For those of you who cannot attend, but would like to watch proceedings, we have a live stream of the event which you can watch from wherever you choose.

The address is : http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tedexorenda2011

David is the Founder of All Things Magnificent – an organisation that covers all of the projects he is involved with:

• Magnificent Minds, a professional development company
• Magnificent Generation, a youth development social enterprise
• Magnificent Ventures, venture consultancy and advice

An accomplished speaker who has been speaking for over twenty years, David has spoken in North America, Tanzania, Thailand, Netherlands and all over the UK both as a keynote speaker and conference facilitator.

David has a passion for not only challenging people to step outside their comfort zone but also inspiring audiences to take massive action on what he has spoken about. From executives to sales staff, teachers to financial advisors his message is the same.

We look forward to hearing David talk about magnificence at TEDxOrenda.

In the 1970s Jack edited a wide range of photography magazines and then became editor of the influential computer magazine, Practical Computing. Although Jack left the Guardian in 2010 he still writes the ‘Ask Jack‘ column in which he helps to answer readers’ technical conundrums. He launched the Computer Guardian in 1985 which later became the ‘Online’ supplement in 1994, which was required reading for anyone in the field.

Jack has used many different computers throughout his time as computing expert and was one of the first Mac users in 1983 and as such has an incredible knowledge of the developments that have taken place in this field over the past 25 years or more.

With an eye for the unusual and interesting, Jack‘s Twitter stream is a cornucopia of delights for those who follow him.

We look forward to Jack giving us a potted history of the computer at TEDxOrenda.

Having only just turned 16 Rhys has had to cope with the everyday prejudices he faces as a confident and articulate young person who interacts with people much older than himself via the Internet.

This came to head recently when, after having been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease Rhys joined forums that were set up to support people with his condition.  He was appalled to discover that a product being marketed as a ‘miracle sure’ for Crohn’s disease was in fact industrial strength bleach.  What then followed is referred to a #bleachgate and gained Rhys a reputation as a modern-day debunker of snake-oil salesmen.  The FSA praised him for alerting them to the issue but not before he came in for widespread criticism on the very forums of which he was a member – people didn’t like this young man pointing out to them that he knew better than them.  Rhys came to particular prominence when his work was feted by Ben Goldacre and he recently shared the platform with Stephen Fry & Richard Dawkins at a ‘critical thinking’ conference.

Although a very modets young man, Rhys is not afraid to speak his mind and can now be found most oftenTweeting about any instances where he feels people are having the wool pulled over their eyes.

Unfortunately Rhys has an important GCSE examination the day after TEDxOrenda so he will not be with us in person, however he is making a short video or Skype-ing in so that we can hear from him the importance of the student voice.

It seems only right that we announce Simon as speaker on the eve of the annual Chrismas party celebrating the diversity of immense talent on his Bella Union record label. Take a look at any end of year Album of the Year chart and one commonality you will notice is the proliferation of Bella Union acts on it:  Fleet Foxes, Beach House, Midlake, Andrew Bird, Peter Broderick, Phillip Selway, The Low Anthem and current darling of the music press, John Grant, all of whom are artists on Simon‘s record label.  It takes a very special man to be able to notice such talent and, with such regularity, to mentor them to create recordings of such high quality.

As one of the influential Cocteau Twins, Simon went on to set up the Bella Union label in 1997 through which the band’s music and side projects were released and it has now become one of the leading independent record labels in the UK.

Simon‘s father Ivor Raymonde, wrote songs for Dusty Springfield and was string arranger and producer for artists like The Walker Brothers, David Bowie, Julio Iglesias, Ian Dury, etc. When aged 21 he joined the Cocteau Twins with whom he would continue to play for the next 14 years. In addition to all his other talents, Simon now performs with Stephanie Dosen as one half of a new band called Snowbird.

We look forward with great anticipation to hearing Simon tell us how he discovers and harnesses such talent.

When he was 16 Marc was expelled from school, just a few weeks before he was due to sit his exams.  However, his life changed when he won a Guardian scholarship to the School of Communication Arts, the advertising school which closed in 1994. After a period of time South Africa, Marc returned to the UK where he started an Internet company which was bought for just under £20 million in 2000.  Marc is credited with inventing the first video banner ad and is the only entrepreneur to have won two international Red Herring 100 awards for two different companies in the same year.

Marc is the Dean of the reopened School of Communication Arts which he hopes ‘will revive its reputation as of the most important and loved schools of creativity and develop another generation of creative thinkers possessing the commercial nous to survive and succeed in the competitive world of marketing.’

With the likelihood of government-supported ‘Free Schools’ opening in England in the near future, Marc knows only too well what it is like to open a school of his own.

We can’t wait to hear Marc tell the TEDxOrenda audience about what it is like to open a school of your own.

We are particularly pleased to announce that the 5th speaker at TEDxOrenda is a truly inspirational woman Naomi Jane (@missnaomijane).

Naomi has a very impressive CV in which she can boast that not only is she Director of the 4WD Foundation,she is also member of the Channel 4 Educational Advisory Board and Youth Trustee for the Donald Chesworth Educational Trust, providing disadvantaged young people with grants enabling them to continue their education.

Naomi will tell the TEDxOrenda audience about the importance of offering ALL young people opportunities to move their lives forward.

The second batch of tickets will be released on Sunday 19th December at 10am.

Tickets for TEDxOrenda are available free of charge. For more information, and to obtain your free tickets, please visit : http://tedxorenda2011.eventbrite.com/

As this event is taking place immediately after the BETT Show closes on the Wednesday evening, it is strongly suggested that you also register to attend the BETT Show as this will streamline your access to the event. Registration for the BETT Show is free and you can register here

A rivetting and authoritative speaker, Vinay deals with many topics that most people ignore, as is well illustrated by the video above. He is currently curating a massively crowdsourced collaborative publication called ‘The Future We Deserve‘ which is ‘a place to create and share our visions of the possible future for the people and the planet… collecting 100 visions of the future, both dreams and practical technical realities, in a sourcebook for creating a new future.

Vinay has also devised The Hexayurt, an Open Source solution costing less than $100 and which could be the ideal solution for providing better accommodation for a variety of natural disaster situations.  It is made by ‘putting six sheets of plywood on their sides in a hexagon. Cut six more sheets in half diagonally, and screw them together into a shallow cone. Lift the roof on to the wall with a large group of people, then fasten it down with more screws. Seal and paint it for durability.‘

We look forward to hearing Vinay tell the TEDxOrenda audience about Open Source solutions to everyday problems.

playmakers video 01 : alex fleetwood and the sandpit from thinkpublic on Vimeo.

Alex Fleetwood is Director of Hide&Seek, he also produces film and games. He founded Hide&Seek with Gideon Reeling in 2007 after attending Come Out and Play in New York. As well as Hide&Seek Alex works with artists and broadcasters on lots of things, including The Eternity Man, a film opera for Channel 4, and The Soho Project, for the London Games Festival.

Alex‘s latest venture which has just arrived in time for Christmas, is the Boardgame Remix Kit, which takes tired perennial games such as Monopoly, and reboots them in ways that make them far more exciting.  This is typical of Alex‘s innovative work which taps into our willingness to rediscover the joy of playing – a Hide&Seek event at a Late Night for Adults Only at the V&A Museum in March 2010 saw an incredible turnout of around 4,500 people turn up to participate.

We look forward to hearing Alex tell the TEDxOrenda audience about rebooting old ideas.