TedxAuckland Announces Lineup

TedxAuckland has announced the first lineup of speakers who will be sharing their 'Ideas Worth Spreading' at their annual event, due to take place at the Victory Convention Centre on Saturday 2nd May.

Michelle Tuffery
Michel Tuffery MNZM, Dip FA (Hons), MFA “In my world everything is connected. As an artist, using an holistic approach has lead me to work in an increasingly social realm, collaborating with a wide range of communities to produce art together. I have a deeply held belief in the possibility of art to create connections. I’m not a social worker, I’m an artist who’s trying to create a conversation. The essence of me is my family, history, community, environment, health and education, these are the basis of my creative practice.”

Dr. Hong Sheng Chiong
Dr. Hong Sheng Chiong is currently an eye doctor in Gisborne hospital. He was trained in Ireland and was awarded the medical degree MB BCh BAO. He also obtained a postgraduate training in ophthalmology (PGDipOphthBS) from University of Otago and is currently a Master's in ophthalmology research candidate. He completed his clinical training in Ireland before he crossed over to New Zealand where he initially worked as a registrar in neurosurgery and general surgery before he stepped into the world of eye. His main interests are eye regenerative medicine, bioengineering and telemedicine. His exposure to third world medicine in Kenya, Nepal and Malaysia have given him the insight to the burden of preventable blindness. He believes the problem lies in the access to quality eye care. In 2014, he founded OphthalmicDocs, an R&D company that focuses on the development of ultra mobile and economical eye tests and diagnostics devices. He has invented several eye imaging adapters that can be used in conjunction with a mobile application to diagnose and monitor eye diseases. Fighting preventable blindness is his career's primary mission.

Dr. Siouxsie Wiles
Award-winning scientist Dr. Siouxsie Wiles describes herself as a microbiologist and bioluminescence enthusiast but to others she is “that pink-haired science lady”. With a PhD in microbiology, Siouxsie heads up the Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland. After recently becoming a parent, Siouxsie has realised that sexism and gender- stereotyping prevails even in the simplest Lego toys. She believes that playmakers like Lego should lead the way in stamping out this gender-stereotyping in toys, with easy fixes like producing mini-figs with double-sided heads: one male, one female, letting children decide who they want them to be, regardless of their roles. For Siouxsie it will, at the very least send out the message that everything is possible and that means everything would be awesome.

Shaun Hendy
Shaun Hendy is the founding Director of Te Pūnaha Matatini, a Centre of Research Excellence hosted by the University of Auckland. Shaun is an advocate for multi-disciplinary research and teaching, and lectures in the University of Auckland’s Department of Physics and the University’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. His interest in innovation led him to co-author the 2013 book, “Get Off the Grass” with the late Sir Paul Callaghan. Shaun believes that the challenge for New Zealand - if we want to base our economy on knowledge rather than nature - is to overcome our relatively small and widely dispersed population base and build a city of four million people. To do this, we'll need to start trusting each other more so that our ideas will spread, and we'll need the infrastructure that connects us. If we can do this it would make us one of the most innovative places on the planet.

Riley and Steve Hathaway
Riley Hathaway is a passionate 14-year-old ocean ambassador, who is already presenting her own TV series called ‘Young Ocean Explorers’. In Young Ocean Explorers, Steve and his daughter Riley present a captivating series of stories about what happens when a teenager comes face to face with the marine animals we’re all curious about, such as stingrays, orca, and turtles. It’s a winning combination: Riley’s got the questions and the teenage-cred, and Steve’s got the boat and underwater know-how. Together, they take us on a journey that has never been previously imagined: a fun, accessible glimpse into the world of New Zealand’s incredible underwater species.

Lisa Matisoo-Smith
Lisa Matisoo-Smith is the Professor of Biological Anthropology in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Otago, and a Principal Investigator in the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution and with National Geographic’s Genographic Project. She is interested in understanding human history and human variation in general, but her primary area of interest is in looking at the biological evidence for the human settlement of the Pacific. She applies both ancient and modern DNA techniques to reconstruct migration pathways, and is increasingly interested in how human history and population origins may be related to some of the health issues facing Pacific populations today.

Janette Searle
Janette Searle had a life changing conversation that turned into ‘Take My Hands’ a not-for- profit organisation that redistributes prosthetic, orthotic and medical equipment to those in need. Every day, freight carriers and warehouses are often only partly full, so, Janette asked, what if we take advantage of that spare capacity and send vital equipment to those that need it? So far, the organisation has sent 50 boxes of artificial limbs, over 35 boxes of medical equipment and used just a fraction of the spare capacity that exists in the industry. So what might happen if we started a global economy of spare capacity? Janette believes there is power in the collective when its collaboration is focused, and that it is people that make the world go round, not money.

Sir Bob Harvey
Sir Bob Harvey is the Chairman of Waterfront Auckland, has served 6 terms as Mayor of the city of Waitakere, and was awarded, with six international Mayors, the United Nations Award for Peace in 1997; the United Nations Life Time Achievement Award for the Environment in 2007 and a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year Honours for 2013 for services to local body affairs and the community. Sir Bob is a prolific leader in both the arts and politics, having led an advertising agency for many years prior to his mayoralty, working with leading talent and winning numerous awards. He recently published his biography ‘A Life Less Ordinary’. Sir Bob’s involvement in leadership, creativity and his passion for the environment will be the foundation of his TEDx talk.

Billie Jordan
After narrowly surviving New Zealand's deadliest earthquake in Christchurch in 2011, Billie Jordan felt there was more to life than working as a communications consultant for large corporations. So she quit her job and moved to a small island off the East Coast of Auckland in New Zealand. Once there she taught herself how to dance following hip hop clips on YouTube, then gathered up her elderly neighbours (aged 68 to 96 years old) and established them as a hip hop dance crew with the audacious goal of performing at the World Hip Hop Championships in Las Vegas within eight months. From that point on her life and the lives of her dance group changed forever.

More speakers are due to be announced closer to the event.

Tickets are now available from Eventfinda.

TedxAuckland
Auckland - Saturday 2nd May, Victory Convention Centre