TEDxEuston on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Google+

As we get into the home stretch for TEDxEuston, we will be regularly communicating with you our community using different platforms. We will share stories about our 13 amazing speakers, about the event itself and most everything about the event - and that is where YOU come in. If you enjoy TEDxEuston and share our ideals and you want to help us challenge conventional wisdom, then we have a simple request - don't keep it to yourelf! 

Watch this preview video and Share, Like, and Retweet! 

Follow us on

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

GOOGLE+

Introducing TEDxEuston 2012 Speakers - Jacqueline Novogratz

At that seminal TEDGlobal in Arusha in 2007 – most of the speakers were Africans. But there were a few others – including Jacqueline Novogratz. She shared a powerful story of learning lessons of listening and patience from a group of entrepreneurial market women in pre-genocide Rwanda. This skill of listening and patience led Jacqueline to found the Acumen Fund; a ten-year-old social venture fund renowned for its patience; entrepreneurs have up to ten years to achieve financial sustainability. 
In a recent article, Forbes writes about Acumen; 

Instead of shoveling aid dollars to causes or governments that give away life-­sustaining goods and services, Acumen espouses investing money wisely in entrepreneurs in the developing world who strive to solve problems, from mosquito netting to bottled water to affordable housing. It’s a new twist on the old adage about teaching a man to fish, except that Novogratz wants to build an entire fish market.

Talk about challenging conventional wisdom! This is why we have invited her to TEDxEuston! there are a handful of tickets still available - details on the website.  

 

Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of poverty. Acumen Fund aims to create a world beyond poverty by investing in social enterprises, emerging leaders, and breakthrough ideas. Under Jacqueline’s leadership, Acumen Fund has invested more than $75 million in 65 companies in South Asia and Africa, all focused on delivering affordable healthcare, water, housing and energy to the poor. These companies have created and supported more than 55,000 jobs, leveraged an additional $200 million, and brought basic services to tens of millions. In December 2011, Acumen Fund and Jacqueline were on the cover of Forbes magazine as part of their feature on social innovation. Prior to Acumen Fund, Jacqueline founded and directed The Philanthropy Workshop and The Next Generation Leadership programs at the Rockefeller Foundation. Jacqueline currently sits on the advisory board of the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative, the Aspen Institute Board of Trustees, and the board of IDEO.org, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council for Social Innovation. She was also appointed by Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton to the Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board. Her best-selling memoir The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World chronicles her quest to understand poverty and challenges readers to grant dignity to the poor and to rethink their engagement with the world. She has an MBA from Stanford and a BA in Economics/International Relations from the University of Virginia. She has received honorary doctorates from the University of Notre Dame and Wofford College, and the Freedom From Want Award from the Roosevelt Institute in 2011. Follow Jacqueline on Twitter @jnovogratz

Introducing TEDxEuston 2012 Speakers - Jason Njoku

Sometimes a business idea emerges that is so simple - you wonder why no one thought about it all this time. We can say this for many  internet businesses of our time; we cannot imagine live without Facebook, Twitter, etc. On most of the African continent - life would not be imaginable without Nollywood. Indeed, a lot has been written about the Nigerian movie industry affectionately called Nollywood. A lot has also been written about the large and ever growing African Disapora. Jason Njoku (Founder and CEO of Iroko Partners) brought these two together creating the largest digital distributorship of Nigerian music and movies while creating a reported monthly $1 million revenue ~ not bad eh. So at TEDxEuston we will hear from the man himself.....and maybe the next BIG idea will come from one of the 500 in the room on the day! Be one of the 500...half the tickets are gone! 

Register here..

Jason Njoku , is a Nigerian internet entrepreneur, and is CEO and founder of Iroko partners, the largest distributor of Nigerian music and movies online. Jason studied at the University of Manchester and grew up in the UK. Most Nigerians enjoy watching Nollywood movies; however accessing these movies is not easy. Recognising the increased demand and the limited access to quality, legal movies online, Jason moved to Lagos to start Iroko Partners with the aim of bringing Nigerian entertainment online. The website was launched in December 2011, and by the end of the year had received 152 million views with 90% of them outside Africa. Within 18 months the company has grown with offices in Lagos, London and recently New York. While Jason plans for iROKOtv to be the Netflix of Africa, the new service, Iroking launched earlier this year, and aims to be the African “Spotify”. Jason’s vision was shared by US Based Hedge Fund Tiger Global as he has recently secured $ 8 million in funding from the firm. It is exciting times for Nollywood and Afrobeat music, with the Nollywood veteran Genevieve Nnaji cast in the film adaptation of the acclaimed novel Half of a Yellow Sun, and Dbanj joining Kanye West’s label GOOD Music. Jason’s product has arrived at the right time, and will unite African’s worldwide to enjoy African entertainment.

