After the success of our first event in 2011, Women Shaping The Future, and our salon with CamCreative on the theme of Telling Stories, with TEDxGranta 2012: Alive & Kicking we are really hitting our stride.

Held at celebrated arts venue The Junction in Cambridge, the day offered an inspirational mix of live speakers, TED Talks and Ads Worth Spreading. We also offered conversation breaks for people to talk through the ideas presented on stage, workshops in the foyer to get people moving, and the chance to get up close to the real Wallace & Gromit. People also got to see the new device that’s got the tech community in a whirl, a Raspberry Pi.

Themes that ran through the day:

Empowerment through the teaching of skill
David Constantine from charity Motivation talked about people in wheelchairs regaining a sense of purpose and worth when they are able to work again. The FLACK Cambridge team highlighted the fact that the homeless lose their social currency. By being involved in the creation of the magazine, FLACK members regain their sense of purpose and learn new skills.

After an incredible blindfold kung fu demonstration, Ross Sargent discussed mindful movement as a way of using physical exercise to shape our mental state.

Opening new doors to knowledge
Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton gave us the story of the creation of one of the tech world’s hottest properties. Tim Minshall explored engineering as a creative process, and left the audience with a call to action to help encourage school children to consider becoming engineers – and to understand the breadth of scope of engineering.

Bringing things to life
Tim Morley discussed how Esperanto helps bring languages to life for children. He drew a great analogy between language and music in that we use a recorder when we first learn music, rather than diving straight into mastering the bassoon. Esperanto is the language equivalent of the recorder – accessible and leads on to other more complex learning.

Musician Shelley Katz demonstrated his Symphonova project live on stage for the first time ever and we had beatboxing, loops and bass from Gil Karpas.

Tim Hayward spoke about saving beloved Cambridge cake shop Fitzbillies. And Aardman’s Merlin Crossingham brought the real Wallace & Gromit with him all the way from Bristol as static exhibits to enhance his talk on how animators bring characters to life on screen. True VIP guests, they even had their own seat in the auditorium…

What’s next?

We’re now planning for our next event. In the meantime, if you would like to get in touch with TEDxGranta please contact us. You can also join us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Ross Sargent is the Co-Founder, MD, and Chief Instructor of Cambridge Kung Fu Ltd, a not-for-profit social enterprise which was established in 2007 (although Ross has been teaching Kung Fu in Cambridge since 2002).  The vision of Cambridge Kung Fu is to teach the fundamental benefits that can be achieved through intelligent martial arts and movement practise – utilising the physical body as the medium for learning some of life’s deep lessons!

Ross moved to Cambridge in 2001 to start a PhD at the University of Cambridge, having achieved a First Class Honours Degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Imperial College London.  After six months of his PhD, he realised that his passion lay outside of the academic arena, in his long term hobby of Martial Arts training. With his principle passions as learning and sharing, Ross has since achieved the titles of ‘Sifu of Wing Chun Kung Fu’ and ‘Instructor of Circular Strength’ training, the movement system created by world renowned martial artist and fitness coach Scott Sonnon.

Not only will Ross be giving us a demonstration of Blind fold ‘Chi Sau’ (translated as sticking hands) sparring (martial art sparring using every sense except sight), we will also welcome him to the stage to talk about human optimisation or, as his two year old self expressed it, “being the winnest”…

The human organism can be thought of as a collection of symbiotic systems that work together to produce the person that we are. Two of the systems in question are the Central Nervous System and Movement System – the myofasical matrix of connective tissue, muscle and bone that is responsible for us being able to move through space.

Ross will be explaining the profound effect that nurturing both of these systems has on us and, more specifically, how deepening the relationship between these two systems leads to the optimisation of our potential for success.

By clearly understanding how to train these component parts of our bodies in an incrementally progressive manner, we continually challenge & enhance ourselves in an intrinsic way, and optimise ourselves as a whole person.

If you’d like to try a little self-optimisation, Ross has generously agreed to run a workshop during one of our breakout sessions to help us start o regain ‘lost’ mobility. Being the best you can be is definitely an idea worth spreading, so come along to discover more about human potential.

Montreal-born pianist Shelley Katz studied at the Conservatoire de Musique and the Julliard School. While based in New York, he performed as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist, and was the pianist for the New York Contemporary Ensemble under Skrowaczewski.

Following his move to Europe, Shelley continued to give concerts, to pursue his interest in conducting, and develop concert and recording relationships with many of the world’s greatest singers including Nikolai Gedda, Dame Gwyneth Jones and Jochen Kowalski.

Since 1993, Shelley has been based in England where (in addition to his active performance career) he completed a Ph.D in Music technology. He is the holder of several granted patents in loudspeaker design and technology, and designed the highly-acclaimed Podium Sound loudspeakers, the only audiophile passive flat-panel loudspeakers in the world.

