Theme: Into Tomorrow

After living through a "once in a lifetime" pandemic event we get to decide what we keep from the last 18 months, and what we let go of. As virtual meetings and working from home becoming the "new normal" we get to spend more time contemplating the things that we truly want in life and the kind of communities we want to live in.

Join us as we welcome twelve incredible speakers and performers to the TEDxBrayfordPool stage as we ask the question 'what does tomorrow look like?'

Virtual Event
Online
Lincoln, Lincolnshire, LN2 1EY
United Kingdom

Beth Lambert

Curator and Producer

Beth Lambert is a curator and producer with over ten years of experience working within arts institutions and one half of Brew Projects. She has a special interest in supporting and exploring women working in art and technology and has curated exhibitions which involve extensive research and development periods, including ‘Women’s Work, Pioneering Contemporary Craft’ at The National Centre for Craft and Design (now The Hub). Most recently as Volunteer Coordinator at Mansions of the Future, Beth fostered a ground breaking volunteering programme, which addressed the exclusivity of the arts sector, by providing skills and tailored professional development opportunities to volunteers.

Cas Potterton

Performer, Poet and Facilitator

Cas is a performer, poet and facilitator from Lincoln. He’s been involved in the arts from a young age. An accomplished clarinetist, he’s performed with East Midlands based orchestra, Sinfonia Viva. He also writes and performs his own poetry and has won Lincoln’s Against The Grain poetry slam. Most recently Cas has worked with Zest Theatre to facilitate the Refresh Lincoln project which worked with over 800 young people aged 9 – 21 across Lincoln to explore their experiences of the past year during the global pandemic. The project captured quotes about the things that mattered most to those young people and was turned into 80 vibrant artworks displayed in every corner of the city centre.

Frances Grundy

Retired Computer Science Lecturer & Author

Frances Grundy worked in computing for 40 years before retiring to Lincoln some 15 years ago. For most of her paid working life, she taught Computer Science in a University, where she gained a PhD. While doing that she became acutely aware of the shortage of women in her environment and how they lacked encouragement or worse. So in the early 1990s, she started activating by writing papers, organising conferences and talking. She spoke and wrote about the gaping hole and all that results from there being (almost) no women. She has published two books on this and has been invited to present her ideas at conferences worldwide.

Georgia Preece

Artist, Poet & Activist

Georgia Preece is an artist, poet, activist, and writer from the west midlands. She is Visual Director and Environment Editor for the Radical Art Review, a web and print publication where art and activism come together, and a practicing artist and poet. Her multi-disciplinary fine art practice navigates themes of social injustice and resistance through visual poetry. Grounded in a research-based practice her artwork evolves through language into visual and tangible forms from clay to photography and performance. Her poetic practice on the other hand draws directly from the heart, her auto-biographical works attempt to situate her own experience within a broader context, navigating a spectrum of hope and grief on both a personal and national scale.

Hilary Hamnett

Associate Professor in Forensic Science

Hilary teaches the next generation of forensic scientists at the University of Lincoln. Starting off her career as a chemist, she has a PhD from the University of Oxford, and almost 10 years of professional experience as a forensic toxicologist. Her casework has ranged from deaths and serious drug-facilitated crimes to driving under the influence of drugs. Hilary’s research looks at how cognitive bias can affect forensic toxicology cases, and how changes in legislation have impact drug-related deaths and crimes. She has worked in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, published papers and book chapters, and presented at international conferences. Hilary is currently writing her first non-fiction book.

Laura Mabbutt

Artist and Producer

Laura Mabbutt is an artist as well as a producer and one half of Brew Projects. Her creative practice has been varied, from exhibition curator to craft maker, project producer to game designer. Her practice is underpinned by two themes, craft making and the communication of ideas. As a maker she is interested in creating bespoke games and interactive experiences that draw attention to lesser known subjects or facts through the appeal of play and tactility of handle-able objects. Laura has worked as project manager, producer, freelance artist and exhibition curator on projects across the UK and overseas. Between 2018-2020 she was an associate artist at Mansions of The Future and is a Fellow member of Design Nation. She is Exhibition Officer for the International Feltmakers Association and co-founded Making Up Your Street as well as Brew Projects.

Mamatha Thota

PhD Student in Artificial Intelligence

Mamatha Thota firmly believes that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the greatest inventions that humanity has ever made, which can make the world a better place. She is passionate about solving real-world problems using AI. She explores and develops novel state-of-the-art generalization techniques that apply abstract knowledge gained from learning about one problem to solve different problems. She is a mother, AI advocate, AI enthusiast, and PhD student at the University of Lincoln. She is currently focusing on learning representations in a self-supervised way by reducing the need for supervision in computer vision.

Rachael Wragg

Stone Mason & Social Historian

Having studied fine art at university and having had a string of jobs completely unrelated to art or craft it took me to the age of 30 to finally find what I love to do! I always wanted to work in craft or heritage, but that was something that other people did, I had no idea these options were available to me. I was lucky enough to start an apprenticeship at Lincoln cathedral in 2018 and having completed my apprenticeship have been given a role on the masonry team as well as an opportunity to complete a Degree through the cathedral workshop fellowship. This job fulfils a weird combination of my obsession with medieval history as well as my love of craft, and also, an almost obsessive need to feel a tangible link with the past. It's not just my job it's my whole life!

Steff Wright

CEO Gusto Group Ltd

Steff created his first eco-development in 1998. Now, having grown into the Gusto Group he employs over 150 people with a turnover in excess of £25 million. With three key concept residential developments, Millennium Green, The Edge and The Future, all utilising sustainability within the design process and using the latest technology to reduce carbon emissions and enhance the community. Steff is now pushing the boundaries of sustainability, education, new technology and digital environments. Rather than seeing the limitations of the global pandemic, Steff saw an opportunity and developed the Collab Virtual World platform which creates a virtual co-working and event spaces that mirrors the real world. Combined with The Global Grad programme, which mixes online academic programmes from globally renowned universities with world travel to deliver one of a kind learning experiences, Steff is redefining how we live, learn and work.

Trevor Elvin

Senior Lecturer Lincoln in Architecture and the Built Environment

Trevor is a design practitioner and academic with extensive experience within the creative fields, using the design studio as a research laboratory for testing and building ideas. His objective is to engage in the transformation of place through built projects, exhibitions, research, and writing. He has a cross-disciplinary approach to design and collaborates with artists, filmmakers, exhibition designers, and makers in the realization of built projects. Trevor`s portfolio to date includes interior design, fabrication, installations, furniture making, film production/set design and buildings. With over a decade of experience in construction and the creative industries, his research investigates topics that range from placemaking, public space, craft and the making of architecture.

Velocity Bollocks & Her Indestructible Man

Sideshow Performers

Velocity and her husband, Indi, have been deeply interested in the history of the circus sideshow for many years and for the past 10 years have taken that interest to the stage. Known as a working act they perform amazing, and downright disgusting, stunts showing the limits of what the human body is capable of which you really will not want to try at home. From hammering nails up the nose, to swallowing swords and smashing breeze blocks on the body the audience is unable to look away for fear of missing what might happen next. With a deep understanding of the history Velocity and Indi do not shy away from the difficult past of the sideshow performing with admiration of all sideshow and freakshow performers both past and present.