Theme: Truth & Dare

With the constant frenzied release of information, breaking news, and public outrage, will truth or subjective information crumble the edifice of institutional power, subvert the status quo and weaken democracy. Or is the real challenge to find out which voices we are to believe, and find leaders, innovators, and visionaries who will bring about the new Renaissance.

‘Truth & Dare’ is the theme for TEDxWandsworth 2017 as we throw the gauntlet to speakers, fans and followers to look at the status quo in their own lives, workplaces, and institutions to ask: Does this ‘Truth’ work? Dare I question my reality, let alone do something about it? Is this reality a truthful, authentic experience? And if not, has society ever succeeded when truth was deemed too powerful.

The theme - ‘Truth & Dare’ - aims to provoke us all to take a closer look at the world around us. At TEDxWandsworth 2017, we will give you access to new, thought-provoking ideas and thinking covering a wide array of topics. We want to overturn stones, shine a spotlight, and reveal hard truths about our world’s issues and problems, and dare us all to get more involved.

In the three years since we launched the first TEDxWandsworth, there has been great upheaval in politics, public discourse, and the echo of the social media chamber is ever deafening. Which is why this year, after extensive research and curation, we have chosen TEDx speakers that are on the cusp of creating new ideas, forging new systems and activating projects that will allow others to greatly benefit, and in turn fine-tune and elevate those local ideas into global ones. They will confront the ‘Truth’, and ‘Dare’ to act, forging a path for others to follow, share and be inspired.

The only question remaining is whether you are ready to join us on Saturday, 25th November for ‘Truth & Dare’?

South Thames College
Wandsworth Campus
Wandsworth High Street
London, Wandsworth, SW18 2PP
United Kingdom

Khiyo

Band

Khiyo are a London-based band that gives Bengali heritage music a modern, fresh sound. Their repertoire is drawn from Bengali folk, film and protest songs, Nazrul and Rabindrasangeet, radically re-worked. In 2014, they released their self-titled debut album, signing to ARC Music the following year. Khiyo is fronted by vocalist Sohini Alam, who is featured in Akram Khan’s Olivier-Award-winning piece DESH and currently touring with his critically acclaimed show Until The Lions.

Melodic Gold

Band

The performers are from the Year 2 Music performance course at South Thames College.

Brian Klaas

Fellow in Comparative Politics, London School of Economics

Dr Brian Klaas is an expert on democracy, authoritarianism, American politics, Western foreign policy, political violence, and elections -- and the security and economic risks of all these challenges. Dr Klaas is the author of "The Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding & Abetting the Decline of Democracy". He is a Fellow in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics. Dr Klaas has advised governments, US political campaigns, the European Union, multi-billion dollar investors, international NGOs, and international politicians. Dr Klaas writes a regular column in DemocracyPost, based at The Washington Post. He is also a regular contributor on a wide array of print publications, as well as media outlets, including MSNBC, CNN, BBC News, Sky News, NPR News, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, BBC World Service, and many others. Dr Klaas is an American, speaks French and is proficient in Arabic in addition to his native English.

Dallas Pounds

CEO, Royal Trinity Hospice

Dallas qualified as a nurse in 1989 and was a specialist in palliative and end of life care before taking on a variety of leadership and management roles in the NHS. Dallas joined the charity sector in 2010, and in 2013 became Chief Executive Officer at the Royal Trinity Hospice in central London. As CEO she endeavours to inspire and motivate those she works with. In September 2015 she won the award for "Rising Chief Executive Officer" at the Third Sector Annual Awards in recognition of her contribution at the helm of Trinity and also in the wider hospice sector. One of her strategic aims is for Trinity to be at the forefront of palliative care. Her "business head on a charity heart" motto ensures that Trinity has a sustainable future within an ever-changing healthcare environment. Dallas is passionate about equality, diversity and inclusion. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Senior Associate of The Royal Society of Medicine.

David Jubb

Artistic Director & Chief Exec., Battersea Arts Centre (BAC)

David Jubb is a theatre producer. He has been Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) since 2004, sharing the Joint Artistic Directorship with David Micklem from 2008-2012. He trained at Bretton Hall, Bristol University and Central School of Speech and Drama, where he is an Honorary Fellow, and has been awarded an honorary doctorate from University of Roehampton. David was Chair of Kneehigh Theatre from 2008-2013, and Chair of the London Theatre Consortium from 2012-2015. He is an active member of the What Next? movement, was a panelist on the recent Inquiry into the Civic Role of Arts Organisations by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and was a member of the inaugural Advisory Council for the Creative Industries Federation.

Emma Stroud

Leadership Consultant & Comedy Performer

Emma Stroud has an eclectic work background which encompasses her various passions. Her portfolio career includes businesswoman, MC, speaker and comedy performer. As well heading up an international leadership consultancy helping senior executives, business owners and entrepreneurs find, speak and live their truth, she also writes and creates sell out comedy shows. Her passion for creating stories that provoke laughter and thought in her audience includes award winning one woman show – Coming out of My Box in 2015. She is currently writing the sequel Coming out of my Box - The Revenge which will be showcased in London this October. Emma also runs a comedy improvisation group. Emma hosts a variety of national business events including the European Women in Sales Awards at The Savoy Hotel, the European Women in Construction and Engineering Awards and the Business Women in Action National Conference. Emma lives in Wandsworth with her five-year-old son and family.

