After my unforgettable experience at TEDxDelft 2011, it was a logical step to sign up as a TEDxDelft 2012 volunteer again. This year I co-ordinate a dedicated team of performer coaches. As a team, we coach TEDxDelft performers on how to captivate and convince an audience by applying story telling, argumentation and theatre techniques. Read more
When he was eight years old, Bennie Mols (1969) wanted to become a professor. He failed. Instead, he became a science journalist, science writer and science communicator. He holds master degrees in physics (TUE) and philosophy (UvA), as well as a Ph.D.-degree in physics (TUD, 1999). He never stops wondering about science in general and physics, computer science, mathematics, neuroscience and psychology in particular. And he tries to make a living by sharing the fruits of his wondering with a broad audience. Read more
For this year’s edition of TEDxDelft, with Never Grow Up! as a theme, we are working on a mini-fairytale about the TEDx experience (soon to be launched!). We are very lucky with Rosa Cerruto as the illustrator of the story we designed. Rosa is an illustrator and architect living and working in The Netherlands. She is joining TEDxDelft as an illustrator since she is convinced that creativity has to be shared!
Nynke Tromp works as a design researcher at the department of Industrial Design, Delft University of Technology and social designer at KVD reframing in Amsterdam. In both positions, she works on the social implications of design. Nynke is also member of ‘Redesigning Politics’, a creative think tank aiming for redesigning thinking, institutes, structures and interaction in the field of politics. Read more
Boyan Slat (@BoyanSlat, Delft, 1994) combines environmentalism, creativity and technology to tackle global issues of sustainability. Currently working on oceanic plastic pollution, he believes current prevention measures will have to be supplemented by active removal of plastics in order to succeed. With his concept called Marine Litter Extraction, Boyan Slat proposes a radical clean-up solution, for which he won the Best Technical Design award 2012 at the TU Delft. Read more
Erik Schlangen is Professor “Experimental Micromechanics” and director of the Microlab at Delft University of Technology, faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences.
The main research topics of his chair consist of studying mechanical properties of materials to be able to understand failure mechanisms and to develop materials with improved properties. A further focus of his research is the field of chemo-mechanics which tries to study degradation due to coupled chemical and mechanical actions in materials. In 2005 he was amongst the first to develop new materials with self-healing properties. He took the initiative in developing self-healing concrete using Bacteria and he was the inventor of the self-healing Asphalt using steel-wool fibres and induction energy.
Surprising and playful. Touchingly honest. Extraordinarily natural and naturally extraordinary. The Delft based floral designer and artist, Pim van den Akker, makes everyday things extraordinary. Take a fresh new look at clothing and design. Take a fresh new look at flowers and plants. Take a fresh new look at daily reality. Read more
Martijn Wisse (1976) researches the mechanics of robots. He develops mechanisms and motions that make it easier for the robots to fulfill their task.
Inspired by the human body, he develops hands that make it easy to grasp oddly-shaped objects, legs that walk almost by themselves without motors or controls, and arms that efficiently and robustly reach their target positions. His work is part of a greater effort in Delft – and worldwide – to develop the robot technology that is so dearly needed in the developed countries.
The Netherlands and other countries are facing an enormous demographic challenge due to aging, resulting in a labor shortage across the board, ranging from production and packaging to distribution and personal assistance. Wisse’s designs and ideas help create affordable and effective robotic solutions. Read more
Our poster is ready and we are very pleased with it.
Use it, share it, send it, discuss it, print it (we have some in A3 and A2 if you want them) etc etc.
The idea of our the ‘never grow up’ has inspired us to make the poster like a a view on the world from a child’s point of view. A child is always amazed by everything around him or her and tries to match the reality of new things with the things it already knows. Why should a car not be made out of a typically Dutch wooden shoe? Is the sun really a giant light bulb? Are mountains made out of styrofoam? And if not, why are they white?
