On Saturday November 21, the Danish equivalent of the TED Talks, the non-profit TEDxKEA, will open its doors at the Black Diamond in Copenhagen. But who or what is this TED?
The combination of the capitals T-E-D has over the past 10 years become synonymous with the internet’s information-sharing power: through viral videos such as Professor Ken Robinson’s on schools and creativity and neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor’s on having a stroke, generation Y has become spellbound by the wonders of science through social media.
Generation X, however, has yet to discover the knowledge-sharing power of the TED platform. And the fact that a local version of the world-famous TED Talks will be held in Copenhagen this week.
Christian Stadil …
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, which are just some of the themes the audience will learn about at the Black Diamond. For the organisers behind the initiative, the event is the culmination of almost a year of preparations.
“When we launched this in Copenhagen last year, we were overwhelmed by the great interest in our event – so as soon as we were finished, we were basically at it again,” recalled founders Doug Costello and Anton Tarabykin.
After the success of last year’s event, the TEDxKEA team were able to attract household Danish names to hold 18-minute TEDx talks, such as the rebellious serial entrepreneur and billionaire Christian Stadil, who is widely known for his participation in DR’s ‘Løvens Hule‘ (the Danish version of ‘Shark Tank’ and ‘Dragons’ Den’). Stadil will be talking about his business philosophy, which he calls Company Karma and describes as “CSR 3.0 on steroids”.
“Most of all I am looking forward to the challenge of limiting myself to 20 minutes,” explained Stadil.
“I feel that Company Karma is a business philosophy and a positioning strategy that most companies will be able to use – and then I’m looking forward to sharing my experience of how your closed doors, as a company or an individual, are paradoxically open after all.”
… Selina Juul …
Another prominent speaker at the event is Selina Juul, who was voted Dane of the Year by Berlingske’s readers and an expert panel in 2014. An advocate of the fight against food waste, Juul has attracted enormous interest in her cause in Denmark and abroad with the non-profit consumer movement ‘Stop Wasting Food’ and her blog for the Huffington Post.
When asked about her upcoming talk, Selina explained: “It’s all about UFOs. Not the ones in the sky, but the ones in your freezer: Unidentified Frozen Objects. Danes are terrible at utilising UFOs – we mostly forget them or throw them away.”
On minimising our food waste, Selina will go on stage claiming that we have much to learn from the likes of her Russian grandmother in this regard.
… and many others
In addition to Juul and Stadil, TEDxKEA’s event will feature the legendary Urban planner Jan Gehl, pioneer of DNA research Eske Willerslev, astrophysicist Anja Cetti Andersen, sustainability thought leader Vigga Svensson, entrepreneurs Sophie Trelles-Tvede, Mathias Lundø Nielsen and Simon Prahm, civil rights activist Khaterah Parwani, anthropologist Rob Scotland and alcohol connoiseur Sune Urth.
Tickets are still available in limited quantities on Billetlugen. For more information, check out TEDxKEA’s Facebook event.
