Speakers unveiled for Auckland TEDx

Dr David Krofcheck, from Auckland University, will speak at the Auckland TEDx. Krofcheck was one of the physicists associated with search for the elusive Higgs boson "god particle". Photo / Greg Bowker

A group of leading New Zealand scientists, artists, educators and technologists has been announced to speak at a local version of the global movement called TEDx.

Auckland hosts its third TEDx event in October and organisers today released details of the first nine of eighteen names to speak at the event.

Those on the list included San Francisco-based physicist and political advisor Sean Gourley, physicist David Krofcheck, materials and biomedical engineer Michelle Dickinson, architect Andrew Patterson, and art director of Apropos and founder of the 100 Days Project Emma Rogan.

Others in the line-up were dental surgeon and founder of ICARE Assil Russell, surgeon and co-founder of the start-up SIMTICS John Windsor, CEO of Arvus Group Matthew Simmons, and change specialist Paul Wood.

Now an international hit, TED started out as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago. It had since spawned off into local TEDx events, now held in 1200 cities worldwide.

Event organiser Elliott Blade said the idea of TEDx Auckland was for speakers to share thought-provoking, world-changing ideas with the audience.

"The event will present a diverse mix of speakers - both familiar names and emerging talent - that we hope will ignite some great conversation and encourage people to discover new ideas."

The Auckland event would be run according to the international TEDx format where speakers had 18 minutes to talk.

Previous speakers at New Zealand events have included Sir Ray Avery, Wendy McGuinness and Jonathan Milne.

The TED name came from the event's original purpose, to bring people together people from technology, entertainment and design.

The annual TED Conference at Long Beach, California, had featured some of the world's leading thinkers, such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Richard Dawkins, Bill Gates, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Sir Richard Branson, and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

There are more than 900 videos on the TED website and 16,500 YouTube videos have received more than 42 million views.

TEDxAuckland will take place on Saturday October 6 at the ASB Theatre in the Aotea Centre, tickets on sale for $70.

The full day event will run from 10.00am until 5.30pm and a complete speaker line up will be announced in early September.