Theme: Changemaking

This first annual TEDx event aims to cause a shift in thinking by gathering changemakers to inspire our community and amplify the voices of our own local changemakers. TEDxRoyalRoadsU talks showcase changemaking ideas about technology, science, human rights, law and business, personal development, current events, art, music, and design. We showcase 9 - 12 speakers and several artists and musicians live on stage in the brand-new Dogwood auditorium, with a simultaneous livestream on the beautiful Royal Roads University Campus. This charming changemaking event is organized to grow year-on-year in order to make a meaningful difference in the lives of our local community.

TEDxRoyalRoadsU is driven by a vibrant community of alumni, students, and local community volunteers lifting this into motion. The organizing team is mentored by experienced and talented locals who have organized multiple successful TEDx events.

Learning and leadership has taken place on the land for thousands of years. Royal Roads University rests upon the ancestral homelands of the Coast Salish people; the Xwsepsum (Esquimalt) and Lkwungen (Songhees) nations.

Dogwood Auditorium
2005 Sooke Rd
Victoria, British Columbia, V9B 5Y2
Canada

Ben Homer-Dixon

Student

Ben Homer-Dixon is a recent graduate of Brookes Westshore International Baccalaureate School, with an interest in geography, politics, environment, and law.

Camille Canon

Systems Designer

Camille Canon is a serial entrepreneur and systems designer. In 2022, she founded Apiary to build systems and solutions that make collective decision-making in distributed organizations and communities possible. Canon previously co-founded Purpose, a social enterprise on the forefront of new institutional models of ownership and governance. She is based in Los Angeles.

Candice Neveu

Life Coach

Candice Neveu is a certified Wayfinder life coach, combining her lived experience and extensive training to support her clients in getting the results they want so they can create a career and life they love. After completing her Masters in English to pursue her dream of teaching at post-secondary, Candice Neveu spent over 15 years teaching academic writing, and deepening her training in adult and continuing education, before certifying as a life coach. One of Candice's core beliefs is that every student, every person, has the capacity to succeed in meaningful, authentic ways, even if they don't quite see it themselves. That's why her mission is to help lifelong learners build the skills and mindset they need to feel confident and be successful when they're pushing their growth edge. She lives in Sooke, BC with her husband and two teenage kids.

Faith Doll

Grade 12 student + Lead Director of the Documentary: Voices of Ukraine

A grade 12 IB and honour student at Norkam Senior Secondary, Faith is active in many social justice activities. Faith directed and filmed a documentary on Ukrainian refugee students at her school to bring light to the struggles these students faced. She aspires to use her passion for human rights and equality as she works toward her career goal of being a lawyer.

Jared Qwustenuxun Williams

Indigenous Foods Educator and Chef

Jared Qwustenuxun Williams is a passionate traditional foods chef who spent much of his youth with his late grandmother, immersed in Salish culture. After Qwustenuxun graduated from culinary arts, he spent a decade working in restaurants across Vancouver Island before deciding to move back home to Quw’utsun to take the role of Elder’s Kitchen Manager at Cowichan Tribes. After more than decade of cooking for his elders, Qwustenuxun now works as an indigenous foods educator, writer, and consultant. Most recently, Jared won a Canadian Online Publishing Award for best multicultural story, was nominated for the 2022 BC Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Award, and helped FNHA complete their first smoked salmon project proving that Salish smoked salmon is a safe and effective technique for food preservation. When he is not working on furthering Salish food sovereignty, Qwustenuxun spends his time with his young sons sailing and camping around the Salish Sea.

Kate Fagan Taylor

Management Consultant + Work Culture Strategist

Kate Fagan Taylor, MDiv, CMC is an organizational culture strategist who helps companies develop unique work cultures as a business advantage. With ideas that inspire, Kate guides organizations to solve their practical business challenges by providing management consulting, culture assessments, courses, executive coaching, keynotes and workshops. Early in her career, Kate served as an Interfaith Chaplain at the University of Victoria. Since then, she has led strategy and business transformations in the not-for-profit, public sector, health, academic and technology sectors. Kate served as executive director of a retreat centre, and later directed executive talent management for the BC Public Service. Most recently, Kate led a successful tech company start-up in the health sector. Kate serves on the Board of Directors of Island Women in Technology (iWIST). On weekends, she enjoys gardening and science fiction. Kate is the Principal at GrowthPoints Strategies in Victoria, BC.