Never stop ask questions, always ask yourself why things are the way they are. Never grow up! But do share our poster 🙂 Read more
Bas Lansdorp (1977) has never been one to let bold ventures intimidate him. A born entrepreneur, he sees potential and opportunity when others shy away. He utilizes an articulate vision and genuine enthusiasm coupled with infectious powers of persuasion to get his point across. These attributes are useful in his new company, Mars One, that will send humans to Mars in 2023. Read more
Manon Ossevoort is a professional actor and theatre-maker from the Netherlands. During her studies at the ‘Amsterdam School of the Arts’ (AHK Theatre) Manon learned that for every story you want to tell, you have to find the right form. Sometimes a story is best told in words. Read more
An assistant professor in theoretical and applied mechanics who is into bicyles : Meet TEDx Delft – 2012 performer, Arend Schwab from Delft University of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Arend did his BSc Engineering at Dordrecht (1979) and MSc Engineering (1983) and PhD (2002) at Delft. He runs the bicycle mechanics lab and teaches mechanics. Whenever Arend comes up with an assignment for his students, the hallway of the faculty is crammed with all sorts of very strange objects that resemble bikes only slighlty. Considering bicyles constitute 40{95388bbb2e9df0f2b3d26445fc24fe82185b1b567dbb094bc3a45074083d0a2b} of the Netherlands traffic making it the bicycle capital of the world, his work is very interesting not only for the dutch people but anyone who ever rode a bicycle. Read more
Ionica Smeets (@ionicasmeets) is joining TEDxDelft Never Grow Up: A mathematician and science journalist with plenty of media experience. Using her vast knowledge and enthusiasm, she can explain everything about her favorite topics in science and statistics. She does it well on paper and face-to-face: She writes blogs, columns and books and is also asked to appear as a speaker, live, on television and on radio shows. Read more
Tom De Bruyne (@TomdeBruyne) is passionate about making stuff with the ambition to excite people. Tom is founder and director at SUE Amsterdam, a startup with the ambition to become an international creative agency for the digital era. Tom is obsessed by the game to persuade the homo digitalis into interacting, talking, liking, evangelizing and buying. Read more
View! Rate! Comment! Help discover amazing new talent and shape the lineup for TED2013 by choosing your favorite videos from our worldwide talent search. Watch and vote on over 290 videos from 14 different cities. Your voice is critical! Read more
Erik de Jong (Spijkenisse, February 2, 1961) is Spinvis. Once a student of composition at the conservatory of Rotterdam, De Jong debuted in 2002 with “Spinvis” The music could be described as lo-fi singer/songwriter/sample music, or as cut up mini film stories disguised as pop songs. De Jong’s success story was an unlikely one. He was already in his forties when he debuted as a pop artist. His self-titled debut album released in 2002 became a massive success, surprising critics, music industry peoples and De Jong himself. Read more
Wendy Lampen (Belgium, 1969 – @lampadedromy) works as a lecturer for a university of applied sciences. She got diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome herself. Trained as a teacher in English, History and Ethics she later on worked with adolescents with autism in a school setting.
You might have a 5-year plan, but what about a 200-year plan? Artist Raghava KK has set his eyes on an ultra-long-term horizon; at TEDxSummit, he shows how it helps guide today’s choices and tomorrow’s goals — and encourages you to make your own 200-year plan too.
“When I think of the future, I never see myself moving forward in time. I actually see time moving backward towards me.” (Raghava KK) Read more
My first encounter with a TED talk was through a colleague who said she knew about a clip “I just had to watch’. That was ‘The 8 secrets of success’ by Richard St. John. A whole theory explained in just 3 minutes. I thought it was hilarious and inspiring at the same time. It is still one of my favourites. Read more
We need your help! We would very much like to have a real TEDxDelft sign on stage and we need somebody to design and make it.
So if you’re into using 3D printers, woodcarving, styrofoam etc etc and have some spare time this summer…….help us out. We have drawings, colors and relative measurements available. The size is depending on the size of the stage in the TU Delft auditorium: huge!