More recently, Shelley has been appointed as a Research Fellow at the University of Surrey, a Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College – Cambridge, and, from July 1 2011, is the Director of the Symphonova Project; a project to design, develop and implement the world’s first high-end digital symphony orchestra.

Shelley will be introducing us to the concept of Layered Sound, and the new method I discovered for designing a completely new kind of loudspeaker.But the Layered Sound technology is actually a few years old, so Shelley will be going for broke, and introducing us to his digital Symphony orchestra: the Symphonova itself.

We’re confident that you’ll have never seen quite so many loudspeakers on one stage as during Shelley’s presentation, nor as fascinating a discussion on the technology and theory behind music and sound.

Listen to music as you’ve never heard it before, and discover what’s on the horizon for digital musicians.

Tim Minshall is a Senior Lecturer in Technology Management at the Institute for Manufacturing – a part of Cambridge University Engineering Department. He researches, teaches, and writes on technology enterprise and open innovation and, since 1998, has been involved in helping people get new technologies to market.

He is a non-executive director of St. John’s Innovation Centre Ltd, Cambridge, and a Visiting Professor at Doshisha University Institute for Technology, Enterprise and Competitiveness in Japan. He is a member of advisory / steering committees for groups including IdeaSpace Cambridge, Cambridge University Entrepreneurs, Cambridge i-Teams, and 100% Open.

Prior to joining the University of Cambridge, he earned a BEng from Aston University, and a PhD from Cambridge University Engineering Department, and worked as an engineer, teacher, consultant, freelance writer and project manager in the UK, Japan and Australia. Tim now lives in Cambridge, is married with two children, and enjoys competing in triathlons (very slowly).

Tim will be talking to us about an alarming trend in the UK: the lack of awareness of the absolutely critical role that engineers play in our current and future worlds. Of particular concern is the impact this has on young people wanting to become engineers. After all, engineers don’t just fix things; they make things better. Engineers make the future.

FLACK is an innovative charity and social enterprise working with homeless people in Cambridge. Two years ago, Kirsten Lavers was made redundant from her post as Editor of the Willow Walker, a quarterly magazine publishing the work of homeless people in the city.

With the help and faith of the homeless community, she and her team have established and launched FLACK: a monthly magazine showcasing the talents of its homeless contributors, as well as comprehensively promoting the cultural richness of the city (both town and gown).

At the heart of FLACK is a commitment to involving homeless people in every aspect of its operations, from governance to distribution. FLACK’s approach has already enabled over 33 homeless people to grow in confidence, recover from addiction, gain employment or make their voices heard. For every £1 invested in FLACK, they have returned at least £3 of social value and savings to the public purse.

FLACK’s unique approach will be demonstrated at TEDxGranta Alive & Kicking, as Kirsten is joined by members of the FLACK team for an interactive, multi-media and stereotype-busting presentation. For a sneak preview, take a look at their video manifesto, and then come and see what they have in store for us on March 9^th.

“Homelessness is destructive, FLACK is creative“

Merlin Crossingham joined Aardman in 1995 through an animation training course run in conjunction with the University of the West of England, having already completing a degree in Film and Photography at the Newport Film School in 1994.

As an animator at Aardman, Merlin initially worked on many TV commercials and Morph shorts, before taking the roles of Key Animator on the feature film ‘Chicken Run’, and Second Unit Director on ‘Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of The Were Rabbit’. He also co-directed the Creature Comforts USA series for CBS, for which he gained an Emmy nomination.

Since then, Merlin has focused on directing Wallace & Gromit at Aardman. Indeed, his significant role across Wallace & Gromit activity eventually led to his promotion to Creative Director for Wallace & Gromit in 2009.

Before attending University, Merlin specialised in acrobatics, uni-cycling and trapeze, and trained with the Moscow State Circus during one of their stays in Bristol. These activities led him into climbing; he became a climbing instructor and climbed professionally before choosing to work in animation.

At TEDxGranta, Merlin will be talking about character animation, the way Aardman do it. He’ll give us a glimpse into how to make an animated character appear to be a living, breathing, thinking individual, and he’ll be bringing Wallace & Gromit along to help out!

It’ll be a rare treat to glimpse the magic of animation with the combined talents of Merlin, Wallace & Gromit, so we hope you’ll join us on March 9th.

Gil Karpas is a soulful singer-songwriter, with all the multi-tracking, multi-instrumental, looping and performing finesse of a 21^st Century troubadour. Described as “One smooth brother!!“ by BBC Introducing, Gil is now touring solo with his one man band of pedals, loopers, effects and tricks, all whilst simultaneously playing the guitar, the percussion, and singing his smooth, uplifting vocals.

Gil has supported a range of artists, these include bands such as The Brand New Heavies, Oi Va Voi and Balkan Beat Box and songwriters such as Chris Difford (Squeeze), Jamie Woon, Geva Alon, Boo Hewerdine, KT Tunstall and Kate Walsh and thats just a few of them.

