TEDxPearlRiver is independently organised by a group of Hong Kong-based visionaries and will be a sponsored event, not-for-profit, free of charge, and by invitation only.

TEDxPearlRiver is committed to Ideas Worth Spreading, bringing together Hong Kong and Pearl River Delta movers and shakers, who use both many use both sides of their brains and have side projects in addition their day jobs, who are open to ideas, and who can drive change.

TEDxPearlRiver will offer free knowledge and inspiration from some of the world's most inspired thinkers, aiming to take Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta ideas to the world stage. It welcomes people who seek a deeper understanding of the world, and they hope to turn that understanding into a better future for us all.

TEDxPearlRiver offers free knowledge and inspiration from some of the world's most inspired thinkers connected to Hong Kong and the PRD.

TEDxPearlRiver is also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.
One day event, that will showcase eminent local and international speakers delivering short, inspiring talks to an intimate audience of 500 at the venue and by live webcast.

There will be shorter pieces of content, including music, performance, and comedy.
There will be no breakout groups. Everyone will share the same experience.

On a stage designed to celebrate Hong Kong's innovation and creativity, Hong Kong-based speakers will include celebrated conductor Perry So, renowned philanthropist and founder of DHL International Po Yang-Chung, designer and environmental activist Joanne Ooi and scientists William Mak and Roy Horan. Cybertect James Law, venture capitalist Po Chi Wu, Animal Welfarist Jill Robinson, entomologist Christophe Barthelemy and conservationist Willie Smits will join them on stage.

International speakers at the event will include extreme adventurer Annabelle Bond, renowned explorer and environmental educator Mike Horn, conversational expert Susan Bird, photographer Monique Stauder and writer and environmental educator John Hardy.

Highlights at TEDxPearlRiver will include Hong Kong's first iPad/iPhone and Piano concerto, presented by Hong Kong composer Samson Young, and a presentation of scientist William Mak's innovative biotech mobile lab bus, a novel and ingenious method for teaching science to kids. Exhibitions by local artists will also feature.

The diverse programme offers the first experience of its kind in Hong Kong, aiming to inspire, influence and engage, sparking thought and discussion amongst the audience, both at the venue and online around the world. It will take place at ArtisTree in TaiKoo Place, an impressive 20,000 sq ft venue dedicated to promoting arts and culture, which has been generously provided by Swire Properties.

The theme of the event will be "Explore".

Kowloon
Hong Kong

Adam Horler

Can asian consumers save the planet? Set up Asia-Pacific in 2008 as a regional social enterprise, focused on helping Asia toward a sustainable future. Adam left a successful corporate life, 13 years of which were spent in Asia, following the realization that things were not right with the world, and he was part of the problem. The problem is rampant natural resource depletion and the solution is educating consumers to consume consciously, thereby creating demand for sustainable products and services in Asia. Where consumers lead, companies and governments have no choice but to follow...

Annabelle Bond

Short bio of this speakerExtreme adventure and achievement The amazing athlete Annabelle Bond, born in Singapore and partially raised in Hong Kong, is an endurance runner and mountain climber. Amongst her many feats, Annabelle competed in Hong Kong's infamous MacLehose Trail - a 63 mile mountain marathon - for four consecutive years. She claims the title as the fourth British woman to climb Mount Everest, and, as she managed to scale the highest peaks on each of the world's continents in just 360 days, she has also earned herself the title of the fastest woman climber in the world.

Brett Rierson

How to feed 9 billion people? Brett Rierson is a Senior Officer for the World Food Programme’s Private Partnership Division and the Lead for WFP’s Global Finance Initiative. He is responsible for creating partnerships between the WFP and companies, foundations and individuals who share the WFP's objective of fighting hunger, worldwide. This ranges from creating regional cause-related marketing campaigns for brands, leveraging the financial markets to fight hunger, attracting donations from wealthy donors, building internal stakeholder loyalty plans for global companies, to feeding tens of thousands of school children across Asia through the WFP's innovative Food For Education programmes. Brett has a diverse background that includes experience in the private sector, politics, and humanitarian relief.Short bio of this speaker

Celina Jade

Music Performance"Celina JADE is multi-talented Hong Kong born phenomena: a singer, songwriter, intellectual, actress, martial artist and model! Not only has she headlined as an ass-kicking cop in the martial arts flick "Legendary Assassin", she also had her first hit in the Asian music scene at an early age of 15 with "光影之間", (1 on the Taiwanese charts). Despite her early success, Celina took time off to finish a rigorous university education at the London School of Economics. A half Asian, half American beauty, Celina is Chinese, Spanish, French, English and American Indian; and, fully fluent in spoken and written English, Cantonese, and Mandarin..."Short bio of this speaker

Christophe Barthelemy

Entomology in Asia: why should you care? He was born in Italy where he lived until he moved to the UK at the age of 8, when he started his early insect collections and observations. His first professional experience was in London and then Paris, there, he opened his own small practice in 1992. He moved to HK a few weeks after finishing his M.Phil in 1996. In HK, he first taught at the Chinese University Department of Architecture and since 1998 he has been involved in a wide range of architectural projects locally and abroad, without abandoning natural history. From early on he has been observing and documenting the life of local insects and particularly those that we fear, the wasps!

