Theme: Evolving, one great idea at a time.

Of the millions of ideas that occur every day, some take off and reinvent the world, while others fade. Which are those ideas that change the world? What do they have in common and who’s behind them? In every place in the world, in very different sectors, ideas are emerging, ideas that have the ability to alter how we learn, how we eat, how we travel, how we communicate, and how we generate changes. In TEDxReading you will have the opportunity to analyse the anatomy of effective ideas – ideas that really impact thousands of people on a local level or Billions globally – to understand how they differ and why they manage to stand out among all others. From topics such as art, business, and technology we will see how the ideas that force our accelerated evolution, are born, matured and executed.

Green Park Conference centre
100 Longwater Avenue
Reading, Reading, RG2 6GP
United Kingdom

Benedict Jordan

Entrepreneur

Ben is a young entrepreneur, full time student and business owner. He has a keen eye for opportunity in the business world, once having a small tuck shop at school when he was thirteen, to being an ambassador for a worldwide company at fourteen and then proceeding to own a business that works with the popular indie game Minecraft at fifteen. His passion is business at heart, however he’s also a keen poet, writer, and currently writing his first novel. Overall enthusiast for innovation, spreading ideas and opening opportunities, going from a sweet shop, at thirteen, to now doing his first TEDx talk, at sixteen.

Cat Brooks

Musician - Singer & Songwriter

A creative singer-songwriter whose dynamic vocals are haunting and powerful, ranging from spoken word to soprano. Her cohesive yet unexpected song structures are lyrically sophisticated. She has performed with an understated confidence and unique visual aesthetic. Cat Brooks writes soul calming songs full of introspection and creativity. Cat's sweet, enchanting and sometimes quirky songs can simply make you forget your troubles. Easily worthy of our TEDxReading stage, relax and let our local musical talent take you on a journey.

Christopher Hoult

Marketing Manager at Progress Theatre Reading

An American transplant to the UK, Christopher is an Engineering Team Lead at DataSift, overseeing the customer-facing functionality of the world’s leading processor of human data. Prior to this, he was a Senior Engineer at Time Out Digital, helping design and deliver their global platform as well as running the Time Out London and Paris websites. In his spare time, he is an established member of the PHP community - co-founded and organizes PHP Berkshire. Alongside this, he is Marketing Manager for Reading's Progress Theater.

Edward Chilvers

Artist - Composer & Pianist

Edward is a Young Steinway Artist for whom music has been the center of his existence from the age of 4. Whilst his musical journey has taken him through nearly every genre and many instruments, the last half decade has seen him immersed in a new way of playing the piano, which evolved from his insights into musical theory and the nature of music. He has relentlessly drilled new techniques that were necessary to make playing these works possible, and he has now produced Etudes which demonstrate the beginnings of this work.

Gina Balarin

Senior Marketing Director

A self-confessed doubter in the honesty of advertising from an early age, Gina shares how marketing has grown up to a point where she's now proud to help customers get what they really want - because finally, marketers actually know what it is! Gina Balarin is a passionate speaker, and an equally passionate marketer. She loves words, people, ideas and inspiring others to see the potential in their own lives and in the products or services that their companies sell. She's been on stage since the age of 9, has been published extensively in the marketing world, and has spoken at round tables, on video, in case studies, on panel discussions and at events. She's the Senior Marketing Director at OmPrompt and has always had a love/hate relationship with advertising.

Graham Hancock

Writer and Journalist

British writer and journalist, Hancock specialises in unconventional theories involving ancient civilisations, stone monuments or megaliths, altered states of consciousness, ancient myths and astronomical/astrological data from the past. One of the main themes running through many of his books is a posited global connection with a "mother culture" from which he believes all ancient historical civilisations sprang. Graham sees himself as a journalist who asks questions based upon observation and as someone who provides a counterbalance to what he perceives as the "unquestioned" acceptance and support given to orthodox views by the education system, the media, and by society at large. His books have sold more than five million copies worldwide and have been translated to 27 languages.

Jenny Garrett

Career & Life Coach and Author

Her mission is to transform the world for everyone, one empowered woman at a time. She uses her years of experience in coaching and leadership to inspire and motivate people, working with them to deliver career and life changing results beyond expectation. Jenny has passionately studied gender through the lens of the female breadwinner for the past five years, culminating in her book Rocking Your Role. An audience of over 30,000 has been reached through her speaking engagements and individuals all over the globe have been coached, from Australia, to Botswana, the US, Spain and the UK, with over 3,000 coaching hours under her belt. Jenny is regularly asked for expert opinion in the media and has featured in BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, The Telegraph, Sky TV and Glamour magazine. As a client recently described her, Jenny is a "yoga stretch for the career".

