There is no Planet B. Earth is our only home and we are increasingly aware of how fragile it is. By the middle of this century, 9 billion people will share it. Additional numbers of people coupled with increased intensity of consumption are raising a series of formidable challenges.

Rather than consider this as a problem of resources – what resources can be exploited, who gets what – we will curate an event that will ask us to consider how we can live well today and for the future. What does it mean to live well? What do we need for a good life? Who do we need to share that life with?

More than half the world’s population lives in cities. Urbanisation is set to continue and so many of the above questions revolve around how cities function. How do they emerge? How do they thrive or die? To what extent do cities give us what we want, what we need?

We will also consider life in societies at different scales. What can differences in the size of a community tell us about how to live well? Does smaller, meaner slower and happier? How can we harness increased connectivity via the internet to improve our societies and communities?

The day will be programmed around the famous TED-style talks, but with ample opportunity to meet and connect with others. Small workshops will be facilitated that will continue the conversation started by the main speakers who will also be on hand to further explore the themes of the day.

Join us on 25th April for a day of making sense of space, and society. We are looking forward to you being right here!

Building 67, The Nightingale Building
University of Southampton
University Road
Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ
United Kingdom

Little Bulb

Little Bulb Theatre is a national touring theatre company based in the South East of England who combine innovative character work, beautiful imagery and exciting homemade music. They aspire to create performances that with humour and sadness will touch, startle and entertain. They are produced by Farnham Maltings.

Bradley Garrett

Dr Bradley L. Garrett is a social geographer at the University of Southampton with an interest in unmapped, unseen and lost places. His first book, Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City, is an ethnographic account of his adventures trespassing into ruins, tunnels and skyscrapers in eight different countries with urban explorers from around the world. His second book, Subterranean London: Cracking the Capital, is a collaborative photo book that dissects the world underneath London’s streets.

Bradley Garrett

Dr Bradley L. Garrett is a social geographer at the University of Southampton with an interest in unmapped, unseen and lost places. His first book, Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City (Verso Books 2013), is an ethnographic account of his adventures trespassing into ruins, tunnels and skyscrapers in eight different countries with urban explorers from around the world. His second book, Subterranean London: Cracking the Capital (Prestel Publications 2015), is a collaborative photo book that dissects the world underneath London’s streets.

Cara Sandys

Cara Sandys is a designer and maker of jewellery and champion of free stuff. She set up the Southampton and Romsey Books for Free shops as part of the Healthy Planet Project that also created a community arts space. When not working as a community organiser Cara volunteers for local arts organisations.

Cara Sandys

Cara is a self employed designer and maker of jewellery. She set up the Southampton and Romsey Books for Free shops, has run Stuff for Free events and volunteers for local arts organisations including The Nuffield Theatre at University of Southampton.

Donna Green

Chartered engineer Donna started work as a Research Scientist doing mathematical modelling in aerospace. Over the past 13 years Donna has become an expert in data analytics and Big Data technologies and currently serves as Training Strategy Lead for General Electric.

Donna Green

Donna Green studied mathematics at university and is a Chartered Engineer in the Institute of Engineering and Technology She is currently an Advanced Lead Data Scientist at General Electric where she applies advanced analytical techniques to a wide variety of domains including aircraft structures, energy gas turbines, wind turbines, and aircraft engines. In recent years Donna has been leading project in the Aviation Big Data Environment.

Jenny Josephs

Inspired by the low maintenance of her own pet bugs, Dr Jenny Josephs, University of Southampton, began investigating the environmental and nutritional benefits of edible insects. Today, Jenny researches the psychological issues surrounding eating insects and has become something of a champion for eating many legged critters.

Jenny Josephs

Dr Jenny Josephs is a research psychologist at the University of Southampton. Inspired by the low maintenance of her own pet bugs, she began investigating the environmental and nutritional benefits of edible insects. Jenny now works to promote edible insects at science and sustainability events in order to engage with people who will join the insect food revolution.

Kate Hadley

Kate Hadley is a theatre and art facilitator, performer and woodlander. Kate is committed to simple living in rural environments and is an experienced educator and facilitator of community projects.

