Theme: Plasmatic

Supercharing the Ordinary into Extraordinary

What makes world changing innovation and progress happen? Must we hold our breath for one of a kind superhuman perfect genius individuals with staggeringly complicated impossible to understand secret formulae and magical ingredients? I HOPE NOT!

In reality, we thankfully witness the introduction of amazing ideas, innovation, advancement and benefit around the world when “ordinary” yet passionate, focused and determined individuals and teams supercharge simple, fundamental and perhaps “ordinary” concepts to achieve extraordinary impact and scale. Fundamentally, our lives, communities and families appear to be driven by the same laws of nature that transforms ordinary air into superconducting PLASMA.

Inspired by TED2016 DREAM to go one dimension further, TEDxHongKong2016 will be about PLASMATIC IDEAS. You are cordially invited to join us at the Hong Kong Convention Centre on Saturday December 3rd to join and hear exceptional world class thinkers, doers, speakers and performers from Hong Kong and abroad will who will share insights, ideas and new realities with extraordinary results and benefits that were the result of supercharging ordinary and timeless principles, materials, relationships and situations.

Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre
1 Expo Dr, Wan Chai
Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Barry Yen

Barry is passionate about the outdoors having flown premier hang gliding sites off the east coast of Australia during his university years; hiked the Walls of Jerusalem National Park [Tasmanian’s only remote alpine National Park]; cycled the South Island of New Zealand; hiked from the Friendship Highway in Tibet to Mt Everest Base Camp [north side]; traveled overland from Nairobi through the Masai Mara to Zanzibar, canoed the Upper Zambezi River above Victoria Falls thankfully avoiding the various hippopotamus and crocodiles that make it their home, and eventually made it to Harare. Still journeying for snow sports, and in search of remote fishing spots but with more creature comforts.

Benjamin Quinlan

Benjamin Quinlan is the CEO and Managing Partner of Quinlan & Associates, an independent strategy consulting firm specializing in the financial services industry. Prior to founding Quinlan & Associates, Benjamin was the Head of Strategy for Deutsche Bank AG’s Equities business in Asia Pacific and its Investment Bank in Greater China and sat on a number of the bank’s global and regional executive committees. He has also worked at Oliver Wyman as a Management Consultant, and at UBS AG in the bank’s Asia Pacific Client Coverage and Group Strategy departments. He began his career in M&A and Capital Markets Advisory at PwC in Sydney. Outside of his corporate career, Benjamin is a professional emcee and standup comedian. He is a regular performer at TakeOut Comedy Club in Soho and tours around the region as a headline act. He was also invited as one of six international headliners at the 9th Annual Hong Kong International Comedy Festival and was a back-to-back finalist in Hong Kong International Comedy Competition, finishing in 3rd place in 2015 and runner up in 2016.

Bronwyn Alexander

Bronwyn Alexander has led marketing and communications teams in Hong Kong for over 20 years, creating campaigns to build brands, drive sustainable growth, and advocate for transparent communications to inform, engage and unify people. She has held regional roles for global companies AECOM, URS Corporation and Scott Wilson Group and, more recently, has discovered the liberating world of freelance consulting and NGO leadership. When she’s not crafting the perfect message or partnering to win new work, she travels to stoke her inner anthropologist, from the Tumen River in North Korea to the Mekong in Vietnam. Bronwyn is also addicted to her family’s whatsapp group where she makes occasionally irreverent posts to her husband and three children. Bronwyn received her Master’s degree from the University of Washington in Seattle and her Bachelor’s from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

