TEDxFRENSHAM

A Celebration of Ideas.

2022: HUMAN TOGETHER

2018: THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT

The Aldridge Theatre stage set for TEDxFrensham

TEDxFrensham 2022
Human Together: Celebrating the Kaleidoscope

On Saturday 30th April 2022, we held our second TEDxFrensham event. Speakers were chosen to represent areas of society, culture, education and science that could benefit from diversity of thought and humanity. The event presented multiple issues and a diversity of voices sharing stories to challenge and shape our thinking as a strong community that can make a difference in the world, through our collective humanity.

2022

2022 Speakers

Alexia Quin OBE

Alexia Quin is the director and founder of Music as Therapy International, a charity aiming to make music an integral part of care for vulnerable people worldwide.

Click below to watch Alexia's talk - The Musical Connection.

WATCH ALEXIA'S TALK

Ben Lindsay

Ben is founder of Power The Fight, a charity which launched in Jan 2019 to train and empower communities to end youth violence. Since 2019 Power The Fight has trained over 12000 practitioners in understanding the issues surrounding violence affecting young people.

WATCH BEN'S TALK

Geoffrey O Williams

Geoffrey is the co-founder of social enterprise, Rocking Ur Teens, which introduces young people aged 13- 14 to the world of work.

WATCH GEOFFREY'S TALK

Iain Wilkie

Iain is the founder of 50 Million Voices, a charity aiming to transform the world of work for the 50 million adults globally who, like himself, stutter.

WATCH IAIN'S TALK

Jess Thompson

Jess Thompson is the founder of Migrateful which runs cookery classes led by migrant chefs who are struggling to integrate and access employment, due to legal and linguistic barriers.

WATCH JESS'S TALK

Katie Litchfield

Katie Litchfield is the founder of WeQual. She is driven by a determination to tackle the lack of diversity and equality in the leadership of the world’s biggest businesses and beyond.

WATCH KATIE'S TALK

Lucy McCrudden

Lucy McCrudden, aka Dance Mama, is a London-based dance entrepreneur and advocate. She is Founder of dancemama.org - a community, information and professional development hub and platform profiling significant parents in dance and the arts.

WATCH LUCY'S TALK

Mills

Mills is a bit of a genius, masquerading as a joker. He’s spent his life being very serious about never being serious, while accidentally doing some serious things! He’s ultra passionate about supporting early stage creative founders. He always wears micro shorts (deal with it!)

WATCH MILL'S TALK

Matt + Fiona

MATT+FIONA is a collaborative venture between architect Matthew Springett and educator Fiona MacDonald which responds to the question - how many young people look around them and feel that they have a say in what they see? We ask young people how their built environment might be improved and empower them to bring that vision to life.

WATCH MATT + FIONA'S TALK

Rachel Morris

Rachel is a Paralympic champion in both rowing and handcycling. She is developing programmes to enable those with mental health challenges, special educational needs or disabilities to get support through sport.

WATCH RACHEL'S TALK

Richard Coope

A digital leader with 25 years of experience, Richard has been a Digital Director in 5 of the UK's largest independent agencies and runs his own digital consultancy, called Brightful.

WATCH RICHARD'S TALK

Steven Frank

Steven Frank was born in 1935 into a secular Jewish family in Amsterdam. With the outbreak of the war the family decided to remain in Holland. Steven’s father joined the Dutch resistance and helped many people escape but in 1942 he was betrayed and sent to Auschwitz where he was gassed. Steven and his mother and brother were taken to Barneveld and then Westerbork. In September 1944 they were sent to Theresienstadt where the whole family miraculously survived.

WATCH STEVEN'S TALK

TEDxFrensham 2018
The Future is Bright

On Saturday 29th September 2018, we hosted our very first TEDxFrensham event — an inspiring day that brought together ideas, voices, and perspectives under the hopeful theme “The Future is Bright.” Throughout the day, a rich mix of speakers shared personal stories, bold ideas, and thought-provoking insights, all designed to challenge assumptions and inspire action. From scientific innovation to social impact, from education to equality, each talk reinforced a shared belief that the future shines brightest when we lead with humanity.

2018

Andrew Fisher

Andrew Fisher, former Headmaster of a progressive independent school, asks us to challenge the politicising of education. Why do we accept the constant assessing of our children? Why do we deny it is damaging them? Instead, we blame the increase in anxiety and mental health problems on their lack of robustness and grit.

WATCH ANDREW'S TALK

Charlie Mackesy

Through his passion for drawing, artist Charlie Mackesy challenges us to abandon the idea of being good. Instead have the courage to draw, sing, play from your heart, from your emotions. And if we do this together, we build connections, we start communicating, we start belonging, we start to have a community.

WATCH CHARLIE'S TALK

I Speak Music

Music educator and composer Jim Pinchen, viola player Raghad Haddad and the I Speak Music Orchestra come together to show us that through rhythm and music we can break down barriers of politics, language and culture and create something unique and magical: a community. A team of talented and enthusiastic professional musicians and supporters working with vulnerable and ‘newly arrived’ young people.

WATCH I SPEAK MUSIC'S PERFORMANCE

James Christian

Architect James Christian shares his forward-thinking design process, touching on user-centred design and design for children's mental health facilities. Working under the ethos of ‘fantastic pragmatism’, Projects Office embrace user engagement, storytelling and the use of narrative to create environments anchored in their unique social and cultural contexts.

WATCH JAMES'S TALK

Laura Kischel

Cognitive neuroscientist Laura Kischkel is working to overcome cultural differences and environmental difficulties to take the latest neuroscientific technology to rural Africa to gain an insight into how we can strengthen infant brain development in The Gambia and other low resource areas. Laura's interest lies in understanding how human cognition first develops during infancy and early childhood.

WATCH LAURA'S TALK

Shafina Vohra

During her early experiences in teaching, PhD candidate and Psychology teacher Shafina Vohra found herself with a room full of students bored by science. Rather than plodding through the textbook, she took a risk and got them using their hands, learning with their hands. This made her realise the power of hands-on learning.

WATCH SHAFINA'S TALK

Tom Doust

Educator and social innovator Tom Doust shows us the importance and power of mind-wandering. The best ideas come when we allow our minds to wander. Our imagination grows stronger allowing us to be more resilient and responsive to the rapidly changing world. A social innovator, Tom Doust has spent his 16 year career designing and delivering creative multi-stakeholder programmes with children, young people, families, schools and communities across the education, design and cultural sectors.

WATCH TOM'S TALK