who help people find a balance between their online and offline lives. For over a year she lived without a smartphone, and her first TEDx talk about her experience called Could you live without a smartphone? has been viewed more than 350,000 times.
Talk: Are You a Robot? “We confuse digital skills and skills we’ll need to thrive in the digital age,” says Anastasia. “As our lives get increasingly digitized, we give away more and more human qualities – memory, focus, compassion, creativity, and internal body awareness, and behave more like robots. At the same time, we are creating more human-like machines. If we want to stay relevant in the coming years, we urgently need to start prioritizing human, and not digital skills — in education, workplace and our daily lives.”.
Lucy Vittrup, M.A. is a university lecturer, leadership coach, author and podcast host. She trains performing artists, TV hosts and leaders to access their states of highest flow and has extensively researched sexuality and intimacy. Her passion for tech and its impact on relationship skills has placed her on tech stages and she trains Scandinavian medical doctors in conducting conversations about sexuality and intimacy with patients.
Talk: Love In 96 Ways, “We live in a time where children touch their phones more than they touch their parents,” says Lucy. As a growing number of children and youths experience loneliness, anxiety and depression and adults seek refuge in dating apps in the constant search for sex and love, Lucy argues that perhaps it’s time to look back and learn from cultures and times, where there were 96 words for love instead of just one. In this talk she proposes an expanded awareness of love, which she believes may be humanity’s pivotal survival competence in a digital and volatile future.
Chezzy Kennedy: Neurodiversity training director, keynote speaker and neurodiversity trainer with a BA (Hons) in Special Educational Needs and over 13 years of experience working with neurodiverse individuals in their homes, specialist and mainstream schools, and business locations. Chezzy is proudly Autistic and Dyslexic, and has delivered face-to-face and online neurodiversity training to hundreds
Talk: There Is No Such Thing As A Naughty Child, Chezzy was the ‘Marmite’ kid at school. Tapping into her own life experiences, she will explain why she believes there is no such thing as a naughty child, only a child that hasn’t had their needs met. Chezzy will challenge thinking around behaviour and encourage us to start looking at the communication behind that behaviour so we can help our children become a community of next generation thought leaders.
Tammy Banks: Founder and director of a socially focused company that delivers training to key working services (ie Police, Charity, NHS). She is also a Lay member on the House of Commons Committee for Standards, assessing and adjudicating complaints made about MPs and is on the Westminster Fellowship programme.
Talk: How To Deliver Excellent Training – Building For The Future, Tammy’s talk will highlight how training delivered well has the power to transform lives. She will highlight the shocking truth that thousands of hours and pounds are wasted every year by poorly delivered training. Tammy’s story of education started at Peterborough Regional College when she was just 15 and living homeless. Sharing personal experience of abuse and poverty, she will share the takeaways that she has learnt throughout her career working in frontline services.
Chad Marshall-Lane: Chad has worked in health and social care for over 25 years and set up his own training company to concentrate on inclusion, diversity and acceptance.
Talk: Hate Crime and Discrimination: Finding The Way Forward, In his talk, Chad will look at discrimination and rising hate crime in the UK, explore what defines a hate crime and explain why he thinks we need to take Equality and Diversity training a step further to build an accepting and supportive society of the future.
Kelly Swingler: Coach, speaker and author, passionate about preventing burnout and changing the world of work. She has worked in the People and Leadership arena for over 20 years, encouraging leaders to think differently about how they support and lead their people. In 2013, despite on paper having a very successful career, she reached burnout, and became determined to stop anyone else experiencing the same thing.
Talk: Should We Be Thankful For Burnout?, “Type into google ‘the impact of chronic workplace stress’ and you’ll find over 382,000,000 million results and with burnout numbers on the increase, what are we doing about it? Or, should we be thankful for burnout when it comes knocking at our door? Kelly talks about this and more.
Kate Beddow: Journal therapist, contributing author and wellbeing coach. As a mindfulness and meditation teacher, ex-teacher, mum and stepmum, Kate works closely with people of all ages guiding them to create a calm and happy life, using writing and the power of words. She is the creator of a wellbeing programme delivered in schools across the globe.
