In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. TEDx Program started in May 2009 and within seven months more than 100 TEDx events were organized in many cities around the globe such as New York, Sydney, Tokyo, Dubai, London, Amsterdam and Athens.
TEDxAthens seeks to develop and leverage the TED experience at a regional level, bringing together innovators and inspirational speakers in Athens, Greece. TEDxAthens’ first Conference took place in October 2009, gathering 150 attendees, while it hosted 4 live speakers and 2 recorded TED Talks. TEDxAthens 2009 sold out in less than 8 hours, a key figure that shows the power of the community behind it.
Speakers
Göran Carstedt is one of Europe’s most prominent business leaders, he has run some of the world’s leading companies. Dr. Carstedt is chairman of The Natural Step International and well as a Senior Director of Clinton Climate Initiative. He is the former head of IKEA Retail Europe and served as a member of the IKEA Group Management Board from 1990-1997 and as President of IKEA North America from 1990-1995.
Steve Moore is Director of the London based Big Society Network. The Network is the innovation platform for the UK’s Prime Minister’s big idea; to build the Big Society. Steve is also a TED Veteran.
Peter Aspden is the Financial Times’ arts writer, having previously been its arts editor for five years. He is also a TEDster and covers TED events for the FT.
Elena Panaritis spent years convincing policymakers, development organizations, and local stakeholders in Peru that transformation of informal property rights is possible and that it carries sustainable economic, financial and social dividends.
Kosta Grammatis is a visiting researcher at the MIT Media labs and the founder of ahumanright.org — an organization charged with bringing low cost internet access to the world.
Giannis Ragousis is a Greek politician. As from 7 October 2009 he is Minister for the Interior of Greece.
Athena is an Anglo-Greek singer songwriter born in London and raised in Greece. She is part of London’s melting pot and creative energy, collaborating, recording, performing and writing with international musicians and songwriters.
Yiannis Giannarakis is an enterpreneur, active in electronic publishing and digital content since 1985. Among others, he was one of the founding members of In.gr and the first Director of the Greek Edition of National Geographic books and videos.
Thodoris has worked on print and online media for more than a decade. Throughout this time he has developed a fascination with technology that borders on fanboyism.
Alexandros Damoulianos was born in 10-07-1990. He graduated from Ilion High School for Students with Disabilities. He is an undergraduate student at the School of Philosophy, University of Athens. He started writing poetry at the age of 14.
Kyriakos Pierrakakis is the Chairman of Greece’s Institute for Youth, which is supervised by the Greek Ministry of Education and focuses on youth entrepreneurship and innovation issues.
Maria is a philologist and has been involved in journalism for the last 15 years. She is the mother to an 11 year old princess and a 9 year old prince who suffers from autism. Her son’s autism was what pushed her and motivated her to make drastic changes to herself which in turn transformed her entire personal and professional life.
Dr. Dimitris Protopsaltou is an associate partner of the Veria Public Library and responsible of its media and communication strategy that has led to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation award for promoting access to learning in 2010.
Dimitris joined the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications at the University of Athens as a Professor of Algorithm Design in 2010. From 1998 to 2005 he was with Microsoft Research, Redmond and since 2005 with the Department of Computer Science UC Santa Cruz.
Christos Ioannidis created a music festival called “Schoolwave”. Highschool bands from Greece and Europe come to Athens every July and play their own music on a huge stage in front of thousands of schoolmates. In the past 5 years, Schoolwave has become the biggest high-school festival in Europe with over 2,5 million views on Youtube.
Monsieur Minimal a.k.a. Christos Τsitroudis was born and raised in Giannitsa, Greece. He has been writing and producing music as Monsieur Minimal for the last 5 years. He was one of the most talented and successful competitors of the Coca-Cola Sound Wave festival in 2007, with his songs ‘’Silk’’ and ‘’Love Is A Circle’’.
Alexis Stamatis is a well known Greek novelist, and poet born in Athens, Greece. He is the author of eight novels and six books of poetry; his work has been translated into English, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.
Yannis is a Greek-based creative designer working in motion graphics and Co-Founder of Nomint.
Konstantinos Lazarakis is the first and, so far, the only Greek to achieve the prestigious Master of Wine professional qualification, a highly regarded title that less than 300 people hold around the world.
“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi