Event Compere:

Bill Thompson (@billt)

Bill Thompson is an technology writer best known for his weekly column in the Technology section of BBC News Online, his appearances on  Digital Planet and a radio show on the BBC World Service.  He was a correspondent for the Big Byte on BBC Radio. He began to write for The Guardian in 1990, and in 1994 went to work there, setting up the paper’s website. He left in 1996 to work as a freelance writer and consultant.

We are honoured to have Bill Thompson as our compere

Speakers

Gail Porter (@gailporter)

Gail is a television presenter, having worked on shows such as Top of the Pops, The Big Breakfast and The Gadget Show. In 2005 she began to suffer from alopecia areata, causing her to lose much of her hair. She refused to wear a hat or wig, deciding instead to maintain a public profile and raise awareness of the condition. She became Ambassador for the Little Princess Trust, a charity which provides wigs to children with hairloss.

Gail will talk about making the most of what life throws at you.

Pat Kane (@playethic)

Pat is a musician (with Hue And Cry), a writer (here’s some stuff from the Guardian, and The Play Ethic, book and blog), a consultant, a theorist and an activist. Pat’s magnificent book ‘The Play Ethic – a manifesto for a different way of living’ is a book ‘no one who works, or has ever worked, can afford to be without’.

Pat will talk about making work playful.

Mamading Ceesay (@evangineer)

Mamading sees himself as a ’social entrepreneur’ and he believes in co-creating a better world through social change and social innovation enabled by social software.  A co-founder of the Institute of Collapsinomics, he has written a paper on ‘Local Community Economics for Security in an Unstable World’.

Mamading will talk about how to use your local community to triumph in times of adversity.

Alfie Dennen (@alfie)

Alfie is described in his Wikipedia entry as a creative technologist, artist, and founder of several prominent websites based around around mobile blogging.  He co-founded Moblog which received prominence when The service gained prominence in 2005 when Eliot Ward uploaded a photo to the site from one of the London Underground bombings.  The Arts Council recently announced that  that Dennen’s Bus.Tops project was Shortlisted for the London award in the Artists Taking The Lead Public Art competition. The project was awarded £500,000 to create a new work of public art in London.

Alfie will talk about how to develop a successful idea.

James Proud (@jamesproud)

James is an 18-year old entrepreneur and founder of recent web startup – GigLocator.com.  An assured and confident speaker beyond his years, James has won competitions for young entrepreneurs and is very highly thought of amongst those ‘in the know’.

Having only barely left school James will talk about how teachers can nurture talent like his.

Caroline Bosher (@carolinebosher)

A Special Agent on a mission to transform businesses through exceptional branding and connections.  Caroline has a passion for infiltrating high calibre networks, uncovering remarkable customer experiences, and working with her team to co-ordinate all components required to create strong brand attraction.  Working in London, Sydney and New York she ‘cross-pollinates’ ideas across industries, cultures and entrepreneurs to ensure her clients stand out from the crowd and build their tribe of raving fans.

Caroline will use her experience of working with Ed Hardy (fashion chain) to highlight the importance of ensuring your organisation protects its identity.

Georgia Wonder (@georgiawonder)

Truly unique and  exploiting the new Social Media tools to the maximum, this band are breaking all the rules when it comes to funding, recording and distributing their work.  It is sure to be the case that in future all bands will follow their lead.

Julian (from Georgia Wonder) will explain, using his own innovative methods, how to make the most of limited means.

Lilly Evans (@alheri)

Lilly is an internationally known business transformation consultant, change expert, strategic management and marketing adviser, lecturer, mentor and coach to tomorrow’s leaders of today’s companies.

Lilly will talk about ways of fostering happiness in the workplace.

Lee Cox (@jackcabnory)

Lee is a London cab driver and one of the founders of the Twitter-based London cab booking service @Tweetalondoncab.  In order to become a licenced cab driver in London, Lee and his cohorts have to spend over 3000 hours over a 4 year period learning ‘The Knowledge’.  Yet this uis a skill that would, in schools be seen as trivial and worthy of no qualifications.  Thuis do we value the right things in edcuation?

Lee will talk about what is takes to obtain ‘The Knowledge’.

Dougald Hine (@dougald)

Dugald works with ideas – exploring and developing them, and collaborating to put them into practice. This involves writing, speaking, bringing people together from different worlds to find common narratives, then helping to steer the ideas that come out of those conversations into reality.

In 2006, he co-founded School of Everything: a Web 2.0 startup that makes it really easy to find people near you to teach or learn with in your local area. The site won a New Statesman New Media Award and a Prime Minister’s Catalyst Award in 2008, and was an Official Honoree in the 2009 Webby Awards.

He is still involved in School of Everything, but now spends most of my time on other projects. These currently include:

Space Makers – an online and offline network, connecting people involved in creating collaborative spaces, including co-working, hack labs, arts spaces, social centres and temporary use of empty shops

The Dark Mountain Project – a new literary movement for an age of global disruption.

Dougald will talk about the importance of community involvement in making a project happen.

Maz Nadjm (@mazi)

Maz Nadjm is responsible for Sky Portal’s social media strategy and implementation. The Sky Portal has over 1 billion monthly page impressions and many millions of unique visitors. Maz works closely with each Sky site, providing on-going technology and strategy assessment within the context of the competitive landscape and Site needs.

In addition to his role at Sky, Maz has launched the Times Online commenting system. Prior to Sky, Maz co-founded Rareface and InfieldParking.com, a social networking site and growing online community of NASCAR racing fans in commercial partnership with its most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Maz is a mentor for start ups, video blogger for Sky News TechTalk, founder of www.Mazi.TV and CozyTweetup.com.

Maz will talk about ways in which communities can be given a voice, and how this should be handled.

Hadley Beeman (@hadleybeeman)

In her role as Associate at FutureGov Consultancy and CIO at MacArthur Energy, Hadley designs and delivers social networking/collaboration technology in the UK public sector.

Hadley will talk about The Muppets and the Nature of Innovation.

Honorary Inspirator & Instigator : Howard Rheingold

As the term ‘Orenda’ came from the book ‘They have a word for it’ written by Howard Rheingold, Howard can be safely described as the inspriration for this event, albeit unwittingly so.

We are proud to announce that Howard has agreed to be the Honorary Inspirator & Instigator for TEDxOrenda, and in support of this he has agreed to make a short introductory video for us which will be shown at the start of TEDxOrenda. This is a great honour as Howard is widely credited with inventing the term ‘virtual communities’.

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