TEDx Melbourne RRU 2017: A toolkit for change

This year we were honoured to be TEDx Melbourne’s creative partner, bringing over 1,000 attendees a day with a punch – ‘Rebels, Revolutionaries and Us’.

Nothing brings a TEDx brand identity to life more than the speakers. We may give the theme a face but they provide the mouth, defining what the after-thoughts will be. The team at YC couldn’t help but notice that this year’s TEDx Melbourne event had one underlying and unexpected, theme – urgency.

Regardless of the subject matter all of the speakers expressed the need for people to unite and approach rapid change head-on and do our best to mould our future.

Here’s our 5 favourite takeaways with solutions to delve deeper:

Thought

Deng Adut spoke of forgiveness, owning your past and thinking of others. Deng’s raw honesty, telling our audience ‘society is in a mess’ came with practical advice on being kind to others today, and tomorrow.

Solution

Discover a different perspective, read Deng’s book. 

Thought

We all do it – discuss pitfalls of own industries, the trends that lose purpose and the recurring typologies that will ultimately lead to stale work – Iona called them out. Our hope is that publicly expressing not only the need for critical-thinking, but the over-saturation of positivity, will hold us all accountable to advertise and market the right way for consumers, and society.

Solution

For designers and creatives, discover Tibor Kalman’s ideas on championing the normal. 

Thought

The most controversial of all the speakers, James came armed with the facts educating us on subject matter that one definitely can’t just google. Shout out to UX e-commerce design, proving once again that online selling can, and will, innovate whole industries.

Solution

Get informed by academia, read James’ book.

Thought

Dr Catherine Ball spoke about finding her entrepreneurial spirit and the still-present gender pay gap. The key message our team took was the need to analyse and question gender as an element of marketing and design. Breaking down these sometimes innate prerequisites is on us, and can have powerful long-term affects on children.

Solution

Buy a girl a drone to code. 

Thought

Ed provided us with the hard facts. Whilst often these climate-related facts are overwhelming, we found Ed’s approach refreshing as he backed it up with the solution. He also provided us with empowering data, specifically the correlation between growth and access to energy.

Solution

Switch your energy over today.