Photo: Babet HogervorstAldith Hunkar (@Aldith_Hunkar) will be the host of and performer in between of performers at TEDxDelft 2012!
Aldith is a global freestyle multimedia journalist with over 25 years of experience in Dutch mainstream media. She is the child of many cultures, and a perfect fit for Delft with its large international community around the Delft University of Technology. Because of her father’s job, she lived in Suriname, Malaysia, Brazil and Tunisia. Nowadays, she lives part-time on Jamaica and infuses her speaking with some Caribbean spontaneity.
It is my pleasure to become part of the TEDxDelft team and I hereby would like to introduce myself in a nutshell. My name is Chris van Houdt, 31 years old, 3rd out of 4 brothers, living in the beautiful city of Rotterdam, often hit the road as race-cyclist, enjoy art and have a passion for people and building bridges. Read more
We are very excited to start announcing performers in a few days, starting with our new TEDxDelft host.
No Jasper van Kuijk summarizing TEDxDelft in a poem this year but who will be our performer in between performers?
We will be simulcasting TEDGlobal 2012 – Radical openness on 27 June under TEDxLive license. TEDGlobal 2012 will take place in Edinburgh, Scotland. You can be part of the TEDGlobal experience by attending our simulcast event on Wednesday 27 June.
Since 2009, TEDx events have been organized all over the world. The popularity has grown exponentially, on average 6 to 7 TEDx events per day nowadays.
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Throughout human evolution, multiple versions of humans co-existed. Could we be mid-upgrade now? At TEDxSummit, Juan Enriquez sweeps across time and space to bring us to the present moment — and shows how technology is revealing evidence that suggests rapid evolution may be under way.
Juan Enriquez thinks and writes about profound changes that genomics will bring in business, technology, and society. His TED Book, “Homo Evolutis,” explores those changes.
Would you love to perform a TEDxDelft? This is your opportunity! With this Award you have the possibility to win a wild card to speak at TEDxDelft the 5th of October 2012 and share your idea. This is your unique chance to speak alongside the most inspiring speakers of the world. Read more
We opened up registration for TEDxDelft 2012: Never grow up. We will release a limited number of seats to the very fast with a pleasant discount.
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As we are building towards our next big event on 5 October 2012 we found out that the word “speakers” was not really fitting the way we see TEDxDelft.
TEDxDelft is about creating a stage for people that have an idea that is worth spreading. The idea is possibly spoken word but may also be music, food, design, a feeling, images etc etc. People might be well known in their own community but it’s more likely the majority of the people on our stage are not celebrities at all. By creating the stage, we help them and their ideas to possible fame. Read more
Open Data has become an important trend on the web during recent years.
More and more people start believing that data should be available for use free of restrictions. Initiatives like Data.gov and “Hack de Overheid” pressure government institutions to release data that was paid for by taxpayer-money.
At the same time business on the web is changing. Companies like eBay, Twitter and Facebook realized a website alone limits their reach. They increased their own business potential by opening up through open APIs (Application Programming interface). Not only did this bring a huge growth to their business, it created an ecosystem of companies that built their own businesses on top of these open APIs. Read more
At TEDxSummit, project groups were formed to make proposals to TED. The one I joined made a proposal to introduce regional lens websites: TEDx websites in native languages and focusing on relevant and regional TEDx-events and -talks. In our case: “TEDx in Nederland en in het Nederlands” treating the Netherlands and Flanders as a region.
