Theme: Serendipity

TEDx University of Brighton is an independently organized TEDx event managed, organized, and curated by a team of students. In accordance with the TED philosophy, we believe in the power of knowledge and ideas to develop the potential of each human being, and have an effect on the dynamics of the world.

We consider that an unexpected or unplanned series of events, or even a single moment, can lead to amazing discoveries and life changing outcomes. From this principle we developed the theme of the TEDx University of Brighton event, Serendipity, a beautiful word understanding the realization that sometimes you can find something more suited to your needs than what you were actually looking for.

Sallis Benney Theathre
58-67 Grand Parade
Brighton, East Sussex, BN2 0JY
United Kingdom

Amelia Hagen

Global Engager and Educator

Named after the most famous female pilot in history, Amelia Hagen has been on the go since birth. Calling the world “home” while venturing to over 80 countries, she is inspired by the potential for learning and personal development to propel international exchange and cross-cultural understanding around the world. After graduating from the College of William & Mary with a degree in Process Management and Consulting, Amelia jetted to Japan where she spent five years teaching English, leading international relations projects, and organizing events for her local community as a Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme participant. In 2015, she graduated with an MSc in International Event Management from the University of Brighton. Amelia is the Academic Coordinator at CIMBA Italy, and will earn an MBA from the University of Iowa in July. You can catch her crafting guides for CreateTrips, writing for Pink Pangea, and blogging at Amelian Miles Away.

Dan Bennett

Marketing and Business Developer, Innovator, Entrepreneur

Dan is a Principal Lecturer in marketing at the University of Brighton. He is the founder of Bright Young Things, a student led marketing and PR consultancy that in four years has acquired over 40 clients and engages over 140 students in an applied and experiential approach to marketing education. He is committed to developing students as 'professional practitioners' and believes that opening students eyes to the positives of risk and chance is a key part of the learning and development process.

Emily Brooke

Innovator, Entrepreneur.

Emily left reading Physics at Oxford University for Product Design at the University of Brighton. Having cycled the length of the UK for charity just before her final year, she went on to create a radical innovation set to cyclists lives as her final year project - the Laserlight. Emily went on to start her own company Blaze after graduating, to make the innovation a reality. She now has a small team based in East London, has raised approximately £1.5M from investors such as the Branson family and Index Ventures, with a global supply chain and products shipping to over 55 countries around the world. Emily and Blaze have been been acknowledged with many awards, such as Blaze named a Bloomberg Business Innovator and WIRED's Top 100 Startups and Emily named Veuve Clicquot New Generation Businesswoman and listed in Debrett's 'Britain's 500 Most Influential People'.

Hari Kalymnios

Speaker, Coach and Author

Hari is a speaker, coach and author on the topics of self-leadership through selfmastery, high performance and personal energy management. Having worked in corporate London for many years, Hari left the comfort of a regular job to pursue the secrets to high performance. Dedicating himself to personal growth and mastery, Hari discovered that many high performing individuals had things in common. Patterns. Through his own experimentation and adoption of these patterns, Hari discovered something simple and remarkable all at once. The keys to performing at one’s best.

Joanna McEwen

Sound Therapist,

Joanna is a qualified and experienced sound therapist and holds an MA in Applied Anthropology, Youth and Community. She has supported children, young people and families for over 15 years within mainstream, special needs schools, youth and community groups. She creates and delivers wellbeing workshops through the use of sound healing, music, drama, mindfulness and breath and body awareness. She works with adults and children of all ages and abilities, including those with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, and Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities. She is a trained Empowered Learning Practitioner, working with children with special learning needs.

Jordan Bradley

Singer, Songwriter

Jordan is a young singer/songwriter from Brighton, who draws upon inspiration from pop greats such as Madonna, Freddie Mercury and Elton John. His music reflects his passion for all things pop, and his fresh and flamboyant approach to live performance guarantees for an impressive and exciting show.

Karen Mok

Tech Entrepreneur

Karen is the current Asia Regional Manager of Seedstars World, a Swiss-based initiative to find, connect, and invest in the top seed stage startups in 55 emerging markets. She also serves as the elected Trustee for Thousand Network (formerly Sandbox), a community of global change makers spanning 40 hubs across 5 continents. Prior to this, she was co-founder and CEO of Mahila Mobile, a social enterprise that aimed to increase women's access to mobile phone technology in low and middle income countries. Karen graduated magna cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis in the United States where she double majored in Economics and Strategy and International Relations.

Paul Hannam

Author and Personal Development Expert

Paul has over 30 years of experience in personal development,employee engagement and behavioral change in his roles as author, academic, coach and entrepreneur. He founded and owned a major training and recruitment business, taught at Oxford University and has coached over 10,000 people around the world. He has had 3 books published and his new book, The Wisdom of Groundhog Day, about how to improve your life one day at a time, reached #1 for Self Help on Amazon UK. Paul’s mission is to help people appreciate that they already have everything they need to be happy.

Paul Sloane

Speaker and Author on lateral thinking, innovation and leadership

Paul studied Engineering at Cambridge University. He worked for IBM in manufacturing, sales and marketing. He was Marketing Director and then Managing Director at database company Ashton- Tate. He went on to be VP International and CEO of software companies. He now helps organisations improve innovation. He is the author of over 20 books on lateral thinking, leadership and innovation. His talk will show how you can use simple powerful methods to break routine thinking habits.

Ruben De Noronha

Young Entrepreneur, Innovator.

Young Entrepreneur​ ​Ruben de Noronha ​reveals his journey to discovering, how 'Age Does Not Matter'. Ruben runs two businesses and works with local SMEs and startups to build their online presence by providing everything from Websites, Apps and Graphics. His 2 businesses focuses on Technology, he is currently studying for his GCSE's while running two businesses on the side.

Shonali Rodrigues

Event and Turism Professional, Developer, Social Entrepreneur

With over twenty years experience in the management of national and international large-scale events, Shonali knows that events involve years of preparation and planning. But what can prepare us to deal with the unexpected? It was outside her events work that a chance encounter led her to a new passion, which holds the answer to that question; and can help us all to recognise serendipity in our every day. Shonali currently leads the charity of the events industry, lectures in events and tourism, and in her spare time is Vice-Chair of the Tourism Alliance in Brighton and Hove and involved with projects for her local theatre and TV station.