TEDx UtrechtUniversity

18/04/2016

TEDxUtrechtUniversity 2016 is proud to announce that we have been nominated for several of the UCSA's Golden Keys 2016 Awards!
Please vote for us for:
*Best Promoted Event
*Best Off Campus Event

And two of our amazing board members have also been nominated for individual awards!
*Orson SD for Most Passionate Board Member
*Sandra Gonza for Lifetime Achievement

We hope many of you will vote for us, the link is below!
http://goo.gl/forms/kFf4g6WHx5

Create a new survey on your own or with others at the same time. Choose from a variety of survey types and analyze results in Google Forms. Free from Google.

04/04/2016

Thank you all for buying your tickets to TEDxUtrechtUniversity 2016! We are now sold out. For those of you attending the event, please have your ticket ready (in print or on your phone). We will be scanning the barcodes at the entrance. The event will take place on Wednesday, April 06 in the Academiegebouw (http://tedxutrechtuniversity.org/venue). Registration starts at 19:00.

Follow us on Twitter! (http://twitter.com/TEDxUU) We will be live-tweeting the event as it happens, and will be answering questions sent to or .

Following the event, at 23:00, we will be hosting an after-party (http://facebook.com/events/478064345730796) at the UCSA College Bar (Maupertuusplein 1, 3584 EE Utrecht). This after-party is open to everyone, whether you managed to purchase a TEDxUtrechtUniversity ticket or not. We look forward to seeing you there!

More information about the event can be found on our website, including the full list of speakers and performers. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with us here: http://tedxutrechtuniversity.org/contact

03/04/2016

Our final TEDxUtrechtUniversity speaker to be announced is Pim Scholte!

Pim is a psychiatrist who worked with various aid organizations in (post-)conflict regions such as Kashmir, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, the Gaza Strip, Congo, Rwanda, Darfur, and Sierra Leone. He has been affiliated with the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam for his entire career. He holds a PhD in mental health in war-affected populations. He was one of the founding board members of the Transcultural Psychiatry Section of the Dutch Psychiatric Association. He was a board member of Doctors Without Borders Holland for 12 years, during which he played an initiating and advisory role in mental health programming. He acted as a methodology advisor for War Child Netherlands. He is the Chair of Antares Foundation, an agency promoting staff support and care in humanitarian and developmental organizations. He is the founding director of Equator Foundation, which promotes a combined approach to mental health and social bonding. Equator provides mental health care for traumatized refugees and victims of human trafficking in Holland, implements psychosocial intervention programs in post-conflict areas, and carries out effect studies on both kinds of activities. Pim Scholte is the (co-)author of various scientific studies on mental health and aid provision in post-conflict regions.

02/04/2016

Next up in our TEDxUtrechtUniversity speaker announcements, we have Dirk-Jan Koch!

Dirk-Jan is a diplomat, writer and social scientist. He is highly committed to a world in which natural resources are used in a sustainable way. Before re-joining the Ministry of Foreign affairs, he served as Search for Common Ground’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa, based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He oversaw more than 200 staff and conflict resolution programs in Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, the DRC, and Angola. He supervised a diverse array of programs ranging from the amnesty program in the oil-rich Niger Delta program to the demilitarization of the tin-mines in the DRC. He started his career as a diplomat and policy advisor at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was based in the Hague and in the DRC, where he focused on the linkages between conflict and the exploitation of gold and diamonds. Being an author of several books, articles, and working papers, focusing on natural resources, international development, and diplomacy, his work has appeared in French, English, Catalan, German, and Dutch. He is a much-invited public speaker and gave public lectures at the Brookings Institute in Washington and the OECD Development Centre, amongst others. He holds a PhD in Social Sciences (cum laude) from Radboud University, a Masters’ from the London School of Economics (merit), and a Bachelor’s from the University of Utrecht (cum laude). He has been a part-time professor at the Catholic University of Kinshasa.