Claus Nehmzow

3D Avatar School German-born HK-based entrepreneur Claus Nohmzow is a leading thinker in applying innovative new media technologies to the business arena, using diverse fields such as virtual worlds, participatory media and social media. His insight on immersive worlds are cherished across the globe. Amongst his other achievements, Claus successfully led a project for health insurer Cigna, making use of 3D immersive worlds and serious games technology to create a new style of health education community.Short bio of this speaker

Dominic Purvis

Imaginative play By day, Dominic Purvis is Head of Marketing & Communications for one of Hong Kong’s leading property developers, where he also looks after the company’s arts & culture, community and philanthropy programmes. His working career has included a variety of marketing and customer service roles in Hong Kong, India, Germany and France. By night, Dominic transforms into a parent, a storyteller and a designer of imaginative animal friends.Short bio of this speaker

James Law

Cybertecture Widely respected as a modern visionary, James Law has won numerous international awards on architectural design and leadership, highlighted by the achievements of Young Global Leaders in World Economic Forum and CNBC International Architecture Awards during 2009. Accredited by coining the notion of Cybertecture, James Law is our Chief Cybertect who leads the charge in blending cyber technology within architecture, to pave the way for people to live the future in a seamless and enjoyable manner.Short bio of this speaker

Jami Gong

Comedian "Jameson (”Jami”) Gong is a Chinese American, born and raised in New York City’s Chinatown. He is one of six children. Throughout Jami’s life, he always possessed the gift to make people laugh. He believes that laughter soothes the soul, and unites people of all ages, race, gender, and religion..." "President of Organization of Chinese Americans NY Chapter 04-05 - Olympic Torchbearer 2004 - Founder of TakeOut Comedy Club HK - Founder of Annual HK International Comedy Festival - Knighted by Country of Malta..."Short bio of this speaker

Jill Robinson

Welfare of animals Jill Robinson was born and raised in England. Jill arrived in Hong Kong in 1985. Jill introduce the concept of “animal welfare through people welfare” and founded “Dr.Dog” in Hong Kong in 1991 – the first animal-therapy programme of its kind in Asia. In 1993, a chance visit to a bear farm in China changed Jill's life. Exposing the plight of endangered Asiatic black bears cruelly farmed and milked for their bile, and learning how easily herbs and synthetics could replace bear bile, Jill embarked on a journey to end the practice of bear farming once and for all. In 1998, she founded. Animals Asia. Jill has been presented with an MBE award by Queen Elizabeth in recognition of her services to animal welfare in Asia.

Joanne Ooi

The future of creativity Orginally from Singapore, but raised in the USA, Joanne Ooi has lived in Hong Kong since the 1990s. She was formerly the Creative Director of Shanghai Tang and was responsible for transforming the traditional Chinese label into an Orient-Chic powerhouse. Today, Joanne is the CEO of the Clean Air Network in Hong Kong, which helps to motivate and educate the public about the benefits of breathing clean air.

John Hardy

The extraordinary Green School in Bali "After selling his jewelry company in 2007, John Hardy and his wife, Cynthia, endowed a thrilling new project: the Green School in Bali. At the Green School, kids learn in open-air classrooms surrounded by acres of gardens that they tend; they learn to build with bamboo; and meanwhile they’re being prepared for traditional British school exams. The school is international—20 percent of students are Bali locals, some on scholarship. The centerpiece of the campus is the spiraling Heart of School, which may be called Asia’s largest bamboo building. Hardy has long been an advocate of the use of bamboo as an alternative to timber for building and reforestation..."

Mark Philpott

A journey back to humaneity Based in Singapore, Mark is an active member in the Philanthropic and Humanitarian scene. With strong ties to the corporate sector, educational institutions as well as the non-profit industry, Mark is constantly seeking new and innovative ways to enhance the Humaneity Groups offerings. He is the Founder and President of the Humaneity Group Pte Ltd (the Humaneity Group), a Singapore -global headquartered social enterprise whose primary focus is on the philanthropic and humanitarian industry. On a personal front, Mark spent over twenty years in the international corporate world as an executive with the world’s largest international logistics and supply chain company, DHL.

Mike Horn

Pangaea Mike Horn is acknowledged globally as one of the greatest modern day explorers. He’s crossed and swum the rivers, sailed the oceans solo, survived near-death environments, brutally extreme conditions and confronted nature at her most unforgiving. In two decades, he’s probably seen more of the earth than any other human. He realized that the future of our planet lay solely in the hands of our youth, who if properly educated and informed, can save and sustain our world for generations to come. He created his dream expedition "Pangaea" a four year project that serves as a powerful platform from which young adults can experience and explore the natural world, learn about its challenges, find possible solutions, and above all, act swiftly to help change things for the better. Mike is currently half way through his project and will launch the 8th Pangaea expedition to Russia in November.

