Theme: Resonance

Resonance creates a morphic field that strengthens when more energy is added to it. When we resonate with something or someone, we relate to it in a certain, almost harmonious way. It strikes a chord with us. This year, TEDxKL explores Resonance. Come and discover more thoughts and ideas which may create more resonance in your life.

Calvary Convention Center
1, Jalan Jalil Perkasa 1
Bukit Jalil
Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, 57100
Malaysia

Alena Murang

Folk Singer, Heritage Historian

Alena Murang has learnt the traditional art forms of the Kelabit, Kenyah and Penan people since the age of six, including dancing, weaving, design, singing and playing music instruments. Presently she is a full-time practitioner and pioneer of art forms from Borneo, seeking to learn from tribal elders in the Ulu Baram (the upper Baram river near the Malaysian – Indonesian border) villages. Some of the songs she learns are remembered by only a handful of elders from her grandparents’ generation. Her artwork is also inspired by the indigenous communities and the natural environment of Borneo, where she grew up in. Using paint and music as her main mediums, she seeks to tell the stories of her ancestors, who hold the knowledge of the rainforests, age-old myths, and a simple and honest way of life, as well as the stories of the hardships they face today.

Anne Deguerry

Anne Deguerry is a lawyer by training who holds two master’s degrees, one in management and the other in commercial law, as well as a postgraduate diploma in European law. As a traveller, she sailed around the world for six years before settling down in Madagascar where she founded and managed a law firm that specializes in corporate law and land law. Having a strong commitment to social and environmental responsibility, Anne held the position as the secretary general of Femmes Environnement Majunga, a non-governmental organisation which promotes, in a sustainable way, the economic development and empowerment of the women community in the Majunga area through weaving and natural dyes.

Honor Harger

Artist-Technologist

Hailing from New Zealand, Honor Harger has an exceptional interest in the artistic uses of science and technologies. Before she took on her present position as the Executive Director at the ArtScience Museum in Singapore in 2014, she was the artistic director of Lighthouse in Brighton, UK where she curated projects that displayed the cultural impact of scientific ideas. Under the artistic collective label r a d i o q u a l i a, one of the main projects that she produced with co-founder Adam Hyde was Radio Astronomy, a radio station broadcasting sounds from space. A TED speaker, Harger has lectured at notable places such as LIFT (a key event about innovation and digital technologies) in Geneva, the European Space Agency, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the California Institute of Arts and the American Film Institute. A TED speaker, Harger has lectured at notable places such as LIFT (a key event about innovation and digital technologies) in Geneva, the European

Rajeev Peshawaria

Thought Leader

CEO of the Iclif Leadership & Governance Centre, author of Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders, co-author of Be the Change and a regular writer for Forbes, Rajeev Peshawaria has extensive global experience in leadership and human capital consulting. He began his professional life as a banker and currency trader. Very soon thereafter he became disillusioned with the fact that a lot of young people joined the workforce full of hope and enthusiasm, only to be crushed into cynicism by bosses who do not care enough to develop and nurture them. He could not understand the work-life balance debate, and struggled with questions like: Why are work and life considered so different and opposite from each other? Why don’t people feel a sense of excitement coming to work every day? He also noticed that while technological advances were changing life and work at a pace never experienced before, certain management practice was still stuck in the 1930s.

Saidah Rastam

Composer, Author

Saidah Rastam has composed music for for gamelan, martial artists, opera singers, choral groups, jazz ensembles, western orchestras and electronic music. Her music is often cross-cultural: Indian classical instruments and jazz in Scintillations, Malay poetry and western classical voices in Lapangan Ya-ya-ya; Chinese opera singers and a jazz quartet in Spirits; folk music from six Asian countries in Prism, traditional Chinese instruments and Malay gamelan in Keras Bila Dipadu. In M! the Opera, Saidah combined Malay traditional instruments and asli singing with a western orchestra and SATB vocal arrangements. Malam Terang Bulan, a show she created, wrote and directed, was staged in 2014 and in 2015 at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (Philharmonic Hall) to popular and critical acclaim.

Usman Riaz

TED Senior Fellow

Usman Riaz is an artist and Pakistani musician making a worldwide mark with his astonishing and fun-to-listen-to technique. Influenced by percussive guitarists — who move beyond strumming to striking, treating their fret board like the soundboard of a piano — he makes a sound that feels larger than the instrument itself, with a compelling pattern of repetition and variation that harkens to mystical music traditions. In 2011, a viral video for his song “Fire Fly” helped bring his sound from the small-but-thriving Pakistani music community to a global audience. Currently directing Pakistan’s first hand-drawn animated film The Glassworker (funded by supporters through Kickstarter) through Mano Animation Studios which he leads, Usman is working with a team of talented animators from his home country, UK, South Africa and Malaysia. Usman continues to be the youngest TED Senior Fellow