Talk: Is The Lack Of Creative Writing in Schools Impacting Our Children’s Wellbeing? Over the years the focus in schools has shifted away from creativity in writing and towards the technical elements of spelling, punctuation and grammar. With this, and the increased use of screens, our children are losing the ability to be truly creative, argues Kate. The positive effects creative writing can have on our wellbeing is well documented so it isn’t hard to see how this change could be contributing to the current mental health crisis we have in our schools, she says.
Amanda Carlin: Director of Heritage, Culture & Community (HCC) Projects CIC, whose principles are based on the understanding that a sense of place, and understanding of the history and heritage of where an individual comes from, or has moved to, enhances a sense of identity and belonging. Focusing on the geographical area of the Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk Fens, HCC Projects CIC’s work includes: archaeological and historical research. Amanda is Chairman of Heritage, Culture & Community (HCC) Stonea; a volunteer led constitutionalised sub-group of HCC Projects CIC, which publicises the importance of Britain’s lowest lying hill fort at Stonea Camp in the Cambridgeshire Fens.
Talk: Looking Back to Build the Future, It’s easy to think today, that the Celts were unsophisticated and uncivilised, and yet archaeology shines a light on pre-history and the British Isles, and East Anglia has so much to tell us, all hidden beneath the soil, says Amanda. In her talk, she invites us into the world of Stonea Camp, Britain’s lowest lying Iron Age Hill Fort. An Iceni feasting or spiritual site, hidden deep in rural Cambridgeshire that enables the visitor to walk in the footsteps of Queen and military leader, Boudicca. What can finds tell us about the past? How will those facts shape our future?
Lee Waters: Senior Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Psychology at University of Northampton and consultant with over 15 years’ experience. Lee has worked with clients from various backgrounds such as start-ups businesses, education and beginner to international athletes (archery, athletics, basketball, ice hockey, football, rugby and waterpolo). At present he is a PhD candidate in Sport and Exercise Psychology and is investigating the underlying mechanisms of decision making using eye tracker technology and reflective techniques.
Talk: Do You See? Using the Eyes to Improve Decision Making, Arguably the most important cognitive function we go through is decision making and we make thousands of them every day. They can determine our successes, failures and demonstrate our progress. To make effective decisions, however, we need information, and upwards of 80% (depending on the scenario) of that comes through our eyes. Lee will explore the nature of decision making, the role the eyes play, eye tracking technology and training activities that can be applied in many areas.
Katie Allen: Specialist Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Consultant and Executive Coach.
Talk Title: Is Allyship The Paradox That Can Unite Us? At a time when our opinions feel more polarised than ever, the desire to surround ourselves with people who think, feel and act like us can be strong, says Katie, especially when the fear of doing or saying the wrong thing can prevent us from wanting to stand out from the crowd. Katie explains how the paradox in allyship, and shifting our thoughts, feelings and behaviours from ME to WE might be the key to long lasting societal change.
Noel Moran: Founder of a yoga wellness and training business, business manager for an organisation that offers services to transform organisational culture in prisons, probation and correctional services, and training facilitator.
Talk: Build For YOUR future – in any environment, Noel’s talk will share his personal journey of trauma and marginalisation. Noel served a life sentence, spending years in some of the country’s toughest prisons, not only did he survive, but he taught himself yoga and mindfulness and fought the system to be allowed to become a qualified teacher. Whilst he was doing this he acted as a Samaritans listener, supporting other prisoners who were suicidal and self-harming. Noel will explain how learning the mindfulness practice of freeing his mind, and focusing on his own personal growth enabled him to light his own light and have hope for the future.
MC for the event is motivator, author, empowerment and visibility coach and seasoned TEDx speaker, Taz Thornton.
Taz is a speaker trainer and uses firewalking and other extreme empowerment skills to help people through her #UnleashYourAwesome workshops, 1-1 coaching sessions and talks on confidence, empowerment, personal brand and business visibility.
Tickets for TEDxPeterborough are priced at £15 to reflect the current economic climate and make the event accessible to all.
Book your space here now! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tedxpeterborough-tickets-440436376057?fbclid=IwAR1ZQV7XYldMEPmM5y7YeJPYHehBtSxF0vZH2_06EWFS1NAO6mnQaAibNKY
For more information go to www.tedxpeterborough.com and follow the TEDx team on social media for regular updates www.fb.com/TEDxPeterborough, Instagram.com/TEDxPeterborough and www.linkedin.com/company/tedxpeterborough/