Having already supported major UK and international artists at home and abroad with an impressive list of gigs, Gil is now releasing his EP and will be touring the UK in support of it in February 2012.

Gil is gaining a solid reputation for funky, upbeat original material, graced with a powerful soulful voice and a sensitive lyricism. With his broad musical heritage and unyielding creative passion, Gill will be gifting TEDxers with his utterly unique and enchanting music, and we’d love you to join us.

No smoke and mirrors, just original music.

“A voice that can really cut it”
BBC Eastern Counties

“fast gaining a reputation for his soul-infused electro acoustic pop”
Cambridge Evening News

Another fascinating new speaker has joined our ranks, TEDxers. Tim Morley will be taking to the stage in March to talk about an innovative programme for introducing young children to foreign language awareness — by using the constructed language of Esperanto to start them off. Tim works in a number of primary schools around Cambridgeshire, passing on his enthusiasm and love of languages to children as young as 5, and hopes to do the same to the TEDxGranta audience!

For those of you who can’t wait to start learning, Esperanto is a constructed international language, deriving much of its lexicon from Western European languages, whereas its syntax & morphology are display prominent Slavic influences. It has evolved from a minimalist grammar and vocabulary of bare essentials into a fully-fledged language, with a worldwide community of speakers and the ability to cross linguistic borders¹. And you’d be glad to know that it’s easy to learn.

Tim himself is a British Esperanto speaker living in Cambridge. Previously a computer programmer, and nowadays a teacher of English and French, Tim has gained acclaim through his work translating into Esperanto such prominent sites as OpenOffice (in 2002) and PledgeBank (in 2005). Given that Tim has only been speaking Esperanto since 2001, this is no mean feat.

Join Tim on March 9^th to learn more about how we can become more linguistically aware, and come away with a broader horizon and a bigger vocabulary.

¹ http://www.uea.org/info/angle/an_ghisdatigo.html

TEDx-ers, things are rushing along at a fantastic pace, and we have another fantastic speaker to announce: Eben Upton.

If you own a smartphone, then you already have enough computing power to launch the original Apollo missions into space. However, that hardware costs around £150 and is generally locked away from your prying fingers, making it difficult (not to mention expensive) to explore and understand. Meanwhile, modern software development frameworks enable IT innovation at a staggering pace, but that too comes at the cost of a certain level of abstraction.

As we push humans further away from the bare metal of computers, we make it harder and harder for each new generation of engineers to discover their passion for the technology that is shaping our world at an incredible speed. Eben Upton believes that everyone should be be able to play with an entirely open (not to mention powerful) computing device. What better way to make this possible than to create such a device, and make it cheap.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation was established by a group of University of Cambridge academics and local businesspeople to address the decline in the number of computer science and engineering applicants to UK higher-education institutions. The Foundation is developing a $25 microcomputer (approxiately £17), with the goal of putting programmable hardware in the hands of every child in the UK. If this doesn’t sound impressive yet, then imagine your desktop computer shrunk down to fit in the palm of your hand, and costing a mere £20.

Eben is a founder and trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and serves as its Executive Director; he is responsible for the overall software and hardware architecture of the Raspberry Pi device, and for the Foundation’s relationships with key suppliers and partner organisations. He holds a BA in Physics and Engineering, a PhD in Computer Science and an MBA from the University of Cambridge. In his day job, he works for Broadcom as an ASIC architect and general troublemaker. He likes to “Do Good Work” (which should be familiar if you’ve ever read or seen “The Right Stuff”), and so it’s with great pleasure that we welcome him to speak at TEDxGranta Alive & Kicking. Join us in March to see Eben do yet more good good work on stage.

Last year, Cantabrians and Cambridge University alumni were anguished to discover that a mainstay of our more recent culinary history was slated for the chopping board – Fitzbillies (celebrated cake shop and tea room) was on its last legs, and the future was looking bleak. Stephen Fry himself was sustained by Fitzbillie’s “Stickiest Chelsea Buns in the World” as a student.

Fast forward a few months, and meet Tim Hayward. Tim is a food writer and cook. He has a column in the FT, is a regular contributor to the Guardian and has recently signed a book deal with Penguin. He sometimes presents the Food Programme on Radio 4 (for which he’s received the Guild of Food Writers ‘Best Broadcaster’ award), publishes the quarterly journal of food writing Fire & Knives and, since June last year has been proprietor of Cambridge’s youngest institution, Fitzbillies bakery in Trumpington St.

Tim’s wife, Alison, grew up in Cambridge and would not tolerate Fitzbillies’ closure. Obviously there was only one course of action available: the husband-and-wife team moved from London, gave the premises a £100,000 facelift, and have breathed new life into the beloved institution. Business is brisk, the menu is vibrant, and while Tim probably won’t be sharing the secret recipe for Fitzbillies’ Chelsea Buns, he will share his story and his passion for what he does.