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).

Tjarnabío
Tjarnargata 12
101, Reykjavík
Iceland

Birna Dröfn Birgirsdottir

entrepreneur

Birna Dröfn Birgisdóttir is a creativity specialist and the founder of Bulby—a revolutionary software that's reshaping how we approach creativity. Birna is truly passionate about creativity and loves to immerse herself in the topic. She has researched creativity for her PhD studies and empowered numerous organizations and individuals to think outside the box through her talks and workshops.

Bjartmar Leosson

bike lover

The last few years Bjartmar has been finding a lot of stolen bikes in Reykjavík where he lives. Shocked to see them piling up at the homeless shelters, he started to retrieve them and return to their owners. From that point on the doors to a hidden world slowly started to open up to him. A world where stealing has become perfectly normal. At first he was angry at the situation, but quickly learned that anger doesn’t solve anything. So anger was turned into efforts to understand the situation and getting to know the people. And with that mindset he got through to many individuals, convincing them to help finding stolen bikes, and even influenced some of them to make a change in their lives.

Dan Zerin

stand up comedian

Dan Zerin is an American comedian and photographer living in Iceland. One of the creators of the multi-award winning stand-up comedy show "My Voices Have Tourettes", Dan has spent much of his stand-up career trying to raise awareness for mental health, Neurodiversity, and disability in a fun way. He has Tourette Syndrome and a shopping list of other disorders, making him a unique comedian who sounds like he is still going through puberty in his 30's. He was the first comedian in Icelandic history with Tourette Syndrome to perform for the President of Iceland... or, at least, the squeakiest!

Darri Hauksson

artist from Art Across

Haukur Darri Hauksson is an Icelandic CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) with a background in cultural studies. Darri is a part-time teacher at the University of Iceland, the vice president of CODA Iceland, and the secretary of Art Across. He performed as a sign-language soloist in its first concert. Art Across is a non-profit association founded in 2023 by a group of musicians, authors, and sign-language scholars. The project driving us is to bring Deaf culture and arts to the center stage by experimenting with contemporary music and sign-language arts. Beyond mere translation, we mix them and make them complete one another in a new kind of performance art that transcends the usual boundaries of music, perception, and poetry. This ambition to create a bridge between arts and communities is the inspiration for our name, Art Across.

Kristín Blöndal Ragnarsdóttir

teacher

"My main interests are primarily people and company. Equality, on any basis is a matter of concern to me and In both my studies and my work, I have placed special emphasis on gender equality. I believe it is important to treat everyone on an equal basis and I am very interested in that"

Linda Hemisdottir

CEO Mideind

A linguist by training (PhD from Cornell University, 2015), Dr. Linda Heimisdóttir is the CEO of Miðeind, an Icelandic AI company which specializes in building Language Technology solutions for Icelandic and other under-resourced languages. Since joining the company in January 2023, Linda’s main focus has been on navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-based language technology, which has seen considerable disruption with the advent of Large Language Models. Prior to her appointment at Miðeind, Linda was a US-based Program Manager at Appen, where her focus was on structuring high-quality linguistic training data for NLP and AI applications.

Renata Bade Barajas

entrepreneur

Renata Bade Barajas is Co-founder and CEO of Greenbytes, a green tech startup that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to combat waste, and increase inventory and supplier management efficiency in the restaurant industry. Renata previously worked in the clean energy sector in Germany, where she applied engineering principles and problem-solving to identify wind energy opportunities across Europe. Through Greenbytes, she’s able to combine her love for sustainable solutions, design and engineering to identify and solve practical sustainability challenges within another industry sector she’s passionate about, food.

Tanya Sleiman

filmaker, teacher

Tanya is the founder of Taza Films, launched in 2008, and active today for commercials, documentaries, and new media stories, consulting on fiction and documentary projects worldwide. She lives with her church-organ- playing daughter in the smallest city Tanya has ever called home: Reykjavik, Iceland.