TEDxNewy 2011

The first-ever TEDxNewy was held at The Playhouse, Civic Theatre on Saturday 12 November with an audience of 200 people with more people watching at the Overflow Venue (Mulubinba Room, City Hall) and via webstream from Sydney to Montreal. Supported by a team of volunteers and a film crew of TAFE lecturers and students, a series of compelling speakers and performers wowed everyone watching. There was laughter and there were tears as each presenter left an undeniable impression of their idea worth spreading.

From birth (John Aitken) to death (Peter Saul), and the lives we lead in-between (Bernie Curran, Gerry Bobsien, Conor Ashleigh). From the communities we are a part of (Mark Jackson, Ukestra, Julie Baird) to the causes that make us our most passionate (David Lubans, The Naked Runners, Liz Mullinar, Alli Hammett, Tim Silverwood, Sarita Koushik) and rules that were worth breaking (Marcus Westbury, Jason van Genderen), TEDxNewy filled everyone with awe, inspiration and maybe even best of all, pride in our city. Newcastle and regional cities around Australia just like it are an idea worth spreading and I think that was proven beyond measure yesterday.

The talks will be uploaded to the TEDxTalks YouTube channel in coming weeks and we will keep you updated via this website.

Endless thanks goes to our sponsors – local organisations and business that made TEDxNewy possible:
+ University of Newcastle
+ TAFE (Hunter)
+ Enigma
+ Zookraft
+ Harris Wheeler Lawyers
+ Silveradoh Promotional Products
+ Hyperweb
+ Newcastle Innovation
+ Newcastle City Council
+ Newcastle Productions
+ New Institute

And last, but by no means least, the enthusiastic, can-do volunteers and crew that made the day run seamlessly and made me look like I had my act together.

Visual & Webstream: Peter Delahunty, Christina Sykiotis and Carlo Farina
Film Crew: Josiah Nathan, Sam Koller, Ezekiel Sargent, Phil Yeatman, Matt Molloy, Alex Sutherland, Ben Pokrajac, Jenna Schofield and Jason McBurnie.
Lighting & Audio: James Beech
Volunteer Managers: Corinne Paterson and Prue Robson
Speaker Liaisons: Roger Pryor and Lynette Pryor
Photographer: Nigel Paterson
Volunteers: Simin Adele Kwan, Brodie Drysdale, Meg Francis, Annaliese Hake, Kylie Harris, Brody Hollis, Michelle Iacono, You Jeong Kim, Minho Jung, Geunhyoung Kim, Marnie Kingston, Hong Seok Jang, Emma Sharp, Georgina Smith, Ashleigh Smith, Farzad Shahmoradi, Lee Upton and Lim Zhen Ru.

If you’ve made it this far then it’s only fair to tell you that yes, there will be a TEDxNewy in Spring 2012.

Cheers,
Siobhan Curran.

PS If you were in attendance or watched via webstream, I’d love to hear your feedback. If you would be so kind as to leave a comment of your thoughts and highlights of the day I’d be very grateful.