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).

Gedimino pr. 4
Vilnius, Vilniaus Apskritis, 01103
Lithuania

Daniel Price & Erlend Moster Knudsen

Daniel has studied Earth and Environmental Sciences for over a decade. In 2014, he completed a PhD in which he investigated sea ice in the Southern Ocean. Using NASA and European Space Agency satellites, his work aimed to improve our knowledge of the frozen polar oceans. During this time, he completed three field seasons to the Antarctic as part of tireless scientific quest to better understand this final frontier on Earth and the role it plays in the greater global climate system. Erlend grew up in Norway, where he from an early age became acquainted with various outdoor sports and pursuits. His love for nature and the great outdoors lead him to pursue a career that allowed him to learn more about the way our actions affect Mother Earth. While pursuing a PhD in Arctic climate dynamics, Erlend spent many months living, studying, and conducting research in Svalbard and Alaska.

WhaleSounds

"Whale Sounds- hides five young and promising Lithuanian actors. It's a five-c Captain ship, which always starts its voyage from the deepest ocean depths. Every time it leaves its home port, the ship starts to play (not) music in effort to contact the surrounding sea life... The strongest contacts that it makes are with a whale, who spins his stories about how he remembers our planet and us from long, long time ago. It is not rare for the whale to start crying or laughing. But emotions never interrupt with his will to share his knowledge about what does it truly means to live. Our ship is a conduit between the past and the now, nature and man, the now and the future. Every time we rise up from the ocean, we transfer the message of great power in light, calmness, and goodness. This is what the voices of the deep whispers to us. When inevitably these letters will cease we will travel the land through forests, cities, people and other animals... but... this is all too far from now.”

Andreas Kaufmann

Andreas is a wildlife biologist and certified consultant for organic farming and forestry. For several years, he represented Austria at meetings of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), leading the development of the CITES guidelines for the non-air transport of live wild animals and plants. Andreas currently represents the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums on the Advisory Panel of the International Air Transport Association's Live Animals and Perishables Board, and is a member of the Austrian National Animal Protection Council, where he chairs the Wildlife & Zoo Working Group.

Brett Horvath

Brett is the co-founder of Scout, which combines near-term science fiction with reporting to cover the intersection of technology, economics, and morality. He is also an instigator who has worked in the realms of technology policy, interaction design, climate risk, artificial intelligence, and disaster response. Brett regularly consults with corporations, universities, political campaigns, and governments. In 2007, Brett launched America's first online voter registration platform, Your Revolution, which allowed voters in Washington state and Arizona to register to vote instantly from their Facebook profiles. In 2008, Brett directed Online Organizing and Social Media for T. Boone Pickens' “Pickens Plan” campaign. He helped the campaign sign up over 1 million members in four months, and by the end of his involvement was responsible for managing a community of 1.8 million members, who in turn sent more than 8 million letters to Congress.

Christina Goodness

Christina teaches on topics of social justice, information, and technology at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. She also serves as Chief of the Peacekeeping Information Management Unit for the Chief of Staff of United Nations Departments of Peacekeeping Operations and Field Support. There, she has applied her research in global programming and on-ground support, from Timor-Leste to Syria to the Ebola Response. Prior to joining the UN, Christina worked for 15 years as a business consultant, focused on information processes and interactive design, and serving Fortune 500 clients. She earned degrees from Smith College and New York University.

Danica Remy

Danica Remy is a well-respected Silicon Valley strategist and operations executive. She has successfully led numerous startups, companies and nonprofits at the forefront of pioneering technology, internet services, education, scenario planning and philanthropy. She is a recognized expert in information technology, facilities, human resources, finance and government relations. Currently, Danica serves as Chief Operating Officer of the B612 Foundation, which leads private sector efforts in research, analysis and systems design to protect Earth from dangerous Asteroids. Recently, she co-founded Asteroid Day a global day of grassroots awareness and education about asteroids and planetary defense. The other co-founders are legendary Queen guitarist Dr Brian May, Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, and German filmmaker Grigorij Richters.

Despina Papadopoulos

Despina Papadopoulos is the founder of Principled Design / Studio 5050, a systems design and strategy studio specializing in wearable technologies, building prototypes, and working with organizations to introduce innovation at the intersection of social structure and technological possibility. She has been named one of New York City's "Six Most Interesting Women in Tech." Despina is a professor at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program and founding faculty at SVA’s MFA in Design for Social Innovation Program. Despina has lectured internationally on the relationship between design, technology and ethics, including at CHI, Tate Modern, Smart Fabrics, the Jan Van Eyck Academy and the Ivrea Interaction Design Institute. Her work has been featured in publications around the world and exhibited in major museum shows, including the V&A in London, the Holon Design Museum in Holon, Israel, the Walker Art Center in Minnesota.

Ilona Kajokiene

Dr. Ilona Kajokienė is mostly known for her work as an experienced psychologist and psychotherapist. She has headed her own clinical practice since 1995 and specializes in working with young people who suffer from various psychological problems while developing their personal and sexual identities. Ilona is also a lecturer at the Institute of Psychology at Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius. She is an author of several scientific publications with a particular emphasis on eating disorder treatments, teen sexuality development issues and pro-social developmental pathways through adolescence. Since 1995, Ilona has been a member (and twice president) of the Lithuanian Association of Psychoanalysis. She is also part of a number of other professional clinical organizations. Last January, Ilona formed part of a Government Task Force, which drew up the first Republic of Lithuania psychotherapy practice law in the history for submission to the Lithuanian Parliament.