Not to be mixed up with a TEDxNetherlands – this is not what we mean. We propose an online aggregation and overview per region, not a regional TEDx event. Read more
Ever heard of Scrapheap Challenge? Scrapheap Challenge is an engineering game show broadcasted in the UK. In the show, teams of contestants have 10 hours in which to build a working machine that can do a specific task, using materials available in a scrapheap. In 2010, TEDxDelft 2011 speaker Rolf Hut organised a similar Scrapheap Challenge for talented students of the TU Delft. We think it would be great to have something similar as a side event of TEDxDelft – of which this year’s theme is Never Grow Up! We are looking for someone who would like to coordinate and organize such a Scrapheap Challenge as an independent side event (with TEDxDelft licensee Rob Speekenbrink and Rolf ‘I am a tinkerer’ Hut as inspirational advisers). Are you talented and willing to walk the extra mile to make TEDxDelft Scrapheap Challenge into a reality? Please contact Rob.
At the moment, our Fundraising Team is looking for a pair of extra hands to help us connect with companies and organizations who share our commitment to ideas worth spreading. Fundraising at TEDxDelft is first and foremost about finding partners who are willing to share means, not only money (although that would come in handy) with TEDxDelft. We could use products, ideas, endorsement, network, exposure, expertise, and money to make TEDxDelft 2012 even more inspirational than the 2011 edition. So if you are dedicated to TEDxDelft and would like to put your talent in connecting and committing people into work, please donate TEDxDelft your time and expertise and join our Fundraising Team! Interested? Contact Simone.
In the next couple of months, we could use volunteers on several other jobs as well. Keep in touch if you are interested!
After more than a year of planning and dreaming, we’re finally launching our new TED-Ed website, whose goal is to offer teachers a thrilling new way to use video.
The site is in Beta. But we think there’s enough there to show why we’re so excited about this. Because the goal is to allow any teacher to take a video of their choice (yes, any video on YouTube, not just ours) and make it the heart of a “lesson” that can easily be assigned in class or as homework, complete with context, follow-up questions and further resources. Read more
1: Do not invite celebrities as speakers. Make celebrities out of your speakers.
2: If a company says ‘no’ to your sponsorship request, invite them to your event anyway.
3: “Ithaka gave you a splendid journey. Without her you would not have set out.” Poem bij Constaine Cavafy, 1911.
4: Design a cue-less event. Use your imagination and innovation to avoid cues for coffee, busses, whatsever.
5: Swap favours between sponsors.
6: Invite last year’s speakers to curate and host your TEDx salon or cinema event.
7: Interview fellow TEDx organizers and share the interview through your event’s blog or newsletter.
8: Pick one TED or TEDx talk a week and share and comment on it on your event’s website (‘team’s weekly pick’).
9: Give EVERYONE on your team access to EVERYTHING that is going on AT ALL TIMES.
10: Ban emails. Only use project sharing software like Basecamp.
Popular music comes and goes, and classical composers were once the pop stars of their time. Still, it is remarkable that we continue to perform their music. It does appear, however, that it has become a “left-wing hobby” for the elderly. The new generation has largely got no affinity whatsoever with classical music – apart from what they know from weddings, funerals, or the occasional movie. Read more
Today, April 16 at 18.30, watch TEDxSummit 2012 Opening Night, a two-hour TED session featuring speakers and performers from the region and beyond.
Photo: James Duncan Davidson
Speakers include TEDTalks star and health-data guru Hans Rosling … boundary-breaking artist Raghava KK … TEDx teacher Diana Laufenberg … “solar cracking” expert Nesrin Ozalp … and the wonderful young singer Zain Awad!
TEDxDelft team members Simone en Rob are going to be watching the opening ceremony live in Doha, Qatar.If you have any questions about TEDxSummit or the opening night. Feel free to send us an email.
You probably have one too: a favorite Dutch word.
Yours might be beautifully written or pronounced (ideally both). Maybe your favorite word has multiple meanings. Or it might have no meaning at all but you love it because it just sounds funny.
Whatever your reason, your favorite Dutch word is the best of them all! And this is your chance to let your word shine…
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Earlier this week we got to welcome a new member to the TED-family: TED-Ed.
TED-Ed is an educational channel on Youtube, full with video lessons especially meant for students and teachers. With the promise ‘Lessons worth sharing’, TED-Ed wants to ignite curiosity and to make learning irresistible.