01/04/2016

It's time to introduce our final TEDxUtrechtUniversity 2016 team member, Carlijn Huesken! Thank you all for buying your tickets over the past month. We look forward to seeing you at the event!

Carlijn is our head of sponsors. She's a third-year social science student, majoring in Psychology and Geography. Carlijn has always been fascinated by the captivating and high-calibre clips that TED is known for. One of her all-time favourite talks is Emilie Wapnick’s ‘Why some of us don’t have one true calling' (http://ted.com/talks/emilie_wapnick_why_some_of_us_don_t_have_one_true_calling). Carlijn can fully relate to Wapnick's talk as she is interested in a vast range of subjects herself, which is likely a result of her international background, where she grew up living across three different continents. During her three years at UCU she's been interested in almost all possible fields of study and has changed her mind regarding her major more times than she can count. To Carlijn's relief, Wapnick explains that there is nothing wrong with having a broad range of interests. In fact, this simply makes you a 'multipotentialite'.

30/03/2016

We are excited to announce the next TEDxUtrechtUniversity speaker, Marius Hordijk!

Marius graduated from University College Utrecht in 2005, majoring in Social Sciences. The youngest of three brothers, he grew up in a small town close to Amersfoort. He went to high school there (both Havo and VWO), and then moved to beautiful Utrecht to study at UCU. During his exchange program to Stellenbosch, South Africa, he was discovered as a fashion model. In that moment he went from a hitch-hiking, backpacking student to being a model, and for the past ten years he has done photo shoots, TV commercials, and fashion shows, in over fifteen countries. He has also been lucky enough to have lived in New York and Italy because of the job. Although the traveling and experiences through his job have been absolutely amazing, he has always felt a certain sense of ambiguity about it, feeling pressure to somehow justify the choices he has made and the job he has. This not-so-normal job, and his own way of handling it, has had an impact on him, and that is what he will be devoting his TEDx Talk to.

You can register for your ticket to TEDxUtrechtUniversity at http://tedxutrechtuniversity.org
April 06, 2016 (19:00) Academiegebouw

29/03/2016

To continue our TEDxUtrechtUniversity speaker announcements, we are excited to introduce you to Hinze Hogendoorn!

Hinze is an assistant professor at the department of Experimental Psychology (Faculty of Social Sciences) at Utrecht University. His research interests lie in the temporal aspects of perception, particularly vision. How does the brain generate a coherent stream of visual awareness, when different visual features are processed separately in different places in the brain and at different times? And how does it generate the illusion that we live in the present, when the neural processes underlying visual perception necessarily take time (thereby incurring delays that are long enough that we should notice them)? These are some of the questions that his research seeks to address.

You can register for your ticket to TEDxUtrechtUniversity at http://tedxutrechtuniversity.org
April 06, 2016 (19:00) Academiegebouw

28/03/2016

To continue our TEDxUtrechtUniversity team introductions, we have Sandra Gonza!

Sandra is one of our heads of speakers. She is a third-year student at University College Utrecht, majoring in the social sciences with tracks in Politics and Geography whilst also taking minors in History and Statistics. Coming from Tanzania, she is passionate about both development and globalisation. For her, TED epitomises globalisation through connecting the world and providing a platform to share the ‘ideas worth spreading’. To her, the most inspirational TED Talk thus far has been Majora Carter’s 'Greening the ghetto' – a highlight on the importance of the environment and green spaces, especially in growing urban spaces such as that of South Bronx (which she refers to). Urbanisation has been a growing phenomenon especially for developing countries, it is therefore important for urban policy to be equal and take into account the effects to the environment.

You can register for your ticket to TEDxUtrechtUniversity at http://tedxutrechtuniversity.org
April 06, 2016 (19:00) Academiegebouw

24/03/2016

Our next TEDxUtrechtUniversity 2016 speaker to be announced is Soukeyna Gueye!