Ketan Makwana

Serial Entrepreneur & Advisor

In a response to the emerging skills gap between education to employment and enterprise, Ketan launched Enterprise Lab, in 2011 which is now operating in 11 countries, training 100,000 people a year. In 2012 Ketan founded and delivered Youth Enterprise Live, the UK’s largest event on Education, Employment and Enterprise for 15-30 year olds. Leading on from this he took a position as Special Advisor to the Prime Minster on Youth Policy. Other work includes being part of the E20 Summit and sits on many advisory boards and panels. Ketan is the Head of Ops at Rockstar Group, the UK’s leading funding and mentoring organisation that has delivered £14m funding and supported over 2,400 businesses in the UK. As an entrepreneur Ketan has been awarded the Smarta 100 Award for creating one of the most disruptive businesses in the UK. In 2013 Enterprise Lab was awarded Best Business by Start Young Global Awards and was shortlisted Best Mentor 2015 in the Excellence in Business Mentoring Awards.

Kevin Warwick

Vice Chancellor (Research) at Coventry University

Kevin Warwick is Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) at Coventry University, England. His main research areas are artificial intelligence, biomedical systems, robotics and cyborgs. Due to his research as a self-experimenter he is frequently referred to as the world’s first Cyborg. Kevin is a Chartered Engineer who has published over 600 research papers. His experiments into implant technology led to him being featured as the cover story on the US magazine, ‘Wired’. He achieved the world’s first direct electronic communication between two human nervous systems, the basis for thought communication. Another project extended human sensory input to include ultrasonics. He also linked his nervous system with the internet in order to control a robot hand directly from his neural signals, across the Atlantic Ocean. He has been awarded higher doctorates (DSc) by Imperial College and the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague and a further 9 Honorary Doctorates.

Nick Reed

TRL Academy Director

Nick joined the Human Factors and Simulation group at TRL in January 2004 following post-doctoral work in visual perception at the University of Oxford and in 2014 became director TRL’s Academy co-ordinating scientific activities across the business. He has led a wide variety of research studies using the full mission, high fidelity car and truck simulators with a number of published articles, conference papers, and appearances in national and international media. Nick also championed work in the area of vehicle automation at TRL, culminating in technical leadership of the GATEway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) project – a flagship UK Government project to investigate the implications of the introduction of automated vehicles in the urban environment. In 2015, he was awarded a visiting professorship in the Engineering and Physical Sciences faculty at the University of Surrey.

Paul Moyse

Award Winning Caricature Artist

Paul Moyse has been painting caricatures professionally for 10 years. He has painted for clients all over the world, including illusionist Derren Brown, magicians Penn and Teller and inventor Tim Jenison. He has also worked as a freelance humorous illustrator for the magazines The Weekly Standard and The Radio Times. In 2012, Paul's portrait of Derren Brown sitting in his home was accepted for exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The painting is now a part of Derren's collection. Paul is a passionate advocate for the art of caricature and even teaches the subject to online students worldwide. He has also written and illustrated two books based on his work and his drawing process.

Quentin Gunderson

Founder & Executive Director at Gap Education

Former Headteacher and Founder of 'Gap Education CIC' - Reading based Social Enterprise, Quentin brings a wealth of experience and insight plus some solutions to questions like "how do we break the link between Socio-economic background and outcomes in education and in life?". He has developed a 12-step programme which provides a complete service called the A+ Family Advocacy programme. The approach has been extremely well-received, and Quentin has had plenty of interest from schools and organisations signing up to the programme from all over the UK. In just 2 years of operating, the work of Gap Education has impacted 100 of the most challenging families through schools from North Yorkshire to the West Country, and created around £5.6m of long-term savings with an operating budget of less than £90k.

Simone Vincenzi

Life and Business Purpose expert

Simone Vincenzi’s purpose is to support individuals connecting with their unique purpose in life, grow successful conscious businesses so they can leave their legacy and make an impact in the world. Simone Vincenzi is the Co-founder of GTeX (Growing Together eXponentially Ltd.), an award-winning speaker, author, Life and Business Purpose expert.

Stuart Morris

Tech Inventor, Entrepreneur, Teacher

Stuart is an avid entrepreneur, trainer of entrepreneurs, teacher and tech inventor. He has a passion to see people lifted out of poverty by building sustainable businesses and has been involved in highly successful entrepreneurship projects in Moldova, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Reading. He has been involved with tech inventions for groups such as police forces, military, hospitals, airports and many businesses since he was 14. He holds several patents in user identification and internet security. His desire to pass on what he has learned from his experiences led him to teach Entrepreneurship at Henley Business School and other universities in Europe. He also is a qualified paramotor pilot and self-confessed geek.