TEDxTauranga 2015

Talk Title: Disruption, Innovation, Spin-offs. 3 ways NZers make dreams real

Sir Ray Avery, a leading New Zealand scientist, innovator and inventor.

Avery’s inventions include:

Acuset IV Flow Controller: A device that facilitates the safe administration of potent IV drugs

Lifepod infant incubator: A high-tech low-cost incubator that uses patentable technology to reduce the mortality rates associated with upper respiratory tract infections of premature babies

Proteinforte: An amino acid based functional food used for the treatment and prevention of protein-energy malnutrition

Talk Title: Our cultural identity as New Zealanders. Our Kiwi-Tanga

He toa taku tini taku toa
Ehara te toa taki tahi

Mine is not the strength of one but the strength of many

Ellis Bryers is the director of Mihi Engagement. A business that designs and delivers training in Maori cultural awareness.

Ellis’s vision is of a nation where Maori cultural practices are understood and utilised daily by both Maori and non-Maori in a way that unifies our nation and builds our cultural identity as New Zealanders.

Ellis is of Nga Puhi descent and he lives in Tauranga with his wife Anne and son Te Arai.

ellis@ellisbryers.com

Talk Title: Do you always read the label? When diagnosis can suppress recovery

An aspiring entrepreneur with a unique perspective, and a touching story.

Jason will share with you the cost he paid to be “normal” and the tool which helped him begin his path to self acceptance.

The true greatness of a story’s hero is not the goals they achieve but the struggles they overcome.

totm89@yahoo.co.nz

Talk Title: Should you fit in or stand out? Finding your authentic voice 

Harold Hillman is a leadership coach, radio commentator, author and managing director of Sigmoid Curve Consulting Group, based in Auckland.

Raised and educated in the U.S. and a New Zealand citizen since 2008, Hillman coaches business leaders and executive teams to be more purposeful about leadership.

A clinical psychologist in his early career, Hillman developed a passion for leadership development while teaching at the United States Air Force Academy.

He authored The Impostor Syndrome, which was Whitcoulls’ business book of the year in 2013.
Hillman’s second book, Fitting In, Standing Out, will be published by Penguin Random House in August.

harold@sigmoidcurve.com

Talk Title: How to create a workforce that can answer ungoogleable questions

Stephen Lethbridge is Principal of Taupaki School in the north west of Auckland. He is all about learning and growing leaders of the future.

He is currently thinking about robotics, arduino, design thinking, maker spaces in school, BYOD, and e-learning where the e stands for effective.
Stephen has presented at workshops and keynotes across New Zealand and Australia and has just been invited to attend Tim O’Reilly’s FOO camp in the United States.

He is a connected and future focused education leader who is all about fostering curiosity and creativity in our children.

stephenlethbridge@me.com

Talk Title: The pollination puzzle. Unexpected alternatives to honey bees

After an initial career in conservation, David headed to Princeton University on a Fulbright Award in 2005 to begin his PhD. It was during his doctorate that he got hooked on pollination, with a focus on native New Zealand plants.

As a scientist with Plant & Food Research he now studies the pollination of economically important crops, bringing an ecologist’s perspective to production systems.

He leads a government and industry funded programme to develop alternative pollination systems and spends considerable time pondering the complexities of avocado pollination and dreaming up new ways to house bumblebees.

Talk Title: Fart free: Why good digestion is essential

Rachael has a diploma in Nutritional Medicine from the University of West London.

Through discovering nutritional interventions, she overcame health issues and infertility to have 4 amazing children.

She worked as a Nutritional Therapist in Switzerland for several years and returned to New Zealand with her husband and children in 2013.

She has a passion for empowering people to understand what is going on in their bodies and loves piecing together the many parts of the puzzle in a memorable and easy to understand way.

She believes digestion is the key to optimal health and being fart free for life!

r.vdgugten@puresante.com

Talk Title: The Battle of Gate Pa Told With Sand

Marcus Winter has been likened to a sorcerer conjuring mystical apparitions out of thin air. His work is extraordinary. It blurs the lines between conventional painting, street art and theatrical performance.

He creates live artworks by placing sand on a lightbox, and manipulates sand to create images that morph into amazing stories.

His work is visually mesmerising, creatively fresh and evokes emotion.

Entertainer.

Phil and Tilley started writing music together in the autumn of 2012 surrounded by the New Forest, an ancient woodland situated on the southern coast of England, an inspiration for these lifelong friends.

Phil and Tilley play a blend of alternative acoustic/folk music, with influences from artists such as Xavier Rudd, Ben Harper and John Martyn. They incorporate their own ideas, using a slide guitar, the more traditional acoustic guitar and an unusual, fold-up-for-travel, upright bass, to create a sound that is uniquely their own.

Based in Waihi Beach with regular gigs in numerous pubs and bars quickly becoming local favourites. A yearning for travel and playing music has seen them play in France, Belgium and South East Asia, but their story continues to take them wherever the music allows them to go.

Entertainer.

Lipika and Prabhjyot are contemporary international artists and conceptualists, whose landmark steel and acrylic kinetic sculpture, the 6 meter tall “The Firkee Wala – In My Heart Of Eternal Childhood” can be seen spinning and twirling with the winds at the Puke Ariki Museum sea-front, New Plymouth.

Creating multi-dimensional works that include sculpture, acrylic on canvas, digital drawings, words, sound, music and film, they have also won several awards for their virals/ animation films. Their works have been showcased amongst the country’s best at national art shows, including the NZ Sculpture on Shore 10th Biennale, Auckland 2014, the National Fieldays No. 8 Wire Art Awards 2014, Waikato Museum and the “Making Sense” exhibition 2015, Whakatane Museum.

At TEDxTauranga, the artists intrigue us with a peep into their immensely popular signature series of curious multi-media, experiential works – “The Tricky Box”.