Theme: A Road Less Travelled

TEDxLoughborough is a local conference organized by a group of enthusiastic students, who are keen on bringing the TEDx experience to the university town of Loughborough. On 2nd May, we will experience “a road less travelled” together, a way paved with groundbreaking ideas shaped by the speakers’ research and expertise that will reveal out of the box ways of approaching different aspects of life and work. Major topics that will be covered include sustainability, economics, business, technology, design, psychology, medicine and education. Step by step, the audience will be immersed in a magic atmosphere of inspiration, creativity and wonder that will leave an imprint on their individual paths of development.

Why “A Road Less Travelled”?

The quest for a multidiscplinary theme that can encompass a wide range of topics, be unique and tailored to the expectations of the dynamic community in Loughborough took multiple routes towards a final decision. Many questions have been asked along the way and this is the phrase that answered all of them. It represents the link between the remote past and the foreseeable future, within which we play an ultimate role: plant ideas in rich soil and make changes in people’s lives. And if they will aim high, the world will reap the benefits of their ambitious actions.

Sometimes, doing things in the same traditional way can be daunting for highly energetic individuals and limit the potential of specific ideas. At TEDxLoughborough, we therefore wish to explore innovation through alternative ways of thinking and acting about the present, and also become an active voice in the global TEDx movement.

Epinal Way
Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE113TU
United Kingdom

Huw Edwards

Huw Edwards came into academia relatively late, having been an economist at the Department of Energy in the 1980s. His PhD at Warwick was on modelling regional economic agreements. In more recent years, he has mixed academic research (applied theory and empirics of globalisation) with policy advisory work to the European Commission on trade with Ukraine and South Korea.

Jim Shields

Jim has had a passion for filmmaking ever since he discovered that he could combine the images he was drawing (pastels mainly) with sounds he'd captured in jars. More recently he turned to making simple comedies for the "interweb" helping companies achieve notoriety despite their crushingly dull products and services. He owns and runs Twist & Shout Communications, based in Leicester and, of all places, Dallas, TX. His stand up career seems to have peaked at "reassuringly mediocre", prompting the Loughborough Echo to write "Jim's avuncular style and material made us all feel like a hot mug of Ovaltine for some reason". Nice. A self-confessed disciple of new-marketing Guru Seth Godin, Jim tries to spread the word at every opportunity that we, the people, have the means of production at our fingertips. We no longer need a mill owner to employ us – we can make things on our own out of zeros and ones.

Karen Coopman

With a background in pharmacology Karen has always had an interest in healthcare and in 2008 was appointed to a lectureship at Loughborough University within the Department of Chemical Engineering. The overarching theme of Karen’s research is the manufacture of cellular therapies. The ultimate aim is to generate a viable stem cell bioprocess such that clinically relevant cell numbers can be generated whilst ensuring product potency, purity and safety. Developing scalable systems for stem cell growth and improving methods of cell preservation are the current focus of the group. Outside of the University, Karen is also a member of the EPSRC Early Career Forum in Manufacturing Research, is on the Steering Group of the Bioprocessing Research Industry Club and is the meetings secretary for ESACT-UK, the UK Society for Cell Culture Biotechnology.

Uri Gordon

Uri Gordon (DPhil, Oxon.) is Lecturer in Politics at Loughborough University. A veteran environmental and peace activist, he is author of the book ‘Anarchy Alive! – Anti-authoritarian politics from practice to theory’ and numerous articles on radical theory, technological politics and environmental history. His work has been translated into thirteen languages. Twitter: @anarchyalive