David Sweanor

David has worked since the early 1980s on public health efforts, specializing in tobacco issues and focusing on how policy measures can impact population health. He has played a key role in Canadian efforts on, among other things, tobacco taxation, advertising restrictions, package labeling, environmental tobacco smoke, smoking cessation, litigation and product regulation. He has also been active on a similar range of global issues, working with bodies such as the World Health Organization, World Bank, Pan American Health Organization and numerous governments, foundations and law firms. In pursuing his interest in the interaction of law and economics as a determinant of public health, he has spent much time in recent years on the changing landscape of harm reduction products. This involves recognizing that there is a vast difference in risks associated with nicotine intake depending upon the delivery system and that harm reduction principles have enormous potential to end the epidemic of smoking-caused death and disease. He has been widely published in peer-reviewed scientific and legal journals as well as having authored work for major national and international health and social service organizations. He has spoken at conferences in numerous cities around the world, been a frequent guest on major media in Canada and other countries and testified before parliamentary committees in Canada and elsewhere, and before both Senate and House committees in the United States. He has received various awards for his work, including a ‘Public Health Hero’ lifetime achievement award from the Pan-American Health Organization. David has also been actively involved in a wide range of other issues though funding and mentoring and is the recipient of the Outstanding Individual Philanthropist award in Ottawa for 2016.

Hoi Shan Kwan

Professor Kwan Hoi Shan has been teaching in The Chinese University of Hong Kong since 1984. He is the director of Food Research Centre (CUHK), professor of School of Life Sciences (CUHK), and honorary professor of the School of Chinese Medicine (CUHK). Professor Kwan was awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star (BBS) for his meritorious public and community service, particularly his contribution in promoting food safety and quality assurance. He served as the Chairman of the Expert Committee for Food Safety of Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, the Chairman of the Accreditation Advisory Board of Hong Kong Accreditation Service.

James Tagg

James Tagg is a serial entrepreneur and award winning author. He was one of the original inventors of the touchscreen and has founded several companies that specialize in man machine interfaces and communications. He founded Truphone, the world’s first global mobile network, sending the first SMS over the Internet, making the first mobile phone call over the Internet and developing the eSIM. He holds over 200 patents and studied Physics and Computer Science at Manchester University, Design at Lancaster University and Engineering at Cambridge University. His first book, Are the Androids Dreaming Yet? explores the limits of Artificial Intelligence and the differences between humans and computers.

Jeremy Abbett

Jeremy Tai Abbett inspires ambitious organizations into realizing the creativity required to thrive in a world of constant change. He draws on his experience starting several ventures that found their genesis at the intersection of design and technology. In his current role as the creative evangelist at Google, Jeremy consults and collaborates with brands such as Adidas, BMW, and Lego. Additionally, he mentors early-stage start-ups and facilitates workshops that explore creativity and innovation. Previous to Google, Jeremy was the founding design director responsible for the branding and user-experience for mobile start-up Stuffle. His efforts helped Stuffle win a Webby Award, Lead Award, Lovie Award as well as being recognized by Apple as one of the best apps in 2012. Jeremy also co-founded Fork Unstable Media in 1996 (with three projects that were acquired by the Museum of Modern Art – San Francisco and a game that enraged the British Monarchy to his credit), co-founded multidisciplinary studio Truth Dare Double Dare, was a founding post-graduate student at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea and was an award winning creative director at a handful of advertising agencies.

Keiko Bang

Keiko Bang has spent more than 20 years creating and producing high-end award-winning factual productions from Asia for the international marketplace. She is responsible for producing more than 100 hours of blue-chip programming, which have aired in more than 150 countries around the world. More than 40 percent of these acclaimed films were co-productions with over 25 countries, many of them working with an Asian producer or broadcaster for the first time. In 2006, Bang was the first Asian production company to rank amongst Realscreen’s Top 100 Most Influential Documentary Companies in the World. Keiko is also well known as both a visionary and passionate futurist. Over the past 20 years, she has worked to build an eco-system within Asia, bringing together players in Asia from major corporations and government agencies to media companies and individual producers to innovate projects that for branded, cross-platform documentary and entertainment-related content. Her vision has been to create a ‘single Asian content market’ based on inter-Asia transactions and projects. Today Keiko is passionate about the world of digital storytelling and new media. From mobile phone applications to the world of serious gaming and mixed media (AR/VR), she believes that the current paradigm shift in content requires an intersection between technology and art that not only enables a new brand of storytelling but also new business models for monetization. She believes harnessing this power will be the key to the future success of content in Asia.