Jane Amelia Harries

Training Consultant, Presenter and Adventurer

Jane is a training consultant and presenter who originally qualified as a solicitor. Specialising in tax enabled Jane to mix work with pleasure, as she indulged her passion for travel whilst working with some of the Big 4 Professional Services firms on three continents. Jane describes herself as a ‘soft’ adventurer. Her adventures have included hiking over 750 km along an old pilgrim trail from France and across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostella; rafting and canoeing for 17 days on the Zambesi River; and travelling across China by overland truck before heading down Pakistan’s Karakorum Highway to Islamabad. She’s been a runner-up in veteran women’s team competition at the Australian 24-hour Rogaining Championships; raced across New Zealand’s South Island on foot, by bike and by kayak; and sometime ago, found herself in Venezuela during an attempted coup, as a passenger in a six-seater, flying below radar detection as planes were being shot at!

Jason Leigh Forshaw

Research Fellow, Surrey Space Centre

Jason Forshaw is a research fellow at Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey, currently working on the RemoveDebris spacecraft research mission in a management capacity. His alma maters include University of Sheffield (MEng), Virginia Tech, Stanford University (M.S.) and University of Surrey (PhD). Dr Forshaw is a chartered engineer (CEng) and has worked in the aerospace sector for over a decade with past industrial experience including Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems and QinetiQ; today, he works extensively with satellite manufacturers including Airbus and SSTL. Dr Forshaw specialises in a range of areas including debris removal. As the lead exhibitor for the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition’s Cleaning up space junk in 2016, he generated significant press coverage internationally, with past engagements including: BBC World Service Newsday, BBC Radio 4’s Inside science, and BBC Newsnight’s Time to take out the space trash documentary.

Jo Youle

CEO, Missing People

Jo Youle has led the national charity Missing People for four years and was awarded ‘Rising CEO by the Third Sector in 2014’ and Top Social CEO on social media in 2015 and 2016. She was previously Director of the Services team at the charity. Jo is also Deputy Chair of Brook. Jo supported suicidal people with the Samaritans for 10 years, later as a Director of the Central London Samaritans in the heart of Soho. Jo also had a career in the music industry as a writer with Chrysalis and performer in band Scarlet, signed to Warner Music in the 1990s, best known for hit single Independent Love Song which also featured in the film Bed of Roses. Jo is proud mum of two children – a son aged 12 and daughter 10; a completer of charity challenges (but not out of planes), an avid reader, piano player, and a quiet political obsessive, and tweeter.

Jonathan Nichols

Reader in Planetary Auroras, University of Leicester & Science Team Member on the NASA Juno mission to Jupiter

Dr Jonathan Nichols graduated with a PhD from the University of Leicester in 2004, with a theoretical thesis regarding the nature of Jupiter’s auroras (northern lights). He has since held research associate posts at the University of Leicester and Boston University, Massachusetts, working with Hubble Space Telescope observations of Jupiter’s and Saturn’s auroras. He was awarded a prestigious five-year Science and Technology Facilities Council Advanced Fellowship in 2011, and was appointed to a lectureship in 2013. Dr Nichols’ research continues to work with Hubble Space Telescope data, having been awarded time to observe Jupiter, Saturn, Ganymede, and exoplanet WASP-12b, and is presently also working with Juno data as a Juno Science Team member. He has also contributed to iconic science programming including the BBC’s Wonders of the Solar System, Stargazing Live, The Sky at Night and Discovery Channel’s Jupiter: Close Encounter.

Kemi Akinola

CEO, Be Enriched & Youth Worker

Kemi Akinola is a community worker and researcher and her raison d’etre is community action and how it positively affects and impacts individual lives. In 2013, Kemi founded Be Enriched a youth and community charity focussing on creating positive environments to connect people and affect local change. As a student of architecture, she has always been interested in how surroundings affect people, and how creating positive environments can support and enrich neighbourhoods and communities. This experience has provided Kemi the opportunity to study the psychological benefits and effectiveness of community environments and record first-hand the real life experiences of those affected by social exclusion and inequalities. Kemi is also Co-chair of the Lambeth Food Partnership and facilitates the Wandsworth Food Partnership.

Kevin Green

Chief Executive, Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)

Kevin Green has been the Chief Executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation since 2008. During this time, REC has been recognised for excellence in service provision and campaigns winning over 16 association awards including Trade Association of the Year. Kevin has also personally won the Trade Association Leadership Award. Before starting at the REC, Kevin worked for the Royal Mail from 2003 to 2008 where he was part of the leadership team which transformed the business from losing £1.5 million a day in 2003 to making over £600 million profit in 2007. Kevin has a Post-Graduate Diploma in Personnel and is a Fellow of the CIPD and IRP and has written many articles on HR Strategy and Organisational Change. He has also spoken widely on the future of resourcing; using people strategies to improve competitiveness, and how to undertake people-centric organisational transformation.

