TEDxLeeds

Early bird registrations for TEDxLeeds2012: Money Talks

Imran Ali — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:56:06 +0000

LSx and Bettakultcha are currently putting the finishing touches to the programme for 2012 edition of TEDxLeeds, but we wanted to open registrations for early bird tickets as soon as we could.

From 9th to 23rd January, tickets will be available at a special price of just £10, rising to £15 in two weeks, so hurry up! Here’s a preview of what we have planned for the third TEDxLeeds, on 29th February from 5-10pm at the Leeds Corn Exchange…

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For over 150 years, Leeds has played a central role at the forefront of Britain’s financial services sector, as the nation’s secondary fiscal hub…

30 national and international banks; 150 accountancy firms including 9 of the top 10 largest UK practices; 10 stockbroking firms; 3 of the UK’s 8 largest building societies; home to Britain’s first telephone banking operation; the only Bank of England note issuing centre outside London.

Yawn.

At TEDxLeeds2012, we’ll be showcasing the most interesting ideas about the future of money and promise that any stories of stockbrokers, building societies, accountants, call centres or bankers will be challenging and provocative!

Humanity has begun to see money as a natural force – like air or gravity – speaking of “market forces” as if they exist outside human agency, yet the constructs and cultures of money are entirely of human invention… and consequently anything we invent, we can innovate and enhance. Wall Street’s “unnovation” of money – thousands of little algorithms… volatile, unpredictable, and impossible for humans to comprehend – brought us a global financial singularity, which still threatens to form a black hole…

However, there are others that are innovating new futures for money – as tools for localism, as exchanges for creative skills and as anti-corruption mechanisms.

We’re going to take you on a tour of the future of money and the people currently remixing the meaning of money. Leeds is a city of inventors and TEDxLeeds will return Leeds to its role as an innovator of money – with humanity as its master, not its slave.

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Our speakers for the evening will include the some of the people behind BitCoin, Civilised Money, the Brixton Pound, crowdfunding and Macon Money.

But this won’t be simply be about talking heads. TEDxLeeds is about activism, and we intend to demonstrate some of the ideas being discussed.

This may be something as simple as a basic clothes swap or more ambitiously, the creation of a local currency (a Leeds Pound? the Holbuck? the Jimmy?) which exist for just a day, or perhaps a week or a month…

We hope to have a roomful of creative and talented people tinkering with the concept of a medium of exchange, so be prepared to find something innovative!

Urbanized… the design of cities

Imran Ali — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:30:42 +0000

TEDxLeeds2010 brought together a number of designers, artists and technologists to explore the notion of The City As A Platform, so it’s a real pleasure for us to present Gary Hustwit’s latest work, Urbanized.

Urbanized is director Gary Hustwit’s third feature-length documentary; exploring the design of cities, the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers.

We’re looking at arranging a screening of Urbanized as part of LSx’s Buffering… series in the near future. In the meantime, you can rent a HD stream of the film over at the official movie site and embedded above.

The City As A Platform (Imran Ali)

Imran Ali — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 01:26:36 +0000

Imran Ali is the founder of the LSx Festival of Technology and also a founding partner of emerging technologies lab CARBON:imagineering.

Here, Imran welcomes TEDxLeeds2010 attendees and introduces the themes and speakers for the evening’s programme…

Rashik Parmar: Creating a Smarter Planet, City by City

Imran Ali — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:15:00 +0000

Rashik Parmar is IBM’s CTO for North East Europe, a Distinguished Engineer and a member of the IBM Academy of Technology.

His leaderhsip of projects related to IBM’s Smarter Cities programme formed the basis of his closing talk for TEDxLeeds – underlying where culture, society, industry and infrastructure can benefit from a ‘smarter planet’, where cities are the fundamental building blocks.

You can find Rashik’s slides here…

Matt Edgar: The Makers Of Leeds

Imran Ali — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:45:39 +0000

Matt Edgar works in product strategy and design management in the amazing world of web and mobile media. He’s run product strategy for Ananova and design and usability for Orange.

On his blog he wonders about the history of technology and innovation, and the cool stuff that happens when old and new media converge. His TEDxLeeds talk, is a dizzying and visually stunning presentation of Leeds’ technological legacy…

You can find Matt’s Prezi presentation here…

Stuart Childs: 60 Seconds

Imran Ali — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:37:46 +0000

Stuart Childs co-directs The Jam Jar Collective using computers and electronics to make installations and run workshops for adults and children. With a background in designing sound and lighting for theatre shows he now shows people how to pick up a soldering iron and start making things.

Stuart spoke about his 60 seconds project and how he thinks geo-tagged sound recording is changing how we archive, consume and share audio content.

You can find Stuart’s slides here…

Usman Haque: Smart People, Dumb Objects

Imran Ali — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:31:19 +0000

Usman Haque – the director of Haque Design + Research, founder of Pachube.com and CEO of Connected Environments - closed the first half of TEDxLeeds2010 with Smart People, Dumb Objects, a discussion of where the infrastructure of cities may become instrumented as an “internet of things”.

You can find Usman’s slides here…

Susan Williamson: For whom do we Build, Design, Make

Imran Ali — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 11:45:52 +0000

Susan Williamson is a retail architect and social scientist who started her UK career 25 years ago during the shopping centre boom. She found her interest increasingly turned to the rationale – both cultural and economic – behind transactional spaces.

Susan’s TEDxLeeds talk focussed on the stories behind such transactional spaces and the expert users of those spaces: the shoppers, workers, walkers, talkers , the performers and those who simply lurk.

You can find Susan’s slides below…

Julian Tait: Open Data, the City and the New Federation

Imran Ali — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:37:43 +0000

Julian Tait is the Open Data Cities and Social Sensor Networks Lead at FutureEverything.

Originally trained as a photographer, he became more involved with digital arts and how technology could enhance our everyday experience. He is a serial project initiator and community activist who is passionate about how technology is used wisely, has the potential to create a more equitable society.

His TEDxLeeds talk explores he impact of open data on the future of cities, nations and government…

You can find Julian’s slides here…

Megan Smith: Embedding Narrative

Imran Ali — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:01:08 +0000

Our opening speaker at TEDxLeeds2010 was Megan Smith, a new media artist and PhD candidate in Contemporary Fine Art Practice at Leeds Metropolitan University.

She uses the web as a space to source and make socially useful work. Her projects probe new systems for delivering syndicated data through narrative structure and she often works with Arduino, geo-location, digital print, video, and installation or a hybrid of these.

Her talk, Embedding Narrative, and extending social space, notably her project Our City Our Music and how Megan came to be in Leeds.

You can find Megan’s slides below…