TEDx Sydney 2015 - 16 speakers, Opera House, 21 May

One of the best festivals of ideas, dangerous or otherwise, is the TED series, with TEDxSydney unveiling its 2015 speaker line up.

For the first time, the 2015 TEDxSydney will be hosted within the entire Sydney Opera House complex with a series of events - ensuring more people than ever before are able to attend, engage and interact.

It is billed as ‘one of the most celebrated TEDx events in the world’, and will be held on Thursday 21 May with an audience of more than 3000 expected to attend.

Naturally, the Concert Hall will host the main live program, but there’s also the ‘TEDxSydney at the Playhouse simulcast event’ which will live stream speakers and performances from across the four sessions to the playhouse within the Sydney Opera House.

This will give a further 400 attendees ‘an intimate and up-close experience as part of the 2015 festival.’

We know who will think of the children, too, with TEDxSydney also set to host a ‘youth focused event’, in partnership with the University of Sydney, with full details expected to be announced ‘in the coming weeks.’

TEDxSydney Founder and Licensee Remo Guiffré said: “This is a year of ‘firsts’ for TEDxSydney. Not only is this the first time that we’re taking over the entire Sydney Opera House – minus the Joan Sutherland Theatre – but it’s also the first time we’re hosting the event on a weekday.

“In a way, I think the curatorial theme of learning was a response to this shift in day. It presented us with a wonderful opportunity to engage and involve school and university students while also knitting together the diverse experiences and ideas of our key speakers through a single theme.

“And of course, it’s also the first time that our community will have the opportunity to hear from this extraordinary bunch of individuals. I for one can’t wait to hear what they have to share.”

Today’s news is just the first in a series of program updates for TEDxSydney, with the performance line-up for 2015 to be announced next week.

So, who are the speakers?

We’re told we’ll hear from ‘the great-great grandson of Charles Darwin to an internationally undefeated champion kickboxer and a Director at the International Red Cross, a group of the world’s leading thinkers and doers will take to the stage at TEDxSydney 2015 to deliver their thought-provoking ideas.’

TEDxSydney’s Editorial Director, Edwina Throsby said: “Learning never really stops. Just because you leave school, it doesn’t mean you stop seeking out new information, having fresh ideas or looking for inspiration. Every one of the extraordinary speakers at this year’s event has something to impart to the audience – whether that’s the result of a lifetime of research or just a life well lived.

“Our community is really smart and connected, so it’s a huge challenge to curate a program that excites them and offers them something new. Our 2015 line-up brings together speakers from all backgrounds, who have incredible stories, world-leading research, and big, fresh ideas. Every member of our audience – at the Opera House and online – will learn something new at TEDxSydney this year.”

Here’s the lineup of speakers:

24 year old Dylan Alcott OAM is a Paralympic gold medallist, World Champion, Grand Slam champion and world record holder for both wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis.

Born in Baghdad, pioneering surgeon Dr Munjed Al Muderis was forced to flee Iraq to Australia as a refugee. He embarked on his journey to become a world leader in osseointegration surgery on his release from a detention centre in 2000 and is now part of a crack team pioneering bionic fusion.
Chris Darwin is the great-great grandson of one of history’s most celebrated scientists and evolutionists – Charles Darwin. Tackling what his great-great grandfather called his “greatest regret”, Chris has made it his life’s goal to help halt the global mass extinction of species.

Nadine Champion is a UFC High Performance Coach. With over 28 years experience in martial arts, Nadine has never lost a fight.

Australian born and raised, Dr Helen Durham is the first woman to head International Law and Policy at the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Julian Burnside is an Australian barrister, human rights and refugee advocate, and author. He has acted as legal counsel in a number of high-profile hearings including pro bono for major human rights cases, in particular concerning the treatment of refugees.

The king of the compost toilet, Hamish Skermer knows a thing or two about how to deal with human waste. The Australian entrepreneur invented his own environmentally friendly dry toilet 15 years ago which has since been used at some of the world’s biggest music festivals including Glastonbury, the Falls and Meredith festivals in Australia.

