Speakers inspire big audience

Entertainers joined inspirational speakers to get the audience clapping at TEDx on Saturday. Photo / Robbie Hunter Photography

More than a thousand people flocked to Tauranga's ASB Arena to be captivated by speakers and entertainers with ideas worth sharing.

TEDx, a non-profit global phenomenon, has gone from strength-to-strength in Tauranga, with attendance on Saturday double last year's event.

Tauranga's TEDx licensee Sheldon Nesdale said he had been flooded with amazing feedback, with even the 24-strong team of core organisers surprised.

"It was incredible how it evolved."

Nine months work had gone into organising the event. It was all done by volunteers with even the speakers and entertainers not getting paid. TEDx occupied the centre court at ASB Arena, with the courts on either side reserved for the sponsors displays and meals.

Mr Nesdale said the dedication of speakers was underlined by how Rotorua's Michael Quintern spent every spare moment over the last two weeks perfecting his speech.

He developed industrial vermicomposting (worm) technologies for primary industries and municipal organic wastes.

"That is fairly typical of the effort that speakers put in," Mr Nesdale said.

Tauranga speaker Ellis Bryers opened the morning session on the topic of "Kiwitanga: Where to from here." Hamilton's Dr David Pattemore then challenged people to think how society could thrive by continuing to increase beehive numbers while protecting endangered flora.

Catherine Iorns (Wellington) urged a simple change to New Zealand's constitution to protect the environment while Sir Ray Avery outlined the three reasons he thought New Zealanders were better at turning dreams into reality.

Dr Bronwen Connor (Auckland) described how to turn skin cells into brain cells to help cure mental conditions like Parkinsons and Dr Harold Hillman (Auckland) posed the question "should you fit in or stand out?", saying people should find their authentic voice.

Tauranga's Jason Edgecombe asked "do you always read the label?" His life saw him overcome a diagnosis that would have limited him, using video games as his inspiration to go beyond labels.

Tauranga nutritionist Rachael van der Gugten spoke about how people needed to throw out the current food pyramid and eat differently in order to be "fart free for life". She talked about the causes of flatulence and how stomach acids changed as people aged.

Auckland school principal Stephen Lethbridge talked about how his school was creating a workforce that could answer "ungoogleable" questions.