Malav Sanghavi

Founder, LifeCradle and Creoto

Malav Sanghavi graduated in Product Design at National Institute of Design, India and completed his Masters (MA/MSC) in Innovation Design Engineering at Imperial College and Royal College of Art, London. His recent design – LifeCradle – a baby incubator made from cardboard, will help babies born in remote parts of the developing world where there is little neonatal care. Malav was one of two winners at the Vatican Youth Symposium in 2016. At the event, Malav’s work was described as “one of the best ways to save lives” by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the UN’s Sustainable Development Solutions, which co-hosted the Symposium. Malav hopes his design will go on help save babies lives in India - which currently has the highest number of preterm births - and other developing nations. Malav’s goals are to channel his entrepreneurial spirit to develop sustainable and affordable healthcare products that can be accessed by grassroots communities and give back to society.

Paula Rowińska

PhD student, Imperial College London

Paula Rowińska is a PhD student of Mathematics of Planet Earth Centre for Doctoral Training, at Imperial College London. She is currently researching the mathematics of climate change and how to make investments in renewable energy sources more efficient – describing it as the ‘programme of her dreams’. Prior to this Paula graduated with a Mathematics degree from the University of Warsaw and pursued a MRes in Mathematics at University of Reading/Imperial College London. Paula also graduated from a Poland-based mentoring programme - Lean in STEM Project, which encourages young women to pursue education and careers in Technology and STEM-related fields. Through this programme she honed her science writing skills and now is the author of blog ‘Certain about Uncertainty’ – which provides witty and concise articles on how maths can be fun and its practical use in all areas of life.

Robert Gardner

Co-Founder, RedSTART

Robert Gardner is an independent investment consultant and prominent leader in the pensions’ industry. He has founded various organisations and an online community to help people and young children to better understand the impact of their financial decisions on their future. His passion for helping future generations save for a better financial future lead to the launch of RedSTART in 2012 - a charity that provides financial education and an entrepreneurship programme to young people. In 2016, RedSTART was presented with the Editor's Choice Award at the Financial News Pensions Awards. In 2016, Robert wrote "Save Your Acorns", a book aimed at four-to-six year to help them learn about saving, investing and sharing. And he also co-founded Mallowstreet, an online community for the pensions industry, which works to solve the pensions and savings crisis through education and collaboration.

Rodney Branigan

Singer, Songwriter, and Guitarist

Texas-raised Londoner who learned to play in Austin, perform in Los Angeles, craft songs in Nashville, and put it all together in the big smoke. A master of several instruments, with a rich and soulful voice, Rodney’s heartfelt lyrics have often led to comparisons with Jeff Buckley, even described by France’s Crossroads magazine as “the revelation of the year or even the decade”. A First Class US Import!

Tom Morley

Scritti Politti Founder / Team Building Guru

Fascinated by the creative process Tom is passionate about sharing what he’s learned about art, rhythm and harmony over the past 60 years. From playing kit drums with the Art School band Scritti Politti in his 20’s, through songwriting in his 30’s, to studying psychology and facilitation in his 40’s, Tom eventually set up Instant Teamwork International in his 50’s. His down-to-earth belief that people can achieve great things when they overcome their natural fears, has empowered thousands of individuals to work together effectively.

Waney Squier

Paediatric Neuropathologist

Dr Waney Squier is a Consultant Neuropathologist to the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals and Honorary Clinical lecturer at University of Oxford. Her specialism is in the pathology of the developing brain in the foetus and neonate. Other areas of interest are developmental causes of epilepsy and muscle pathology. Dr Squier has carried out extensive research into the nature and timing of brain damage due to intrauterine and perinatal insults. As a result of this research, Dr Squier has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, edited a book on developmental brain damage, and acted as a prosecution and defence expert witness in cases of unexpected infant death. However, her court testimonies were shrouded in controversy after she began to question the research evidence and in 2001 changed her mind about the causes for ‘shaken baby’ cases.

Yvonne Ellis

Founder & Director, Daughter Arise

Yvonne Ellis is an author, inspirational speaker and founder of Daughter Arise, a charity that seeks to support survivors of sexual abuse. Her autobiography also named Daughters Arise was published in 2010, and chronicles her own childhood sexual abuse and the subsequent marginalisation and isolation she encountered after being placed in council authority care. Yvonne now gives talks on ‘supportive empowerment’ and runs a support network for adult survivors of sexual abuse through YEME Empowerment, an organisation that helps to empower people. In her bid to combat the ostracisation and social isolation faced by many survivors, Yvonne’s mission is two-fold: to build communities where survivors are able to unite and support one another, and provide supportive ‘peer empowerment in action’ when faced with making difficult life decisions.