Soukeyna's first encounter with the concept of the circular economy was during her internship at Royal Haskoning DHV, where she investigated how the plastic industry in the Netherlands can be made more circular. She became intrigued and passionate about the subject and decided to make it her mission to make the circular economy a reality. She believes this is the only way to make our world truly sustainable. This past year she worked at MVO Nederland; their mission is to make the Netherlands a world example of a circular and inclusive economy. In her TEDx Talk she will show how businesses can flourish from embracing the circular economy. Many talks have already been given regarding the theory and the process in which a circular economy can be realised. However, few have focused on the instrumental role that innovative business models play in achieving such a circular economy! It is not only about creating environmental value, but it’s also about creating social and financial value to multiple stakeholders. For entrepreneurs this offers a massive opportunity for innovation! Let's revolutionise the way we think, live, and make profit!

You can register for your ticket to TEDxUtrechtUniversity at http://tedxutrechtuniversity.org
April 06, 2016 (19:00) Academiegebouw

23/03/2016

Over the coming two weeks we will be announcing the speakers of our 2016 event. Our first speaker to be introduced is Neda Eneva!

A storyteller and passionate writer, Neda has always had a knack for seeing the unobservable and questioning the status quo. With a vivid imagination and without being afraid to live a life of contrasts, she always strives to look at the world from new and unexplored angles. Perhaps this is how the journey of her talk began. Having lived in the Netherlands now for almost ten years, having gone through professional experiences in political organizations, development and sustainability projects, international and local NGOs, and artistic and political platforms, one thing has always remained the unchanged inherent motivator in her search for one’s purpose in life: the heritage of her family and her ancestors. Neda believes strongly that her personal transformation in understanding the pain of the not-so-distant past of her home country, Bulgaria, and adopting it as an inherent companion, will more strongly bring forward the hope and firm belief in the opportunities of today. More importantly, the story of her family and the generations before is the reality of many people around the world still. A story that needs to be understood, a story which illuminates the givens of today, of who we are and who we can be, and how truly a gift that is.

You can register for your ticket to TEDxUtrechtUniversity at http://tedxutrechtuniversity.org
April 06, 2016 (19:00) Academiegebouw

22/03/2016

Next up in our TEDxUtrechtUniversity organizing team introductions, we have Sara Hollander!

Sara is one of the head of speakers of this team. Born and raised in Amsterdam, she loves everything Dutch (biking, eating cheese, maybe not the rain…). She is a third-year student at University College Utrecht, majoring in Neuroscience with a minor in Psychology. For her, TEDx embodies every power and inspiration that our world has. It is truly from the people, to the people, and thus incredibly dynamic and representative of what is happening around us. One of her favorite TEDx talks is by Taiye Selasi, 'Don’t ask where I’m from, ask where I’m a local' (http://ted.com/talks/taiye_selasi_don_t_ask_where_i_m_from_ask_where_i_m_a_local). She shows us that just because you are born in a certain country, does not mean you need to associate with it. It does not have to define you - an important message for our growing society, both in terms of people, connections and actions.

You can register for your ticket to TEDxUtrechtUniversity at http://tedxutrechtuniversity.org
April 06, 2016 (19:00) Academiegebouw

20/03/2016

Our next TEDxUtrechtUniversity team member to be introduced is Orson.

Orson is our head of promotion. His job is to let you know that this event is happening, so the fact that you’re here is a good sign. He also built the website, designed all promotional material, and is in charge of the admin behind ticket sales. He’s a first-year student planning on majoring in the social sciences. If he had to pick a favorite TED Talk it would be Matt Ridley’s 'When ideas have s*x' (http://ted.com/talks/matt_ridley_when_ideas_have_s*x), but if you ask him he’ll happily recommend a few more. He also recommends NPR’s TED Radio Hour podcast.

You can register for your ticket to TEDxUtrechtUniversity at http://tedxutrechtuniversity.org
April 06, 2016 (19:00) Academiegebouw