Kate Hadley

Kate Hadley is a theatre and art facilitator, performer, woodlander and a member of TreeCreeper, a collective of three theatre and arts practitioners which uses the arts to implement social change for future generations as well as shape the world today. Working on projects to improve communities has led to Kate developing new insights into how we live now and how we could live well in the future.

Miguel Gonzalez

Miguel Gonzalez is a PhD candidate based in the Institute of Complex Systems Simulations a the University of Southampton. Originally from Venezuela, Miguel moved to the UK to pursue post-graduate studies in theoretical evolutionary biology. He is the co-founder of Biggest Tree, a social enterprise that turns surplus food into commercially viable tasty snacks.

Miguel Gonzalez

Miguel Gonzalez is a PhD candidate based in the Institute of Complex Systems Simulations a the University of Southampton. Originally from Venezuela, Miguel moved to the UK to pursue post-graduate studies in theoretical evolutionary biology. He is the co-founder of Biggest Tree, a social enterprise that turns surplus food into commercially viable tasty snacks. 

Paul White

Paul White is Professor of Statistical Signal Processing in the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) at the University of Southampton and is currently the Director of that Institute. His research interests include signal processing, underwater acoustics and bioacoustics (the way animals, especially marine mammals, use sound). He is primarily concerned with developing tools to assist in the computer-aided analysis of underwater sounds and understanding the role of those sounds in the marine environment.

Saamah Abdallah

Saamah Abdallah's background is in the natural sciences, with a degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Cambridge after which he worked there and and the University of Barcelona as a research assistant. He completed an MSc in Democracy and Democratisation at University College London, where he explored views of deliberative democracy in his dissertation. His current projects with the New Economics Foundation involve the development of alternative indicators used in policy making, and the analysis of wellbeing data from the European Social Survey in order to explore ways cities can improve wellbeing.

Saamah Abdallah

Saamah Abdallah’s background is in the natural sciences, with a degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Cambridge after which he worked in Cambridge and the University of Barcelona as a research assistant. He completed an MSc in Democracy and Democratisation at University College London, where he explored views of deliberative democracy in his dissertation. Saamah is now based at the New Economics Foundation where we researches wellbeing in cities.

Tess Berry-Hart

Tess Berry-Hart is an author and playwright whose work ranges from science fiction and historical novels to fictional and verbatim theatre. She studied playwriting at the Royal Court Theatre and her futuristic young-adult novels are published by Scholastic Books. The King’s Head Theatre London produced her last two plays of verbatim voices: Someone To Blame which campaigned for the successful release of Sam Hallam, one of the UK’s youngest victims of a miscarriage of justice; and commissioned Sochi 2014, a protest piece against the Winter Olympics in Russia after Putin’s legislation against the LGBT community prohibiting “the promotion” of homosexuality and “non-traditional” lifestyles. 

Tess Berry-Hart

Tess Berry-Hart is an author and playwright whose work ranges from sci-fi and historical novels to fictional and verbatim theatre. She studied playwriting at the Royal Court Theatre and her futuristic young-adult novels are published by Scholastic Books. The King’s Head Theatre London produced her last two plays of verbatim voices "Someone To Blame" and "Sochi 2014".

Vanessa King

Vanessa King is a board member at Action for Happiness and is an experienced leadership, talent and organisation development consultant, working with a wide range of international organisations in both the private and public sectors. Her expertise lies in the fields of professional services, leadership and talent and organisational development. Vanessa combines in-depth knowledge of the science of well-being with her client experience to help people get the most from work and for organisations to get the best from its people.

Vanessa King

Vanessa King is a board member at Action for Happiness, speaking both nationally and internationally about the enhancement of wellbeing and resilience. Vanessa is an experienced leadership, talent and organisation development consultant, working with a wide range of international organisations in both the private and public sectors. Her expertise lies in the fields of professional services, leadership and talent and organisational development. She combines in-depth knowledge of the science of well-being with her client experience to help people get the most from work and for organisations to get the best from its people.