Theme: small pieces, big picture.

This year, TEDxUNSW shines a spotlight on the individual “small pieces” that make UNSW what it is today. The big picture of UNSW takes the small pieces of the student body, their ideas, dreams and goals and creates a community with the sole purpose of ideas that are worth spreading.

TEDxUNSW’s 2017 conference will be a day of inspiring speakers and performers, who have been sourced specifically for their original insight into how every individual contribution can affect both ourselves and our society.

Join us on Saturday 12th August 2017 to explore these ideas and unleash the potential of your contribution!

University of New South Wales
Anzac Parade
Kensington, New South Wales, 2052
Australia

Ace Mamun

An author and speaker, Ace has over a decade’s worth of experience in community management, creative, communications, publishing and events. His positions range from Art Director, Head of Strategy, Editor-in-Chief, Event Organizer, Analyst, to Emcee and more. He is now the founder and CEO of The Socialites, a multi-national community and lifestyle network and Global Good, a non-profit publication which promotes altruism and positive action within society. He is also the Director of The Plus Ones lifestyle publication in Sydney, connecting millions with unique experiences across the globe. Ace has a core goal of making the world a more connected place (to decrease the degrees of separation through being a facilitator and connector), thus bringing us closer together a society. As a result, his focus is on increasing global empathy, opportunity and equality. He actively pursues this goal by connecting communities through the nearly 100,000-member network of The Socialites across 50+ cities,. Furthermore, his roles as ambassador and community organiser of some of the world’s largest networks (including InterNations, ASmallWorld, and Couchsurfing) help implement global change via the medium of networking and experiential opportunities. Ace expands his role as a connector further through his creatives’ platform, Connectanation, linking thousands of creatives with opportunities in the art space; and The Socialites’ social influencer network, with millions of followers in the lifestyle realm. Professionally, he has also mentored multiple agencies across GroupM — the single largest media group in Australia — helping clients such as Nespresso and Foxtel tackle communications objectives connect with audiences in fresh, effective, and innovative ways. In the non-profit space, Ace, has partnered with major charities to execute multiple experiential campaigns to drive community efforts towards the alleviation of homelessness, childhood cancer, and more.

Junkyard Beats

Junkyard Beats are renowned for their dynamic rhythm shows. They present a series of high-energy routines that include body percussion, dance, junk percussion and hilarious skits. Their family friendly show draws on inspiration from everyday life, the streets and the junkyard. It is filled with imagination, humour and a lot of rhythm. In the hands of Junkyard Beats, ordinary household items are transformed into musical instruments that create a booty shaking, toe-tapping , electric atmosphere that makes you want to get up and move. Since, Oded Prior, founder and creative director formed the group (2015) they have been a huge success performing shows throughout Australia. The group also deliver fun, creative workshops for children and adults. There are three main casts that performs all over the world.The original and main one is "DEMENTE-SHOW" in Israel created by Navon Amos at 2007, and there is another one in Los Angeles under the name "KC DRUMMERS".

Kamal Sarma

Kamal Sarma is one of the world’s leading experts on resilience and human connection, with a particular focus on creating resilient leaders, so they can go on to create resilient organizations. Kamal is the CEO of Rezilium, a strategic leadership development firm, specializing in the wealth management industry. His company has conducted leadership programs for a number of top-tier organizations, such as Google, Facebook, Reserve Bank of Australia, PwC, Westpac and Commonwealth Bank. Kamal Sarma has had a unique background, training as a monk for six years in India, as well as pursuing a corporate career. Kamal has held senior executive positions in organizations, including McKinsey & Company, Eli Lilly and AMP Capital Investors. Kamal has also been the co-founder of two venture capital businesses in the IT and biotech sectors. Kamal is the author of the international bestseller, Mental Resilience: The Power of Clarity – How to Develop the Focus of a Warrior and the Peace of a Monk. He speaks globally on resilience and leadership. Kamal’s book, The Leadership Leap: (UN) Learning How to Lead, was featured on Google Talks. In addition to his corporate work, Kamal is a co-founder of the Institute for Mental Resilience, an organization that, amongst other activities, supports rescuing young children from sex slavery in India, Nepal and Cambodia. He was recognized for his peace work between the Chinese and Tibetans in 2008. He is currently the Chairman of RUOK’s Think Tank and AmicusDigital and has just released his new book, The Art of WinWin Conversations.

