I spent Saturday at TEDx Sydney, snapping some pictures for the venue, CarriageWorks.

You’ve probably seen videos from the TED conference in the US before. It’s been running since 1984 and is a conference dedicated to ‘ideas worth spreading’ which attracts an amazingly talented array of speakers who have up to 18 minutes to address the audience on their idea.

Since they began publishing all the talks online, TED has exploded in reach, with over 200 million views of the videos. If you haven’t already, do go browse some video talks.

TEDx Sydney is what’s noted as “an independently organised TED event”.  And this one was conceived by Remo Giuffré and brought to life by a large number of local people. Unlike in the US where it costs US$6000 to attend – this one was completely free. Which was remarkable for an event with a high calibre of speakers and entertainment, big production values and free food and drink.

I spent most of the day shooting in the CarriageWorks foyer, which acted as a spill over area for people who couldn’t fit in the auditorium.

A large video screen projected the activities inside, and between talks Craig Reucassel MC’d discussions with some of the speakers.

Julian Morrow was the final speaker at the event and summed up the day.

He brought everyone down a notch and had us in stitches when he explained that while TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design – it’s actually just an abbreviation for the real name of the conference which is EDWARD,

Elitist
Discussions with
White
Anglo
Rich
Dudes

Remo holds a Dinosaur Designs design

Julian Morrow tells it like it is

Remo Giuffré

Missy Higgins performed between talks

Andrew Kuper addressing the crowd at TEDx Sydney

Some fogeys with their primitive ‘laptop’

The iPad may not be for sale in Australia yet, but there were several people in the crowd using them

Cardinal George Pell amongst the crowd

Mr.Percival had the crowd in the palm of his hand with his amazing vocal loops and sing-alongs

Craig Reucassel speaks to Brett Solomon and Andrew Kuper

A young audience member at TEDx Sydney