About TEDx, x = independently organized event
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, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. 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.)
About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 30 years ago, TED has grown to support its mission with multiple initiatives. The two annual TED Conferences invite the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes or less. Many of these talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.
The annual TED Conference takes place each spring in Vancouver, British Columbia. TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TED Talks are posted daily; TED Translators, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed. TED has established The Audacious Project that takes a collaborative approach to funding ideas with the potential to create change at thrilling scale; TEDx, which supports individuals or groups in hosting local, self- organized TED-style events around the world, and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.
Follow TED on Twitter at twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TED.
TEDxNeathPortTalbot?
TED is a world famous series of conferences about ideas.
TEDxNeathPortTalbot is an independent, affiliated, not-for-profit event run by a team of volunteers.
Why do it?
We’ve been fans of TED for over ten years, thought deeply about the ideas it expounds and shared the messages and values of previous TED speakers with friends, collegaues and families and incorporated them in our own lives, personal and professional. We’ve been inspired by the enthusiasm, skills and ability of those we’ve met in and around the TED community, and we want to extend that community into our own, sometimes neglected, local area.
Coming from and living in areas outside large cities, on the periphery of intellectual and political life, we’re acutely aware that such areas are often overlooked, and the lack of forums where that might be addressed. Neath Port Talbot is home to iconic landmarks and important moments in time, as well as talented people.
We hope that TEDxNeathPortTalbot will become a catalyst for bringing people together to think deeply about global topics that also resonate locally.
Why here?
Neath Port-Talbot is a working-class community with a rich industrial history, including coal mining and steel production, sitting between the economic and technological powerhouses of Cardiff (the capitol) and Swansea. It’s a centre of gravity for surrounding smaller villages and is also easily accessible to the major towns and villages to the North in the Welsh Valleys.
In hosting TEDxNeathPortTalbot we hope to draw a new audience into the TED fraternity, and make accessible BIG IDEAS outside of the major cities.
Why now?
What better time?
The Team
TEDxNeathPortTalbot is curated and organised by Joseph Murphy and Mei Lewis and run entirely by a volunteer team.
I’m Joe, an education and training professional who specialises in business development, strategy and improving productivity. I am excited and inspired by ideas that require the convergence of skills, experience and beliefs across organisational boundaries that are congruent with my own and which are pivotal to developing a world class entrepreneurial culture in this region. My dayjob.
My defining characteristic is curiosity. I want to know how everything works:. science, art, people, the world. I (still) love mathematics, cats, music and making things. I’m a photographer, cinematographer, filmmaker and lotsofotherthings by trade and passionate about them all.