Monique Stauder

Latitude Zero Swiss-American photojournalist who has traversed the world documenting political, cultural and social events for TIME, New York Times and Christian Science Monitor among others. With a double masters degree in History and International Relations, her academics became a backbone to support her passion, photography, and plunged into a career of photojournalism that has evolved since 1993 from investigative reporting to becoming a documentary historian and poetic artist. Her first book, LATITUDE ZERO, fuses her raw and lyrical style into a visual dialogue of one woman’s journey around the equator, an intimate view into the living-breathing-ebbing-flowing great circle that unites us all.

Nand Wadhwani

Health education: The final mile now reachable Nand Wadhwani is a Founding Trustee of The Mother and Child Health and Education Trust and now lives in Hong Kong. He has worked in partnership with development organizations and governments, in educating mothers and children, teachers, doctors and village health workers, community leaders and the public at large about nutrition, health, water, hygiene, sanitation and disease management. Nand firmly believes that the most effective and efficient way to advance health education is by delivering contextually-appropriate messages directly to the people who need it most. He is presently developing HealthPhone, an illiterate-friendly mobile phone with preloaded, reliable, health and nutrition material and that will initially be offered in English and 15 Indian languages.

Perry So

Music and virtuosity The Assistant Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and one of the Dudamel Conducting Fellows at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hong Kong-born Perry So has made conducting debuts with eminent Orchestras in Russia, Seoul, Australia, and Taiwan. Also caring for the youth, Perry has introduced children from under-privileged backgrounds to art and music by founding the Huangshan International Music Festival in central China.

Po Chi Wu

Innovation biosphere Po Chi Wu from Hong Kong has, in his time, been a venture capital investor, entrepreneur, business development executive, scientist and educator. Devoted to building global companies, Po Chi has been responsible for investments in high technology areas, life sciences, IT, semiconductors, and software businesses. Formerly a scientist working in Biotechnology, Po Chi is currently the Co-founder and Managing Director of Alameda Capital LLC.

Po Chung

Competent service performers Po Chung, the entrepreneur who co-founded DHL express in Asia, was born and raised in Macau and Hong Kong, respectively. In addition to being devoted to his enterprise, Po is committed to community service activities in order to promote Hong Kong’s international relations, arts and culture, education, creativity, innovation and social entrepreneurship. Possessing a wide range of interests, he is also a speaker on corporate culture and an artist specializing in Chinese calligraphy, painting, and photography.

Rise Again

Rise again Award-winning filmmaker, best known for his film Sharkwater, Rob Stewart was born and raised in Canada. Rob began photographing the underwater world at the tender age of thirteen. By the time he was eighteen, Rob had already became a scuba instructor trainer. Rob has travelled the world as a chief photographer for the Canadian Wildlife Federation's magazines where, amongst other things, he discovered the illegal killing of sharks in the Galapagos. In addition to the many awards Rob has won for Sharkwater, he has also created an award-winning library of underwater motion and still images.

Roy Horan

Eastern creativity Currently a faculty member at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in the Multimedia and Entertainment Technology Master programme, Roy Horan lectures students on a wide variety of subjects, from digital video production, media literacy, creativity, screenwriting, to multimedia marketing. Roy started in the film industry as a martial arts performer, where he performed with Bruce Lee, and has spent more than 20 years producing and distributing Hong Kong and International Films around the world.

Susan Bird

The power of conversation in the digital age Founder and CEO of Wf360 LLC, Susan bird is an author and a specialist in executive level marketing and business networks. Susan pioneered introducing new models for connecting people and ideas to solve business challenges and is an expert on the formation of business alliances. Being the former president of the American Mediation Council LLC, Susan is also the founding member and former Chair of the Committee of 200 the pre-eminent organization of women business leaders. Susan is also the author of Smart Talk: The ABC’s of Authentic Conversation.

William Mak

Biotech mobile lab bus for children and outreach A scientist devoted to biotechnology education for primary and secondary students and teachers, William Mak established the Hong Kong Biotechnology Education Resource Centre with Sik Sik Yuen Ho Yu College. In his contributions to biotechnology education, William has built a university-level research laboratory and created the Biotech Mobile Laboratory, a custom-built bus designed to educate the community in biotechnology.

Willie Smits

Conservationist “Willie Smits works at the complicated intersection of humankind, the animal world and our green planet. In his early work as a forester in Indonesia, he came to a deep understanding of that triple relationship, as he watched the growing population of Sulawesi move into (or burn for fuel) forests that are home to the orangutan. These intelligent animals were being killed for food, traded as pets or simply failing to thrive as their forest home degraded. Smits believes that to rebuild orangutan populations, we must first rebuild their forest habitat - which means helping local people find options other than the short-term fix of harvesting forests to survive..."