TEDxSydney Returns in 2011 – set for May 28

TEDxSydney, the annual ideas event, will return to CarriageWorks, Eveleigh on Saturday 28 May 2011. Globally acknowledged as one of the world’s most influential new media brands, TED and its offshoot TEDx program is a US based not-for-profit enterprise devoted to the propagation of “Ideas Worth Spreading.”

TEDxSydney 2011 will provide a speaking platform to around 20 of Australia’s leading innovators, thinkers, global leaders and change makers. This year’s line up will include: two inventors, a Sydney historian, an astronomer, an anthropologist, an international arts ambassador, a public health specialist, a philosopher and an award-winning designer. Full speaker details will be released closer to the event. Speaker nominations can be made via the TEDxSydney website.

Through its free TED.com website, TED gives millions of knowledge-seekers around the globe direct access to the world’s thought leaders. A number of the speakers from TEDxSydney 2010 will soon be featured on the TED.com website. The first of these talks, by Rachel Botsman on “The Rise of Collaborative Consumption,” is already on the site.  

How to participate:

Anyone can participate in TEDxSydney 2011 and all events are free.  Around 800 people can attend as members of the LIVE Bay 17 audience. Individuals can apply to be included within that group when applications open in March, via the TEDxSydney website.

In collaboration with CarriageWorks and Julian Morrow, the TEDxSydney forum will return in the CarriageWorks foyer. Open all day for the public to attend, the forum will include a large-screen simulcast of the event as well as live interviews and other exclusive content.

For those who can’t attend in person, TED devotees from Australia and around the world will also be able to tune into the event via a free, live webstream.

TEDxSydney is licensed by Sydney retail pioneer, Remo Giuffré (left) from REMO General Store and is being organised by his General Thinking network of thinkers and other collaborators from around Australia. The Executive Producer for 2011 is once again Janne Ryan. View a full list of the organising committee.

“TED is a unique learning environment which pays homage to the potency of ideas,” said Giuffré. “Speakers are invited to the stage based on the merit of their ideas and TEDxSydney continues this tradition.  For TEDxSydney we felt that we would establish a platform for local thinkers, doers and storytellers. We consider our role to be that of talent scouts; unearthing people from this part of the world who inspire and, through their ideas and actions, make a powerful contribution to life on earth.”

TEDxSydney is made possible by the generous contribution of its partners, sponsors and volunteers. Major partners for TEDxSydney 2011 already include UTS Business (Knowledge & Design) and the ABC (Media & Video Production). The full sponsor line-up will be announced next month.