Theme: Exploring Passion

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

Sansibar, Sunken City
Donauinsel 1
Sunken City
Vienna, Wien
Austria

Christoph Bauer

Christoph Bauer helps companies bring the human element back into the workplace. With a diverse background in technology, Social Media and work culture, his professional focus lies on preparing the current and coming workforce for a highly automated and robotic future.

Edward Druce

Edward Druce is the author of ‘This Is Where to Start: Find Superstar Mentors, Master All They Know, and Get Ahead in Your Career’. For the last 5 years, Edward has worked alongside speaker and coach Matthew Hussey. In that time he’s helped Matthew to become a NYT Bestselling author, to speak in front of over 100,000 people all over the world, work with celebrities the likes of Eva Longoria and Ryan Seacrest, and land his own radio show with iHeartRadio. Edward has been the lead in growing Matthew’s team, and have been the direct point of contact for those looking to join the company.

Emma Holten

We're told the net is uncontrollable. That protecting ourselves from harm and securing our rights online is impossible. Almost utopian. Emma Holten, a victim of revenge porn, has experienced what online violence and harassment looks like; and disagrees. There is much more to be done towards a more democratic, just, and equal internet. We must be ambitious about our shared future online.

Gregor Schmidinger

Gregor Schmidinger is a filmmaker living in Vienna, Austria. He studied screenwriting at the University of California Los Angeles and is currently working on his debut feature film Nevrland, that artistically explores the themes of sexuality and pornography. In 2012, he started his blog the Sex God Project, where he wrote about his personal experiences with porn-induced erectile dysfunction and quitting porn.

Karim El-Gawhary

Karim El-Gawhary was born as a child of an Egyptian father and a German mother. Now he lives in Cairo where Karim is the leading correspondent covering the middle east for the national TV station of Austria and many other quality media. His passion is to talk to the people affected by the wars and to collect and tell there stories.

Leäh Cheung

Leah Cheung is a young anthropologist who moved from Hong Kong to Germany to pursue her doctoral degree at the Max Planck Institute of Social Anthropology. Having travelled to numerous countries and accumulated rich ethnographic fieldwork experiences, she has developed an acute sense of cultural observation and remarkable cross-cultural interpersonal skills. She firmly believes that instead of avoiding cultural shock, one should embrace it in order to mediate between different cultural and social worlds.

Mikkel Christensen

Mikkel Christensen is a danish video journalist, fascinated by the life other people live and especially in telling their stories through new media. Together with Jonas Unmack Larsen, he started their first big video project, the slum challenge. With the main target group being teenagers between 13 and 18, they created an interactive video documentary that puts the gamer in perspective of a young child facing challenges in the slum.

Natalie Haas

Natalie Haas, 20 years old, is graduated pedagogue and studies political science at the University of Salzburg. Passionate, keen and curious to get to know other people and cultures, she saw it as a pleasure to welcome refugees in Berndorf. Now she sees it as her mission to share the experiences, she and the people inside her village made with the refugees, with the whole world to create something good and sustainable out of this pressing issue.

Rita Huber

Rita started her career in communication management. After realizing that doing one project after another has no true meaning for her, she co-founded the first organic and vegetarian food bike-delivery service in Vienna. With no training in professional cooking, but with a lot of passion for healthy and sustainable food, she and her partner redefined the possibilities in food delivery.

Thato Kgatlhanye

Characterised by a keen sense of curiosity and adventure, Thato Kgatlhanye has always relied on her instincts and creativity to help her respond to significant challenges in her life. She is a decisive, non-conformist and has always believed in following her own course. This attitude has enabled her to achieve numerous feats at her young age, including co-founding Rethaka, the company behind the socially innovative Repurpose School Bag, which is an up-cycled solar-powered backpack.