Kathy Bishop

Organisational Leadership consultant + Associate Professor

Dr. Kathy Bishop is an organisational leadership consultant and associate professor at Royal Roads University in the School of Leadership Studies. With over 30 years of leadership experience spanning multi-disciplinary fields including counselling, social services, business development and adult education, Bishop is committed to fostering thriving organisations and workplace cultures through values based leadership education which utilises a variety of creative, experiential, participatory, nature-based and transformative methods.

Peter Scott

AI Thought Leader

Peter Scott is a futurist, coach, and technology expert helping people master technological disruption. After receiving a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Cambridge University, he moved to California to work for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and has continued to do that ever since. Peter raises awareness about artificial intelligence. He has appeared on radio and television, given university courses and numerous appearances in several countries. In February 2020 he spoke to Britain’s House of Lords on the future of AI, and delivered a TEDx talk to a thousand people in British Columbia, Canada. His weekly podcast, “Artificial Intelligence and You” tackles three questions: What is AI? Why will it affect you? How do you and your business survive and thrive through the AI Revolution? In July 2022, his book also called “Artificial Intelligence and You” was released. His Next Wave Institute coaches executives how to futureproof their careers and businesses.

Shauna Begley

Technology Strategist & Educator

Shauna Begley is an educator, strategist and technology leader with over twenty years of experience leading digital change. Shauna is inspired to challenge the status quo while remaining mindful of the need for the purposeful alignment of technology, people, and processes. Throughout her career, Shauna has devoted herself to advocating for technology as a source enablement that drives strategic advantage and transformative business outcomes. From the boardroom to the classroom, Shauna engages with individuals and teams to support their digital transformations by ensuring they see the possibilities. Shauna was a finalist for Canadian CIO of the year in 2018, founded www.modernwork.ca in 2020 to support and guide organizations pursuing digital transformation in the modern world, and is the program head for the Business Information Technology Management program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Shauna lives in sunny Tsawwassen, BC, Canada with her husband and son.

Trevor Koot

CEO and Innovative Leader

Drawing on extensive experience as a business owner, leader and board director, Trevor Koot is currently serving as CEO of the BC Real Estate Association. With an innovative and entrepreneurial leadership style, Trevor's focus is change management, while maintaining strict governance and policy structure. Facilitating leadership and governance training sessions demonstrates his interest in proper structure, while creating new technology and advocating for industry-wide change provides fuel for his entrepreneurial side.

Vishal Punwani

CEO

SoWork CEO Vishal Punwani was on a roll building his company. Then, he realized his team would lose everything if they didn’t act fast to save their culture. Vishal (‘Vish’) Punwani is the CEO and co-founder of SoWork - the 'Workplace Metaverse' - founded at Harvard’s Innovation Labs. SoWork started off as a more human way for his team to internally communicate, and now Fortune 10 companies and thousands of SMEs and startups enter SoWork everyday to work, socialize, build community, and host events. Besides being a CEO, Vishal is a medical doctor, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs, a Mentor at the Oxford Foundry, and Alumni Advisor at MassChallenge Boston. In his prior life, Vish worked at the World Health Organization in Geneva, and became one of the highest-rated Teaching Fellows at Khan Academy in Health and Medicine. Vish likes travelling, playing video games and hockey, and building things with smart people.

Zia Poonja

Oncologist

Dr. Zia Poonja is an oncologist, researcher, health enthusiast and founder of companies that specialize in health optimization. He has a passion for prevention and advocates for people to recognize the agency they have in their quality of life. Zia completed a BSc in Human Physiology followed by his MD at the University of Saskatchewan. Subsequently, he completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Alberta and a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Zia currently practices oncology at the BC Cancer in Victoria and is an actively involved founder of Healthspan Labs and PrehabRx. Zia holds faculty positions at UBC and the University of Victoria and serves the community in a variety of volunteer positions. He’s the proud father of two (5 and 3 years old) and enjoys powerlifting and running in his spare time.