Theme: Reality Revisited

This year, our theme is Reality Revisited. Reality is not always what we perceive.

For 2016, TEDxPortofSpain will ask speakers to explore our deeply held assumptions to reveal the unexpected insights that come from in-depth exploration.

Queens Hall Auditorium
1-3 St. Ann’s Road, St. Ann’s
Port of Spain, Port of Spain, 00000
Trinidad and Tobago

Akosua Dardaine Edwards

Social Entrepreneur

Akosua Dardaine Edwards is the founder of the Enabling Enterprise Project. The Enabling Enterprise Project is a progressive and interactive programme, which partner with Caribbean and international women’s business support agencies, policy makers and women entrepreneurs from all over the world for the enhancement, empowerment, exchange of ideas and experience and best practice of women’s enterprise and entrepreneurship worldwide. Akosua has travelled and worked throughout countries such as the United Kingdom, Uganda, India, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Kenya and her native Trinidad and Tobago working with women and youth entrepreneurs combining her expertise of entrepreneurship, empowerment and transformation and sharing lessons on the Journey. Akosua published her first book “What did I Learn Today? Lessons on the Journey to Unconditional Self-Love” in September 2013 (Balboa Press) Her second book “Nyabo (Madam) – Why are you here? was launched in Atlanta Georgia o

Arvinda Rampersad

Technologist

Arvinda Rampersad explores how we might leverage new technologies to improve various aspects within our societies. He is fascinated with the question of how we in the global south can move from being net consumers of knowledge & innovation to net producers of the same. A staunch believer in the power of learning broadly, Arvinda has dabbled in multiple disciplines over the years. He was primarily a Math and Science student until the undergraduate level where he switched to a Business & Finance degree in search of new challenges. Subsequent to this, he completed an MSc. Entrepreneurship programme in the UK as part of his explorations into how we can organise ourselves and the way we work differently, to deal with this century’s unique challenges. His most recent foray has been in relearning how to code with a view to better understanding data analysis and manipulation.

Diana Mahabir-Wyatt

Human Relations Consultancy.

Diana Mahabir-Wyatt has been an activist for Human Rights since childhood. She has advocated for equality for girls in primary and secondary school, marched against racism and war in university. She was an independent Member of the Senate of Trinidad & Tobago for nine years mainly dealing with Industrial Relations and Social Development Legislation. She is a strange combination of serene and affectionate support and steely determination, perhaps shaped by an early childhood growing up in Canada amid refugees from war zones and concentration camps. Her advocacy for the victims of domestic violence and child abuse are well known. Less well-known are her stories for children and her addiction to studies on comparative religion and philosophy.

Earl Boodoo

Economist

Dr. Earl Boodoo is an Economist by traditional definitions, earning his PhD from the prestigious University of Nottingham. His passion however is to gain a better understanding of the reaction of economic agents as they respond to price signals in the allocation of 'scarce' resources. In order to realise this passion, he has worked at drafting monetary policy and analysing Poverty and Inequality in International Trade. His preparation to deliver on this passion includes leading the team that established the Office of the Supervisor of Insolvency within the Ministry of Finance and developing a policy framework to deal with distressed assets. Whether as Chief Economist at the Central Bank, General Manager of Deposit Insurance Corporation, or Executive Member of the Executive Council of the International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI) he understands how tough business decisions are made. Dr. Boodoo’s current passion is to identify ways of increasing the fiscal sp

Elizabeth Solomon

Change Agent

Elizabeth Solomon describes herself as a Change Agent. She started her working life as a journalist and received seven awards in print, radio and television. Elizabeth was recruited to the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. Her work took her to some of the worst and most protracted conflicts in the world and she has focused on supporting local efforts to build resilient democratic national institutions in Kosovo, Bosnia, and Somalia. Her work on human rights and development saw her working in Guyana, Brazil and India. Elizabeth also holds degrees in journalism and in law.

