Theme: Press Play

If life is an arcade, then we are all players. There are so many ideas to explore, people to meet along the way, boundaries to go through and possibilities to unlock. Yet, taking the first step into a new game can be a frightening experience. Whether it is a brand-new start (living in a country that you have never visited before, dying your hair a crazy shade of red) or a reboot (picking up a foreign language where you left off years ago, getting back to work as soon as you revive from sickness), they are all full of both potentials and risks, assurances and doubts.

For our humble beginning, TEDxBUV has decided to approach this concept, making it our theme for this year. We call it "Press Play". "Press Play" means to embark on something new. Through this concept, we would like to present a set of fresh viewpoints as guidelines for you to advance into your journey of exciting games, whether it is a chosen life-long battle or an unexpected challenge. "Press Play" is a value each of us at TEDxBUV strongly upholds and is what we want everyone to uphold, no matter who, when and where you are in your life. It is a reminder to take risks, live our lives to the fullest, and not forget to have fun along the way.

British University Vietnam
Theater Pod, British University Vietnam, Ecopark Township, Hung Yen Province, Vietnam
Third Floor
Ecopark, Hung Yen, 17000
Vietnam

Joao Manuel Ferrao Fialho

Professor, British University Vietnam

Dr. João Fialho holds a PhD in Mathematics and teaches in Mathematics and Data Analysis at the British University of Vietnam in Hanoi, Vietnam, as Senior Lecturer and where is also the MBA Program Leader. He is an active researcher in the field of differential equations and mathematical modeling, who believes in results-oriented research and the application of results for optimization of performance in the industry. Since 2012, he has been involved in several research and modeling projects in several countries in the areas of biomechanics, biological models, machine learning and big data. Since 2018 and Co-Founder and Scientific Coordinator of the Alphawin project and is part of the coordination team of the project "Improvement of sports performance in penalty shootouts", in partnership with the Portuguese Football Federation, selection of U-18.

Kevin Francis

Visual Artist

Kevin is a self-taught visual artist and designer from Australia, based in Vietnam since 2015. He has traveled to 25 countries, most of them on a bicycle, his only transport. Kevin sees creativity as something to develop and foster, not a finite resource. He applies his Christianity and creativity in any area possible - teaching, graphic design, and in recycled theme cafés he made in Australia and Hanoi. Kevin lives a simple lifestyle, to inspire others to live consciously, to use their body for transport, to recycle, to be less materialistic. Once he started learning Vietnamese, Kevin applied creativity to develop work he calls keVinglish (a blend of Kevin + Vinglish). His work combines Vietnamese and English words, with drawings, paintings, or objects, to make humorous, meaningful, and memorable ways to learn a language. This work resonates with Vietnamese and foreigners, and Kevin shows how we can take charge of our language acquisition, tailoring it to yourself.

Khong Phuong Anh

Musician, Environmentalist

Phuong Anh is a 24-year-old Vietnamese Musician with a passion for Environment. She’s joined Hemispheres Foundation, a Singaporean NGO, since 2017 and she’s now the ambassador of Hemispheres in Vietnam. Her love for Environment has grown bigger through organizing a series of Global Youth Summits (GYS) called Actions for Earth with Hemispheres in Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Australia,… Combining the two big passions of her life, Music, and Environment, she has written a song called Actions for Earth and won the prize Songs for Sustainability within GYS 2020 held in Melbourne, Australia in January 2020 supported by the United Nation. Phuong Anh’s vision is to spread the idea to the musician community to use music as a weapon to fight for the Environment.

Mark Gilligan

Group Chairman and CEO - Blacktrace Holdings Ltd

Mark started working life being purely interested in the challenge of developing new products and technologies. Early in his career, he started to realize that he had more ideas than time to develop them. It dawned on Mark that a skill that would become important was that of convincing other people that his ideas should be worked on. In other words, selling ideas. This has progressed to the point where Mark has successfully started and run a fast-growing group of companies. Starting with Syrris, leading to Dolomite, Blacktrace and Beyond. Mark’s goals for the future are to further develop this engine of commercially driven successful innovation companies. A common theme is Productising Science, in other words, taking New Scientific Discoveries from University, or other Research environments and structuring deals and partnerships to enable world-leading products to be developed and then marketed and sold globally.

Ngo Huy Tam

Educator

With his competence and in-depth knowledge, Mr. Ngo Huy Tam has held many high positions and positions in organizations such as Cleverlearn Nghe An director, head of research and development at Phenikaa School - Phenikaa Group, member of EdLab Asia Science and Advisory Council, speaker and educational advisor at VTV3. He also achieved many successes, building his name in the education industry with many lectures, typically the topic "New perspective in education" at Vietnam Educamp, organizing the event "Integration. in the digital age and era of industrial revolution 4.0 ”, and also participated as a speaker for Global Education Fair and Viet Abroader.

Nguyen Chi Hieu

CEO, Educator, Writer - IEG Global

Dr. Chi Hieu Nguyen earned his Bachelor from London School of Economics (UK) in 2007, his Ph.D. from Stanford University (USA) in 2012, and an MBA from the University of Oxford (UK) in 2016. For the past decade, Dr. Nguyen has grown himself into an expert in the education sector as he sets up and transforms 100+ K-12 schools, colleges, education institutes, and non-profit organizations. With an aim to help to teach practices in Vietnamese schools and institutes leapfrog and keep pace with international standards and frontiers, Dr. Nguyen has trained 25,000+ teachers in K-12 and colleges, renowned for constantly introducing and scaling innovative teaching practices that are deeply rooted in academic research, adapted with contextual insights and highly effective in practice. Dr. Nguyen is also an active contributor to national news and media as well as a published author with numerous books in education and related issues.

Nguyen Quang Tung

Blogger, Influencer, Aspiring Educator

Nguyen Quang Tung is a driven and inspiring graduate from the United World College with a personal mission to inspire every student in Vietnam to dream and pursue the endless possibilities of life, regardless of their personal backgrounds. As of now, Tung is a double-major sophomore at Macalester College, pursuing Educational Studies and Economics. Having strong beliefs in the power of creativity, Tung had successfully directed four summer programs at The Creative Kid Program, an organization dedicated to bolstering creativity in Vietnamese students through experiential learning. Tung also started his blog Akwaaba, Tung in 2019 while participating in Semester at Sea Fall 2019 Voyage. In the span of 109 days, he traveled to 12 countries in 4 different continents. In January 2020, Tung did a tour of 10 different cities and towns across Vietnam to talk to Akwaaba readers. More than 600 people attended the events.