Preview: TEDx Salford

TED conferences are well-known to many students. Many of us will have watched a video of a certain speaker from one of these events, which attract crowds of thousands every year. Here in Greater Manchester, we are fortunate enough to have one of these events on our doorstep.

TEDx Salford returns to The Lowry on Sunday 5th October, two years after the first event took place in the complex, which sits across the road from MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. Now in its fourth incarnation, this year’s event will see a whole host of prominent figures from the worlds of science, technology, art, media and business take to the stage to deliver talks to what is sure to be a sell-out crowd at the Lyric Theatre.

The event will start at 10:00 and finish at 20:30. Each speaker will be allocated an 18-minute slot in which to present their ideas to the audience. The programme will be split into a morning and afternoon session, with tickets available for both right up until the day of the event.

TEDx first arrived in Salford in January 2012 and has since grown into the largest TEDx event in the country. Almost 2000 people attended last year’s conference. TEDx Salford is a non-profit, voluntary iniative, which gives the local community the opportunity to hear the thoughts of experts from many different fields.

Although each speaker will bring something unique and interesting to the table, there will be some particularly notable figures gracing the stage. The Italian mathematician and computer scientist Professor Massimo Marchiori will be one of the first speakers of the day. Marchiori is perhaps best known for inventing the HyperSearch algorithm, a technique that later inspired Google’s PageRank system.

Regular viewers of the BBC technology programme Click may be interested to hear that Kate Russell will be speaking during the morning session as well. The journalist, who has been reporting on and writing about technology for the best part of 20 years, is set to make her first appearance at the event.

Tawakkol Karman, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, will also be on stage at The Lowry. Karman, who became a Nobel laureate at the age of just 32 following her tireless efforts to secure rights for women in her native Yemen, is a prominent human rights activist and journalist. Her talk promises to be hugely inspiring and motivational.

Many other icons, including two teenage scientists, the founder of the World Toilet Organisation, and a global leader in hacking and information security, will be presenting their ideas as well.

Tickets are available from the event’s website, for which there is a link at the bottom of this page. It is worth noting that students qualify for concessionary tickets, meaning you can save up to £20 for a whole day pass.

For more information about the event, or to buy tickets, visit www.tedxsalford.com/