Kenny Liu

Kenny Liu was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the USA at a young age. He now lives in Hong Kong with his wonderful wife, Sheila, and travels to China frequently as a practicing architect, urbanist, and developer for the last16 years. He currently leads MountainView: an Asia-based real estate development and design company focused on “healing cities” by intertwining thriving communities and sustainable environments with integrated technological solutions. He believes that developers transforming the built environment are greatly responsible for the well-being of the planet. Great projects are ecological frameworks providing for the health of people, plants, and animals (especially his puppy Barry). Kenny received his Architecture degree from Cornell and is currently pursuing a Master of Science from Hong Kong Poly. He is a USA registered architect with LEED certification.

Mike Tozer

Mike Tozer is CEO and co-founder of Fragile X Hong Kong. Mike and his wife launched this nonprofit to raise awareness of fragile X syndrome, the top gene cause of autism and the leading inherited cause of intellectual disability. Mike has spent 15 years in the social impact sector in Asia and previously worked with Crossroads Foundation, another Hong Kong charity. He holds a masters degree in public policy from Harvard University and a BA in Physics from Oxford. Mike is a father to two children, one affected by fragile X. He is also an elite level runner with Team Brooks and has race wins this season in Sydney and Hong Kong. He recently combined two of his passions by breaking the world record for the fastest half marathon in a business suit as an awareness and fund-raiser for fragile X.

Murray Mackenzie

Before joining the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2008, Dr Murray Mackenzie was employed at the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, as a senior lecturer and program leader for the Bachelor of International Hospitality Management. He has 20 years experience lecturing and teaching in Northern Ireland New Zealand and Hong Kong. As a former Chef, his industry experience has taken him to several countries. Commencing his training in New Zealand he then traveled to Australia, South Africa, Northern Ireland and England where he worked with renowned chefs such as Paul Rankin (Cayenne) and Peter Gordon (The Sugar Club). Murray has held key positions in major hotels and restaurants such as Executive Sous Chef, Head Banqueting Chef, and Executive Head Chef, and has worked in the food and beverage industry for over 20 years prior to commencing his role in education. Apart from teaching and lecturing to the culinary student (since 1990), he has also competed in several culinary events, including Hotelompia (2000) and Northern Ireland Saloon Culinaire (2000). In his current position as Education Specialist and Food and Beverage (F&B) coordinator at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, he oversees Food and Beverage, and Food and Wine Academy programs and workshops offered. Apart from teaching on the MSc in International Wine Management, Gastronomy and Olfactory Studies, and Food and Beverage Management programs, Murray also plays an important role through the integration of research and teaching that takes place in Hotel ICON. Murrays specialist teaching and research areas are in food and beverage, corporate social responsibility (CSR) wine studies and marketing. Murray graduated with a PhD in Hospitality Management from the University of Waikato, New Zealand and a MEd from the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland.

Sandeep Girotra

As the Senior Vice President of Asia Pacific and Japan for Nokia, Sandeep leads customer operations, drive business growth strategy and superior customer engagement services across multiple channels in the region. Over a tenure spanning 20 years in Nokia, Sandeep has held several senior management positions in strategy, sales and business development. Most recently, Sandeep was responsible for Nokia’s business and operations across the India market which includes sales and delivery operations, manufacturing plant, R&D center and its global service delivery centers. In an earlier role, Sandeep was heading the India sub-region in Nokia’s network business (formerly Nokia Solutions & Networks) where he successfully grew the business with six leading telecom operators. Sandeep joined Nokia in 1996 and has held numerous senior leadership roles in the company in various business groups across Asia Pacific. Born in India, Sandeep holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. In his new role, Sandeep is based in Singapore.

