Each year TEDxSydney receives hundreds of submissions from people keen to step on to the red X and deliver a talk. To allocate the final few speakers, TEDxSydney Ideas Search event takes place. Contenders make their pitch in 3 minutes or less and the TEDxSydney curatorial team decides who will make it to the main stage happening this August 5th at Sydney’s Town Hall.
This year’s event was extra special, it was the first TEDxSydney in person event for the year, hosted at The National Art School, as part of their NAS NEO weekly program. NAS NEO is designed to help reignite the Sydney cultural landscape. Every Thursday evening, the after-hours program brings together critical and progressive arts practice across inclusive and diverse platforms. It’s a series of multidisciplinary, artist-driven cultural events in collaboration with the next generation of change-makers, innovators and creators.
The evening was a perfect pairing of progressive arts practice and fresh thinking from TEDx contenders, as TEDxSydney Ideas Night is a place where ideas are flexed and expressed, much like the artistic expressions that flow through the space.
The contenders took to the stage to talk about everything from bacteriophages, to bus shelters, the art of selling, menopause, gender bias, acclimatising refugees and working with elders as mentors to help children learn and develop. One contender presented from the metaverse, there was even a magician, who compelled the crowd to unite in a cry of “abra cadabra” – which means as we speak, we create.
The winning ideas of the night came from Sandersan One, a researcher who proposed using the social algorithms that keep us scrolling to help with suicide prevention; and Jerusha Mather, a PhD student who is campaigning to make food packaging more accessible for those with disabilities. We now look forward to hearing both of those talks in their entirety in August.
Although the TEDxSydney Idea Search is now behind us, NAS NEO remains in place until July 14th, every Thursday 6-10pm. Entry is free with registration.
NAS Director and CEO Steven Alderton says: “NAS NEO is a multi-dimensional creative platform where artists drive new ways of thinking, collaborating and looking at things that are happening in our everyday and global lives… a fusion of new ideas and happenings at NAS, enabled by the NSW Government’s Culture Up Late program.”
You can follow NAS here, support NAS here and find out what’s on at NAS NEO here.
