TEDxAberdeen 2022 | Everything you need to know

Following a successful event last year, Aberdeen Arts Centre will host TEDxAberdeen for its second event on Saturday 12 November. It will be a day of sharing interpretations of TEDxAberdeen’s theme of “movement.” A wide range of topics will be discussed, including social acceptance, racism, language preservation, and resistance to change. In addition, they will look at rethinking values and societal conditioning.

TEDxAberdeen has announced that ticket applications for this year are now open. People who would like to attend are now invited to apply for tickets for the one-day event on 12 November 2022 at Aberdeen Arts Centre. The application window closes on Monday 10 October.

TEDxAberdeen’s head, Moray Barber, said that selecting candidates to speak this year was a very challenging task. He said that it “demonstrates the northeast of Scotland is full of thought-provoking ideas and talented speakers.

“Our speakers impressed us with their unique takes on movement – moving beyond, moving minds, and moving bodies – we can’t wait to see how they refine and hone their ideas.”

TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged. Today it covers almost every topic you can imagine in more than 100 languages. The TEDx program is a self-organised series of events that offer attendees a TED-like experience at a local level.

Ten speakers have been handpicked to speak on the famous red dot in Aberdeen this year.

Dr Aileen Alexander

Talk Title: The Benefits of Movement

Why as a nation are we more sedentary than ever and how is this impacting our mental and physical health and wellbeing?

Aileen will delve into the benefits of exercise at an individual and a global level addressing some of the reasons why we don’t exercise as much as we should.

Eric Doyle

Talk Title: Passion will get you moving, passion with strategy and community will get you further…

Eric will share his experience of embarking on a gruelling challenge event, fuelled by the emotion of a conversation with a friend who sadly lost his life. During the event he quickly got into serious trouble and couldn’t complete the challenge. A few years later Eric, decided to do it again with a completely different approach and mindset.

Katie Forbes

Talk Title: Autism is a difference, not a disorder

Katie is an autistic marketing professional specialising in digital and social media based in Aberdeen. Katie’s talk discusses the detrimental impact of healthcare professionals and the media portraying autism as a disorder; something that needs to be fixed or cured. She will invite the audience to look beyond this terminology and see autism for what it is, simply a difference. Not bad, nor less – just different.

Fraser Hay

Talk Title: From Human Being to Human Becoming

Entrepreneur and business coach Fraser will talk about how the events of the last couple of years have caused many people to stagnate. As a result of many industries collapsing, businesses closing their doors, and many individuals being laid off, paid off, or made redundant, thousands have found themselves at a crossroads.

Fraser will share a powerful four step process with specific examples from his life when he had stagnated and was faced with considerable challenges, and the results he was able to achieve in applying the process to his next stage of growth.

Lauren Hay

Talk Title: Speak Properly: Is Doric Dying?

Cullen born quine, Lauren will share her concerns about the growing disconnection from our North-east dialect doric.

“Doric is at risk of extinction as we are shackled to scrolling on screens and have less and less conversations in ‘real life’ and this is where Doric exists – in the communities around us. It is not a language that we read nor write very often but we speak it every day. The less we speak and more we scroll the more disconnected from Doric we become.” explains Lauren.

Lyly Lepinay

Talk Title: Beyond the Chinese Takeaway

Buckie born marketing specialist and creative writer, Lyly, will give us a taster of life beyond the Chinese takeaway.

Lyly says: “Often when we think of the Chinese community in the UK, the first thing that comes to mind is the takeaway or buffet restaurants. There’s little the average person knows about the community other than their own Chinese takeaway order. This comes as no surprise as our community is often invisible in mainstream media despite being the third biggest ethnic minority group in Scotland.”

Zoe Morrison

Talk Title: Why we say people don’t like change

Robert Gordon University Professor Zoe says: ‘I’m excited to talk about why we say that people do not like change. All too easily we use this statement as an excuse, identifying other people as the reason for lack of movement. But how valid and engaging are our ideas to initiate change?

She adds: “I’m looking forward to exploding the myths about change and explaining the potential impact if we stopped telling ourselves that people don’t like change.”

Del Redvers

Talk Title: How your hypocrisy can help to save humanity

Corporate affairs director and environmental charity chair Del will challenge our thoughts about hypocrisy and how being a hypocrite is not only okay, it can enable positive change.

Del explains: “To address the biggest challenges humanity faces we must move quickly through social and behavioural transitions. In these transitions there are gaps between what we say and what we do, where our hypocrisy is evident.

“Hiding our hypocrisy as a vulnerability or a failing slows our progress. Instead, we can acknowledge and own it, using the tension it creates to draw us to a better future.”

Sarah Rochester

Talk Title: We don’t need a reason

Communications manager Sarah will share her experience of the decision to stop drinking.

Sarah says: “When I stopped drinking, I felt constantly anxious because I didn’t have a ‘reason’. I didn’t have a rock bottom moment and therefore I didn’t have an answer to the question ‘why?’. Until I realised that wanting to was enough on its own. I hope to be part of a change in the conversation around alcohol, to help people see they don’t need a reason.”

Alex Whyte

Talk Title: The Career Mother Gear

Alex’s talk centres around her experience of pursuing her career while also entering motherhood. Alex explains: “This period has been the hardest and fastest pace of life I have ever experienced. A pace I didn’t know I had in me until I was faced with the prospect of failure in one or the other.”

Completing the line-up is Martin Robertson. Martin will share his views on how to live a full life with dementia and why society should not write dementia sufferers off.

TEDxAberdeen 2022 | A diverse and eclectic group of speakers

Program Curator Derrick Thomson adds: “We have a diverse and eclectic group of speakers who will now embark on an 18-week coaching process to craft their ideas ready for the event in November.

“This is the exciting part; taking the speaker’s raw concept and working them to create an idea worth spreading. I am really looking forward to supporting the speakers as they prepare for their moment in the red dot – we’re co-creating an engaging and inspiring event for our community.”

For more information about TEDxAberdeen visit their home page.