Steven Aldrich

As Chief Product Officer at GoDaddy, it’s Steven’s job to set and execute the company’s vision of providing elegant, end-to-end technology solutions for GoDaddy’s more than 14 million small business customers. Steven brings over a decade of experience at Intuit, where he built solutions to help small businesses use the web to grow and run their stores. He also has small business experience as the founder of an online company that simplified shopping for insurance. Steven earned a master’s degree in business from Stanford and a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of North Carolina. After hours, he serves as board president of the Bay Area Glass Institute, a nonprofit glass studio, and enjoys spending time with his wife Allison and their son, Jackson, at many sports and arts events.

Surya Vanka

Surya Vanka is a global leader in hardware and software design, design strategy and design capability development. He is best known for his groundbreaking work in user experience at Microsoft, and for creating industry leading design practices such Design Swarms and Design Value Scorecard. In his highly decorated 16-year career with Microsoft, Vanka quickly developed a reputation for directing global teams in the successful delivery of extremely complex, high profile, business critical initiatives. As the go-to man for the thorniest customer experience and technical design issues within the company, Vanka rose to become the Director of UX with responsibility for all Microsoft server products, and had a strong execution track record in shipping multiple products. Vanka instituted design patterns and practices that have now been widely adopted across Microsoft and partners, and was part of the core team that led the Metro Design language to be incorporated into various leading Microsoft products including the Xbox 360 system software, Xbox One, Windows 8, Windows Phone, Bing, Skype, and Outlook.com. Vanka led Microsoft’s center of experience excellence team for several years and helped to drive the transformation of the company towards an agile, growth-hacking, experience-first culture. He created company-wide programs to raise design capability at each stage of each engineer’s career and engineering team evolution, created a design maturity roadmap, a design gap assessment toolkit, and coached teams to utilize design as a competitive advantage. Vanka was routinely called upon to provide top executives and leaders with guidance on broader corporate design strategy. Vanka initiated the company-wide UX Awards program, led the annual UX day in Redmond that attended each year by 2000+ engineers, and satellite UX day events in each development center around the world. His work won two Microsoft Engineering Best Practice Awards, a Microsoft Achievement Award, an Accessibility Achievement Award, the World Brand Congress Leadership Award and several industry recognitions. Prior to Microsoft, Vanka was a tenured professor of design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a fellow at the prestigious Center for Advanced Study and the authored two books on design. Surya is an accreditor for university curricula in the United States and Europe, leads cross-company design initiatives and serves on the advisory board of the Design Management Institute and Design in Public. Vanka is frequently invited to keynote the most prestigious conferences and has won top speaker awards three times. His work has appeared in numerous publications and news programs, including Form, I.D., Design Council, WIRED, Interactions, the BBC and National Public Radio. Vanka initiated and was part of the core team that created the DMI Design Value Scorecard, and is the creator of a light weight, agile and adaptable design technique called Design Swarms – both of these practices are quickly being adopted in business, non-profit and education. He recently chaired the hugely successful 50th Anniversary Conference of Industrial Designers Society of America. The theme of the conference was “The Future of the Future: The Next 50 Years,” and the bold ambition brought together 800 designers from 20 countries, ranging from Australia to India, and Chile to Somalia, to spark the reinvention of design for 21st century. Vanka lives in Seattle and leads AUTHENTIC that provides design consulting to clients worldwide in UX design, interaction design, futures prototyping, service design, agile UX, UX metrics and design strategy.

Young Eun Huh

Young Eun Huh is Assistant Professor of Marketing at School of Business and Management, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Her main research interest is psychological processes that influence consumers’ motivation to consume goods, especially in the domain of food consumption. Young’s research has been published in in top-tier academic journals, including Science, Psychological Science, Journal of Consumer Research, and Journal of Marketing Research, and reported by major news organizations, such as New York Times, NPR, ABC News, BBC, Wall Street Journal, and Time. Young earned her PhD degree in Marketing from Carnegie Mellon University, an MBA degree from Seoul National University, and BA and BBA from Korea University. Young enjoys reading, watching movies, drinking coffee and spending time with her family and friends.