Theme: Butterfly Effect-The Biggest Small Change

TEDxKIITUniversity is aimed to provide a first-hand TED experience to its attendees . It offers a platform to integrate new people into the TED community which helps them to bridge the gap between ideas and actions. This year we are focussing on ideas which may seem small but have managed to bring about remarkable transformations in the community. TEDxKIITUniversity intends to extend its platform to individuals who have been working relentlessly to induce the 'biggest small change.

Campus 6 Auditorium Hall
KIIT University
Patia
Bhubaneswr, Orissa, 751024
India

K Vaitheeswaran

Entrepreneur+Pioneer+Mentor.

After spending 14 years in the Murugappa Group and Wipro Infotech in various business development roles, K Vaitheeswaran was bitten by the internet bug and co-founded Fabmart.com in 1999 - India's first pure-play online retail company. This was later re-branded as Indiaplaza and he ran this company till 2013. He co-founded India's first e-commerce company Fabmart.com (later branded Indiaplaza). He has also co-founded India's first integrated retail company Fabmall - acquired by Aditya Birla Group in 2006 and re-branded as ‘More’ chain of stores. Currently, he mentors e-commerce and data analytics start-ups.

Laxmi Agarwal

Women rights activist

Laxmi Agarwal is the director of Chhanv foundation, an NGO that helps people who are able to keep living or succeeding in spite of acid attacks in India. She was awarded International Woman of Courage Award by U.S. First Lady, Michelle Obama and has been chosen as the Indian of The Year by NDTV for her petition that led the Supreme Court to order the central and state governments to regulate the sale of acid, and the Parliament to make prosecutions of acid attacks easier to pursue. Laxmi has become the voice of acid survivors after her work towards amendment of rules regarding sale of acids throughout the country.

Laxmi Tripathi

Transgender activist + author

A transgender social activist, dancer, actress, celebrity. Laxmi’s aim is to bring about the recognition of human rights of sexual minorities, especially transgender persons, and people living with HIV/AIDS. Through media appearances, national, regional and international consultancy, cooperating with various NGOs across the country and presiding over the CBO Astitva Trust, Laxmi is at the forefront of social work and advocacy in India. She was the first transgender person to represent Asia-Pacific in the UN President’s Office Civil Society Task Force on HIV/AIDS. Her work and personality were an inspiration for numerous literary, cinematographic and photographic enterprises. She is has complete her graduation in B.Com from Mitibai College (Bombay University) and M.A. in Bharat Natyam, Bombay University (under Baby Jonnie, Vaishali, Shri Shri Kalamani Mahalingam Pillay and Vasant Kumar Pillay).

Mahesh Bhat

Photo Journalist+author+film maker

A Bangalore based photographer and film maker, he has been in the photography arena for the last 30 years and has been commissioned by well known publications as varied as New York Times to Newsweek of Japan. He has authored the book UNSUNG, that narrates the lives of people who have made extraordinary contributions to society against personal odds. It helped raise over Rs.9 million for the causes of the heroes featured in the book. His work has spanned a variety genres, such as advertising, interior & architecture, corporate, portraiture, documentary and photo journalism.

Manan Thakrar

Doctor, Orator + Stand-up Comic + Co-founder of The Comedy Jams

Dr Manan Thakrar hailing from a small town in Gujarat, Jamnagar, has not only been practicing Medicine but also been well known for an initiative with the simple idea of making schools somewhere that children look forward to going. The small changes that he has created in a couple of Schools at Gujarat have opened up a completely new set of ideas regarding the much needed modernization of the education system.

Parag Mankeekar

Gaming solutions + developer

Empathy is a powerful human fundamental value which can address challenges and bring about sustained positive changes globally by empowering communities with socio-emotional learning (SEL) skills. The promotion of empathy is becoming urgent to keep the world together. The current education system is driven by the STEM model, which takes us away from the education of basic fundamental human values and the importance of the social value system. Dr. Parag Mankeekar is currently driving global scaling up of RealLives platform that can and will build SEL foundations by disrupting the current learning methodologies in partnership with the key stakeholders of the education system. Through its integration and use of online games and social networking, it is the key to build and promote empathy and change-making abilities of millennials globally. This will successfully change the way the world reads and responds to global challenges.

Rhythm Shaw

Musician

Rhythm Shaw is a 21 year old guitarist who, hailed as a child prodigy at the age of 8, garnered substantial national television coverage, as well as phenomenal feedback from his audiences through his school and college years. A single-minded artist, aiming to perpetually progress his skills, he has since been practicing on the guitar upwards of 14 hours a day. Along with such unparalleled dexterity on his primary instrument of choice, the guitar, Rhythm is also a multi-instrumentalist, with abilities to enthral audiences on the tabla, where he’d started his musical journey, training in hindustani classical music.

Shiraz Gidwani

Entrepreneur + Chief Executive

Gidwani is the Chief Executive of Iktara Holdings and Iktara / Firefly Motion Pictures. Having been educated at the Les Roches School of Hospitality Management,Switzerland; the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, New York; Harvard Business School and theJohn F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; he straddled several spheres of experience before founding the Iktara Group in 2009. He was formerly the Ambassador-General and Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Youth Development Programme.

Teju Nageswari

Trainer+Entrepreneur

After suffering through depression herself, she took a formal training in coaching and counselling to be able to provide best psychology solutions to those people who have been caught up in the hands of depression. Her team at nSmiles developed the app – Happy Being App, a portal for helping people through various programs. Happy Being App has got more than 1.5 lakh downloads and was on global top charts. As winners of Start-up Weekend from Bengaluru, the app was declared as the runner-up in ‘Do the Kind Track’ (only start- up from India so far) at Global Start-up Battle 2014. She has helped a lot of individuals who are already managing their stress at different levels well through the tool that provides personal development and stress management through the wellness approach.

Vivek Patil

Neon Light Artist + Sand Artist

Vivek Patil was pursuing his Engineering when he stepped on the stage of India’s Got Talent and since then has never looked back. Today, Vivek has been practicing his talent for more than four years. His talent also makes him India’s Only Light Painter. Apart from being Light Painter, Vivek also hold his expertise in Sand Art, Speed Painting and Speed art.