Jolynna Sinanan

Anthropologist

Jolynna Sinanan What is Digital Ethnography? Dr. Jolynna Sinanan was born in England to a Chinese­Malaysian mother and Trinidadian father. Her research explores how our online everyday activities, and the ways in which we interpret these activities, influence social change. Having grown up in Australia, Jolynna had never experienced her father’s culture and heritage from Trinidad. Her academic pursuits led her to the University College London, where she became part of a European research Council funded global study on uses of social media, which allowed her to live and work in Trinidad across 2011­2014. Jolynna is dedicated to contributing to Trinidadian scholarship, she is the co­author of Webcam with Daniel Miller and her chapter on contemporary Chinese migration to Trinidad is included in the volume Media and Communication in the Chinese Diaspora. Jolynna is currently completing Visualising Facebook (also with Daniel Miller) and her own volume Social Media

Keith Nurse

Academic entrepreneur

Dr. Keith Nurse can be described as an academic entrepreneur who uses his training and expertise in global political economy, trade policy, innovation governance and creative entrepreneurship to promote social change and economic transformation. Keith is an expert member of the Economic Development Advisory Board of Trinidad and Tobago; regionally, he is the Chair of CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution and former Executive Director of the UWI Consulting Inc. at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica and the Shridath Ramphal Centre, Barbados; and internationally he serves as an expert and member of the executive bureau for the UN Committee for Development Policy.

Kheston Walkins

Entrepreneur

Kheston Walkins is a young entrepreneur from Trinidad and Tobago that was selected to attend the Young Leaders of the America’s Initiative, 2016 (YLAI) by the United States State Department. This is an initiative of President Barack Obama that brings Social and Business Entrepreneurs from across Latin America and the Caribbean. He is a PhD candidate in Molecular Genetics and is developing a tool for data driven cancer diagnosis. Kheston’s core interest is in health technology and as a User Experience/ User Interface Designer, he uses these skillsets on a current project that focuses on the development of a clinical and home care tool for aphasic and stroke patients which is intended to solve challenges with proximate as well as remote communication.

Kwame Ryan

Orchestral Conductor

A Trinidadian Orchestral Conductor is not something we hear about frequently. Kwame Ryan is an Orchestral Conductor in demand internationally. Symphony orchestras of some of the world’s major cities of music ­ London, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, Seoul ­ place a high premium on his talent. Kwame’s extensive professional network is the product of over twenty years of work at the top of the international classical music business, during the course of which he has also built a strong reputation for leading institutions of higher musical education. His directorship of the National Youth Orchestra of France was recognised with one of that country’s highest decorations in the field of Arts and Letters. Born in Toronto, Canada, Kwame spent his early years in Trinidad, before being enrolled in boarding school in England as a means to pursuing his musical dreams.

Margaret Rose

Lawyer

Margaret Rose is an anti-corruption advocate, entrepreneur and activist currently pursuing her doctorate in International Public Procurement Policy & Research at the University of Bath, UK. As an anti-corruption advocate, Margaret has founded serial initiatives geared toward empowering citizens to become more effective in their engagement in public governance and guardians of the public interest. In 2014 Margaret won the Global Social Entrepreneurship Initiative awarded by Transparency International (TI) and the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) for developing the innovative civic technology platform Disclosure Today which is a social governance network connecting citizen activists with pro bono lawyers and digitising legally compliant freedom of information requests.

Maria Nunes

Photographer

When immersed in capturing imagery of the traditional carnival arts or in documenting the creative process of artists, Maria Nunes is in her element. Both a photographer and producer, her main interests lie in the documentation of cultural heritage and the work of performing artists through still images and film making. Most recently she has been working closely with Jazz Trumpeter Etienne Charles to document the creation of his two newest works, the San Jose Suite and the Carnival Suite. In the world of dance she was photographer-in-residence for New Waves! Institute from 2011-2014 and has been the resident photographer for the Noble Douglas Dance Company and Lilliput Children's Theatre since 2013. At a national level she was official photographer in 2013 for the Trinidad and Tobago delegation to Carifesta in Suriname and the 9th China International Folk Arts Festival in Yichang and Beijing. Maria is also a founding Director of Calabash Foundation for the Arts and was