Tom Uglow is Creative Director for Google's Creative Lab in Sydney. He works with cultural and creative organisations around the world exploring the space between technology and the arts and what can happen where they intersect.

Trans woman Starlady is a youth worker in some of Australia’s most remote and challenging places. Using an unusual set of tools the flamboyant hairdresser spends her time traveling thousands of kilometres across the central desert.

Currently based in New York, Tega Brain is an Australian artist and environmental engineer working at the intersection between art, ecology and engineering.

Stephanie Trigg is a literary scholar in the field of medieval studies. Currently one of ten Chief Investigators in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (UWA), she is particularly known for her work on celebrated English poet Geoffrey Chaucer.
Richard Bourke works in Louisiana – America's Deep South – as a death row lawyer defending people who are facing or have already received a death sentence.

Tony Fry is a design theorist, philosopher and author from Brisbane who offers a profoundly challenging view on the relationship between design, unsustainability, and politics.
French-born marine biologist rockstar – Dr Daniel Pauly – is well known for his work instudying the human impact on marine ecosystems and global fisheries.

Susan Butler is the Editor of the Macquarie Dictionary. After starting out as a research assistant in 1970, she has been at the helm of the dictionary for more than 30 years.

No stranger to controversy, Dr. Charlie Teo is a high profile and inspirational neurosurgeon pushing boundaries. Founder of the Cure for Life Foundation, he operates on both Australian and international cancer patients. 

He is known as the brain surgeon that goes where others will not.

At the TEDxSydney website, you’ll see the notice that ‘Applications to attend TEDxSydney 2015 within the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House on Thursday 21 May 2015 have now CLOSED.’

However you can also see that ‘Tickets are now on sale for our simulcast event, TEDxSydney at the Playhouse, where we’ll live stream speakers and performances from all four main stage sessions. There are only 400 seats available for this unique TEDxSydney 2015 experience. BOOK NOW.’

You can also download the TEDxSydney app for iOS devices here and for Android devices here.

No joy for Windows Phone or users sadly, it seems owning a Windows Phone and wanting to use it to experience is an idea too far, too big and too dangerous for TEDxSydney.

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Sydney To Get Its Own Contemporary Art Fair

These vast supermarkets for selling art are ever more popular: the past two months alone have seen the inaugural New York edition of the London-based Frieze in May; Art HK in Hong Kong just two weeks later; and Art Basel in Switzerland, the grandest modern and contemporary fair of them all, earlier this month. Galleries that took part in all three describe the gruelling sequence as a “marathon”.

For galleries wanting to tap into the growing Australian market, the marathon is about to get even longer. The first edition of the biennial Sydney Contemporary will take place next year, from April 12-14. It will start modestly, according to British founder Tim Etchells, who runs an event management company in Australia. He expects about 70 galleries, mostly from Australia and New Zealand, with a sprinkling of international ones from countries such as Indonesia and Singapore.

“We’d like to get some of the high-end galleries in Sydney like Roslyn Oxley [whose programme focuses on artists from the Asia-Pacific region] and Anna Schwartz [who represents British artists Antony Gormley and Yinka Shonibare, among others] – so far we’ve had a pretty positive response,” says Etchells.

But the goal is to develop the event to attract more international galleries and collectors within a few years. “We’ll try and make it really fun with lots of ancillary programming,” says Etchells. He adds that interest in contemporary art is growing in the city.

“The opening of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s new wing in March was a huge event, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales [which opened new galleries last year to show the contemporary collection of textile magnate John Kaldor] is very successful.”

Etchells has form when it comes to launching art fairs in new markets, with his biggest success to date being in Hong Kong. In 2007 he started Art HK after a chance meeting with an art dealer friend in Sydney. Four years later he sold a 60 per cent stake in the fair to Messe Schweiz, the Swiss company that runs Art Basel and its sister fair in Miami Beach. Messe Schweiz’s annual report for 2011 reveals that the price paid to Etchell and his partners was CHF6.6m.