Lizbeth Pal

Strategist, Writer and Presenter at Runaway Strategist An alumni of UNSW, Liz graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor of Media Communications and Journalism, Majoring in Human Resources. The former marketing strategist turned Writer and Presenter, Liz previously worked with brands such as Microsoft, Telstra, Commonwealth Bank and McDonalds to strengthen customer relationships. After taking a dip into digital nomad life, Liz realised she needed a balance of freedom, structure and social stimulation. Today, she’s another millennial trying to hack the working economy to align with her values. Her blog Runaway Strategist aims to 'hack millennial life' through two main content streams. Brain Optimisation and the ‘Meet the Millennial Life Hacker’ series. She is passionate about contextualising research from psychology, neuroscience and lifestyle design into actionable practices. Through her interview series, she looks to decode how other millennials are creating their own dream careers and lifestyle.

Lucy Thomas

Growing up, Lucy Thomas always figured that “someone should really do something about bullying.” Then she realised: I am that someone. As one of two sisters who cofounded PROJECT ROCKIT, Australia’s youth driven movement against bullying, hate and prejudice, Lucy has dedicated her whole life to the cause. After building her career around tackling bullying, Lucy’s life was fundamentally changed when she herself became the target of an extended pattern of homophobic bullying in adulthood. Instead of hiding away, Lucy took this as an opportunity to connect with even young Aussies and launch herself into advocating for the LGBTI community. She first shared her story with thousands of high school students at the National Young Leaders Day at Olympic Park in Sydney and is now Deputy Chair of the board at Minus18, Australia’s largest youth led org supporting LGBTI young people. She made global headlines last year when a recording of Lucy standing up to a homophobic Uber driver went viral. In 2014, she was named as one of 12 Global Champions for Children’s Rights in the Digital Age by UNICEF and in 2015, she was a Finalist for LGBTI Person of the Year in the GLOBE Awards. Lucy is a graduate of the University of Melbourne with both Graduate and Postgraduate Diplomas in Psychology, as well as a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Hons). Her creative and socially conscious background, together with this solid grounding in psychology and youth development has equipped Lucy with the precious ability to engage young people to generate self-awareness, growth and positive social change.

Rhonda Brighton-Hall

A former HR Leader and Telstra Businesswoman of the Year, Rhonda is CEO and Co-Founder of mwah. Making Work Absolutely Human. Specialising in leadership, inclusion, and the future design of work, she is applauded for both her strategic insight and the simplicity she brings to getting the people side of businesses right. Her fundamental belief is that belonging (inclusion) and great leadership are foundational for good people practices in organisations. Equally, it creates more equitable and prosperous economies and communities.

Sean Hall

Sean is an awarded marketer, innovator and strategist with twenty years of leadership experience ranging from Global Marketing Manager for Les Mills, the creator of the world’s most popular workouts through to senior executive roles in marketing and HR at $12B Top 20 Global Telco brand Telstra. After suffering burnout or an ‘energy crisis’ twice in three years, Sean developed a deep understanding and fascination with energy and wellness at both a personal and professional level. As Founder and CEO of performance coaching company Energx, Sean is on a mission to change that by helping Australian’s build their energy intelligence so that they are more able to identify and deal with the stresses that deplete their energy. He believes building energy intelligence is the key to a healthy, happy, inclusive society. The symptoms of chronic stress and energy depletion are all around us. All at once we are experiencing an ‘epidemic of epidemics’ ranging from obesity, depression, bullying, addiction, and loneliness to sleep deprivation and heart disease. Sean believes a key contributor to this is that we have never been taught what impacts our personal energy on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level. Sean is passionate about the role of technology in addressing matters of social equity, a mentor to TEDxUNSW, Project ROCKIT and Youth Off The Streets and an alumni scholar of The Marketing Academy. His first book focused on personal energy and wellness, BOOM! Why Energy Intelligence Is The Key To A Successful Life will be published in 2017.

Shan Sharma

For over twelve years and across four continents (Asia, North America, Europe and Australia), Shan Sharma has helped dynamic startups, companies and public sector organisations to think differently, reimagine their products and services and build an innovative culture. He has been integral in establishing innovation labs for leading organisations such as PwC and City of Melbourne to drive growth and enable them to be future focussed, inventive and foster an entrepreneurial mindset. As a founder of a business consultancy, Shan assists organisations in their transformation so they can prepare and operate now for the future. Through his leadership and experience in innovation strategy and large transformational projects, Shan continues to help public and private organisations develop a startup mindset and capitalise on future business opportunities. He values people and believes that a strong human culture is essential to the success of any project, team and organisation. Shan is in his element when it involves tapping into human creativity to generate new value for organisations. An exciting blend of computer engineering and an MBA from Australian Graduate School of Management and London Business School gives him a structured yet free flowing, analytical yet human centered approach to discovering, building and scaling businesses of the future.