TEDxPocklingtonED

Speakers

Speakers may not be confirmed. Check the event website for the latest lineup.

• Adrian Asher

  Adrian Asher is the Global head of IT Security at HSBC. He has worked at a number of prestigious organisations including Skype, Microsoft, Betfair, Accel Partners, Barclays Capital and British Airways. He takes the view that security is an investment just like any other sector of business. Recent news stories about breaches of security by organised groups of hackers have drawn attention to the dangers that exist in storing large amounts of data. Concerns about the use to which this information is put and the implications for personal privacy mean that businesses will need to address both the way that they gather information and the way they use it.

• Alan Gillott

  Alan Gillott is co-owner and co-editor of small press Stairwell Books, writer, editor, composer, singer, poet, choirmaster and performer. He has been writing poetry since his teenage years and during his career in the IT industry, he took the opportunity to perform wherever he was able – from South London to Connecticut where he met Rose Drew. On his return to York, he and Rose founded performance poetry group The Spoken Word. He has continued both to write and publish poetry and has had some of his poems set to music by composer Edward Caine.

• Anja Karina-Pahl

  Anja-Karina Pahl has been working on unifying theories for 20 years. After research in various hard sciences and the Theory of Everything she developed a unified model for innovation - the 7 steps that all human beings use to think, when they make, create or produce any kind of stuff.

• Charli Goodfellow

  Charli has been writing poetry for 16 years, but only had the guts to start performing 2 years ago. Being Irish, her poetry tends to be about crazy relatives and things which make her angry, which can sometimes be one and the same. The highlight of her poetry ‘career’ so far came in 2014 when Charli supported Hollie McNish in York. Outside poetry, Charli is a Girl Guide leader who likes to kickbox, sing loudly in the kitchen and hang out with her dog.

• Clive Head

  Clive Head is widely regarded as the leading British realist painter of his generation. He has achieved a worldwide reputation, with his work being held in private and public collections internationally and he has exhibited in many different locations. In 2010, three paintings were exhibited at the National Gallery, which drew record crowds and gained wide coverage in the media. In 2012, Clive’s work was displayed alongside that of Nicolas Poussin at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, and in 2014, his work was exhibited in Norwich as part of an exhibition on reality in modern and contemporary British painting.

• Craig Gilchrist

  Craig Gilchrist is the Digital Director at Eden Agency, which is at the forefront of proximity marketing. His team is one of the first in the world to release commercial iBeacon-powered apps. They currently boast over 1.5 million app downloads in multiple fields. Craig has been developing commercial software since graduating from the University of Teesside in 2004 and has been building apps for iOS since 2009. He is an avid reader and is always at the forefront of commercial technological developments. He also has a keen interest in developing gaming and children’s interactive media.

• Eric Hunter

  Eric Hunter is the Director of Knowledge, Innovation & Technology Strategies at Bradford & Barthel and Executive Director of Spherical Models. He is on the editorial board for Managing Partner, and has recently published “The Sherlock Syndrome - Strategic Success through Big Data and the Darwinian Disruption” with the Ark Group. He is the recipient of ILTA’s 2010 ‘Knowledge Management Champion’ Distinguished Peer and ILTA’s 2010 ‘Innovative Member’ awards.

• Helen Whittaker

  Helen Whittaker is Creative Director and Artist/Designer to Barley Studio, York, and has been restoring historic stained glass and designing new windows for ecclesiastical and secular buildings for 20 years, with commissions nationwide. Helen has an MA in Visual, Islamic and Traditional Arts and a BA (Hons) in Three-Dimensional Design in Glass and Ceramics. Since 1998, Helen has been a visiting tutor for the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, teaching the techniques of stained glass. She has also given many lectures on the subject of stained glass to a variety of audiences.

• Jacky Fitt

  Jacky Fitt is an award-winning author, editor and co-director/Strategic Copywriter for creative agency the Big Ideas Collective. She has worked with such leading figures as Terence Davies, Paul Greengrass and David Puttnam. Jacky’s five-star rated “How to Get inside Someone’s Mind and Stay There”, won the 2015 Small Business Book Community Choice Award in marketing. Jacky is co-owner of the Principles of Profit, a leading business development programme and co-director of the publishing imprint the Big Ideas Library. She is also an Institute of Leadership and Management endorsed trainer.

• Jon Tait

  Jon Tait is an experienced senior leader and current deputy head teacher in a large and diverse North East secondary school. He regularly presents at teaching conferences in the UK and internationally, talking about how he has researched and conducted trials with digital technology in schools. In 2012, Jon was selected to carry the Torch at the London 2012 Olympics due to his work with young people, both in schools and through his sports coaching in the local community.

• Jonathan Tait-Harris

  Jonathan Tait-Harris has over 25 years’ experience of asking tough questions in dangerous places. His investigative work has taken him to a wide range of countries and he has appeared on ITV, ITN and the Discovery Channel as an expert on war crimes issues. He has also contributed to the BBC and Guardian News. He has been a commissioned officer in the British army, a member of CID West Mercia, a war crimes and human rights violations investigator in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq and now trains and prepares people for deployment to challenging and hostile environments. He is also part of the government’s Stabilisation Unit, delivering stability in conflict zones.

• Julia Baker

  Julia Baker works in Digital Development and Communications at Sound and Music, the national charity for new music, where their vision is of a world where new music helps everyone listen. There, she has launched Minute of Listening, an innovative teaching resource, which introduces the revolutionary concept of reflective listening to schools in the UK and beyond. She has been instrumental in the organisation of various cultural festivals, both in the UK and internationally.

• Laurence O'Reilly

  Laurence O’Reilly is an acclaimed performance poet based in North Yorkshire. Some of his pieces focus on the frustrations with modern technology and the unintentionally humorous results that may arise from the interactions between humans and their many devices. He has also written and performed pieces that deal with the social problems faced by people in their personal and work lives.

• Paul K Ainsworth

  Paul K Ainsworth is a former head teacher and now Advisor for the David Ross Education Trust. He is the author of five education books and also writes a popular blog for parents on sports psychology for children.

• Raja Saggi

  Raja Saggi is Head of B2B Marketing for Google in the UK. His team is responsible for acquiring new customers for products such as AdWords and Google+. He also manages programmes such as Google Partners, Think Digital and the popular Google Juice Bars. Previously, Raja was Head of Business Development for Yell, the world’s largest directory company. Raja is an advisor for Start-up Loans, a government funded non-profit organisation chaired by James Caan. Raja has appeared at a wide variety of conference and venues including Buy Yorkshire, the Telegraph Festival of Business and the Digital Marketing Show.

• Rose Drew

  Rose Drew is a physical anthropologist, performance poet, events manager and political activist. Originally from Miami, she now lives in York, where she hosts a monthly poetry & prose open mic, co-hosted by her partner Alan. They also run the small press Stairwell Books. Rose has offered performance poetry workshops at various festivals and book fairs and has supported Buddy Wakefield, Rob Auton, Kate Fox and others. Rose says her two favourite places to be are in a lab analysing human skeletons and on a stage in front of an audience.

• T.J. Cook

  T.J. is the CEO and strategist at CauseLabs. He facilitates team building and culture building as they help build tools that impact people. He has helped design over 100 tangible solutions, while assembling an expert of team of strategists, designers, and engineers who partner with clients around the world to prototype, win funding for, and launch digital innovation breakthroughs. Drawing from personal experience as an educator, reader, runner, musician, and Spanish speaker, he takes an interdisciplinary approach to innovation and loves bringing skilled individuals together in fast-paced, well-designed workshops that kick-start new solutions using emerging technologies.