TEDxTruro 2017 to Include Inspirational Young Speakers for the First Time

TEDxTruro will feature two inspirational young speakers this year, including the teenager who brought period poverty to the attention of thousands of people.

The event will take place at Truro & Penwith College’s Truro campus on 27 October, with the theme ‘Beyond Barriers’.

Local schools were invited to put forward pupils to give a talk at TEDxTruro. The video entries were judged by the event’s speaker team and Bimini Love and Max Caddis, who both attend Truro School, were chosen to be part of the TEDxTruro 2017 programme.

Bimini Love is 15 and lives in Newquay. At the start of 2017 she hit the headlines with her ‘Street Cramps’ initiative, which aims to help homeless women in Cornwall by giving them free supplies of sanitary protection. Bimini will talk about the issue of period poverty at TEDxTruro and explain how one person can take action, which can help improve the lives of many.

Commenting on being selected to be the first young speaker to present at TEDxTruro, Bimini Love said: “This is going to be an amazing experience and I’m so excited I was chosen. I’m hoping to be able to share my story about why I started Street Cramps with many more people. It would be incredible if I could inspire others to start tackling period poverty in their own communities.”

Twelve-year-old Max Caddis will also be included in the TEDxTruro programme. Although there was only space for one young speaker to deliver a talk on the day, Max impressed the judges with his entry video about dyslexia so much that they have chosen to show the video at the event.

Max’s video will also complement a talk by award winning engineer Shawn Brown who is talking about neurodiversity and how we need to embrace this in education, so that we don’t lose out on the next generation of inventors and innovators.

Tracy Baker is the education liaison for TEDxTruro. She said: “Bimini and Max simply blew us away. I’m sure the audience at TEDxTruro will be as impressed as we were with them – they are inspirational and their energy and enthusiasm is infectious. Regardless of their age, what they have to say is worth hearing, and worthy of being part of the TEDxTruro line-up.”

Bimini and Max join a host of other speakers, who will cover topics including how our brains respond to music, inclusion and endurance. The day will also include a performance by talented Cornish singer/songwriter Kezia and award winning stand-up comedian Colin Leggo. To see the full line up visit www.tedxtruro.com

TED began in the USA in 1984 and is devoted to ideas worth spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks of 18 minutes or less. Today TED covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. TED has become a viral video phenomenon and global community, with millions of people around the world watching and sharing TED talks online. TEDx events are inspired by TED, but are independent and self-organised.

Tickets for TEDxTruro 2017 are available now, priced £50 each (plus an admin fee of £3.86) from www.tedextruro.com

TEDxTruro is a full day event, and the ticket price includes refreshments.

For more information about TEDxTruro, to sign up to the mailing list and to view talks from last year, go to www.tedxtruro.com.