Jan Laurens

As a Med Doctor, with experience working in various developing countries, for Jan it became obvious that true health concerned the entire being which is beyond specific subfields of traditional medicine, which provided only partial solutions and were rooted in causal research and analysis. He left the field of traditional medicine to pursue a more holistic approach to health. Over time, he combined Unitary Homeopathy, Fasciatherapy, Bach Flower therapy, Resonance therapy and Conscientization into an integrated biomagnetic approach of disturbance. Disease here is understood as a narrow description of this term “disturbance.”

Jody Medich

Jody is the Director of Design for Singularity University (SU) Labs, where she provides design and innovation direction for corporate, startup, and field impact teams. She employs a radical approach to Human Centered Design to create exponential solutions to the world’s toughest problems. She also speaks about Augmented and Virtual Reality for SU. In her 22-year design career, Jody has created just about everything from holograms to physical products and R&D for over 300 companies. She’s spent the last seven years on AR/VR, most notably as Principal Experience Designer on the HoloLens Project at Microsoft and Principal UX at LEAP Motion. Previously, she co-founded and directed Kicker Studio, a design consultancy specializing in Natural User Interface and R&D for companies including Intel, Samsung, Microsoft, and DARPA. Jody is also a practicing artist with an MFA in Painting and Design & Technology from the San Francisco Art Institute. She builds robots and rockets in her spare time.

Jurgita Jurkute

For the last decade Jurgita has been a well-known television presenter, actor and recently a social activist. She uses her popularity in Lithuania to talk about issues related to the suicides and openly shares her personal feelings. Jurgita has a degree in Acting from Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater and a degree in Social Work from Vilnius University. Jurgita Jurkute campaigns to encourage the women in Lithuania to achieve for emotional and personal growth through higher self esteem. She advocates for a necessity to find time for personal needs and be open to the help of others. Jurgita has joined minds and hands with the likeminded people to create a social space for women called Trys seserys (Three Sisters), a second-hand boutique that puts its profits towards the seminars with professionals meant to empower women.

Loreta Juodkaite

Loreta is one of the most promising young contemporary dancers and choreographers in Lithuania. She debuted on the professional Lithuanian stage in 2006 with the performance Here and Now. The same year Loreta was awarded the Golden Stage Cross for Debut of the Year and Best Music for Performance for Salamandra’s Dream. She has been widely praised by audiences and critics alike for her choreographies Memory, Sibilé, Prayers in the Sand, Map of Dreams 1 &2, La Traverse, To Defy, Disobedience, Disappear, Dance in the City, Trimatrix to name just a few. So far, her works have toured Lithuania, Armenia, France, Germany, Israel, Russia, the United Kingdom, Turkey, India and Ukraine. In addition to her solo performances, Loreta also collaborates and performs with dance companies, with other choreographs, and with directors worldwide. Loreta holds BA in Set Design Studies and Master degree in Theatre Directing. She also graduated from Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in Austria (SEAD).

Markella Papadouli

Markella is a Registered European Lawyer (Greece) and a Legal Project Manager for the AIRE Centre (Advice on Individual Rights in Europe), a London-based legal charity where she works with asylum and trafficking cases. Markella currently manages the Esmee-Fairburn-funded Trafficking Project, which provides free legal advice and representation to victims of human trafficking, training to relevant stakeholders, and represents the AIRE Centre at asylum and trafficking conferences worldwide. Markella also manages two other projects: the EU TRACKS project, which focuses on the nexus between asylum and trafficking, through the vantage point of vulnerable asylum seekers, and the EU FIRST project, which focuses on victims of domestic violence and gender-based violence. She also lectures on European Asylum Law and International Refugee Law at London South Bank University.

Martynas Baciulis

Martynas Bačiulis is a senior student at Palangos Senoji gymnasium in Lithuania. Right now he is working towards finishing school and pursuing further education. Martynas has been debating on and off for over two years now, and participating in all of the local and national debating events that he can. Debating is something that has opened many doors for Martynas and has granted him experience that little else can.

Oshiorenoya Agabi

For the past 15 years, Oshiorenoya has worked in robotics, optics, computational neuroscience, and bioengineering. He led a cross-disciplinary team to develop an in vitro reflex arc for modelling implantable neural chips and completed a design for a peripheral nerve implant. Oshiorenoya is a theoretical physicist by training and earned a PhD in Computational Neuroscience and Bioengineering at the Imperial College in London.

Robert Örell

Robert Örell is a director at Exit Sweden, a project launched by NGO Fryshuset to help members safely leave racist, violent, and extremist groups. He has over thirteen years of experience in disengagement from political extremism and criminal gangs. He also has experience in social work, supporting victims of crime, parental support, networking and management. Since 2012, Robert has been a member of the steering committee of the European Commission’s RAN (Radicalization Awareness Network), where he co-chairs the working group RAN Exit. This year, he joined the expert pool at the RAN Center of Excellence. In 2014, he supervised the work at the family support hotline project Sy.Realize, which addresses the concerns of families affected by the Syrian conflict.