Challenging Conventional Wisdom - the video!

On December 1 2012 we will bring together 13 exciting and thought provoking speakers with 500 curious souls at the beautiful Mermaid Center in London to think and talk about
amazing ideas from Africa.  

....then we will sit back and watch what happens! 

You will want to be part of this amazing journey of challenging conventional wisdom on the African continent. Watch this video to catch some of the excitement building and go to
www.tedxeuston.com to register!

TEDxEuston2012 from TEDxEuston on Vimeo.

Introducing TEDxEuston 2012 Speakers - Trevor Ncube

We are really excited to bring Trevor Ncube to TEDxEuston 2012! 

On 10 December 2005, Trevor Ncube had his passport taken away by the government of Robert Mugabe, in the first application of restrictive press freedom laws. The passport was later returned after the seizure was exposed to be illegal. The attempt was seen by many as an attempt to close his newspapers which are highly critical of the government of Zimbabwe's president.Trevor will be our first speaker from Zimbabwe and we will begin disentangle the complicated influences of his beautiful country on his life. Trevor has a huge following on twitter, so to find out why so many folk are so interested in what Trevor has to say – watch him at TEDxEuston 2012!

Trevor Ncube is Chairman of Alpha Media Holdings (AMH ) based in Zimbabwe, a company he co-founded 14 years ago. AMH owns three newspaper titles in Zimbabwe namely NewsDay (daily), The Zimbabwe Independent (business weekly) and The Standard (Sunday). Ncube has a BA Honours (First Class) from the University of Zimbabwe. He started in journalism in 1989 when he was appointed assistant editor of the Financial Gazette in Zimbabwe. In 1991 he was promoted to Executive Editor and in 1994 received the Zimbabwe Editor of the Year award. Ncube is also controlling shareholder and Executive Deputy Chairman of the Mail & Guardian Media Group (South Africa). He completed the Said Business School, University of Oxford, Advanced Management and Leadership Programme in June/July 2009. Trevor was awarded a Print Media S.A. Fellowship in 2006. He was awarded the International Publishers Association Freedom Prize Award in 2007, and has also won the German Africa Award in 2008. In 2010 Trevor was bestowed the Nation Media Group Life Achievement Award for his work in media on the continent. He is co-chair of the African Media Initiative (AMI) a continent wide organization focusing on strengthening the sectors viability and enhancing its professionalism and is a Fellow of The Aspen Institute and Africa Leadership Initiative. Ncube is married with children, loves reading and travelling, is a keen golfer and is a devout Christian. Follow Trevor on Twitter @TrevorNcube

30 tickets for Students at TEDxEuston

We know that we have a large pool of African students who attend TEDxEuston from Universities across the UK. In recognition of this, we are making available 30 tickets for available at a 30% discount at £50 to attend TEDxEuston 2012!

If you are a student, take advantage of this offer, but do so soon! When they are gone, they are gone...

Get your tickets HERE. 

You will be requested to provide your student's  ID at the gate 

Introducing TEDxEuston 2012 Speakers - Sada Mire

A Somali Archeologist? C'mmon! Well yes - she is Somali, female and an archaeologist. 

But, why would we be surprised to find a Somalian archaeologist? The simple reason is that many of us have also bought into the "Single story" about our own countries, as Chimamanda Adichie so aptly put it in her excellent TED Talk. So we fall prey to the same stereotypes we claim to fight, when we think about Somalia only in terms of pirates and Black Hawk Down. But, maybe we can start changing that at TEDxEuston 2012...where we will be challenging conventional wisdom on several aspects of our continent.

Sada Mire is an archaeologist from Somalia. She lived the first fifteen years of her life in Mogadishu, until 1991, when she settled in Sweden, as a result of the conflict in north-east Africa. In order to learn about the history of her new society, she studied archaeology and zoo-archaeology at Lund University. She continued at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London, for her B.A., and then attended University College London (UCL) for her M.A. and Ph.D., conducting field research in Somaliland. Sada is currently advisor to former Director of the Republic of Somaliland’s Department of Tourism & Archaeology, which she founded in 2007. She is founder and executive director of the Horn Heritage Organization. Sada is a research associate at SOAS, UEA and UCL. Sada has conducted fieldwork in several European and African countries – from the U.K. and Denmark to Kenya and Egypt, as well as lecturing at universities. In the last five years, she and her team have made many archaeological discoveries which feature in her numerous articles and chapters in international scientific publications, such as the African Archaeological Review and Antiquity, as well as in the popular media, e.g. Discover Magazine and New Scientist. She serves as an editorial board member of the peer-reviewed journals, Heritage & Society and Southern African Archaeological Bulletin. Sada believes that cultural heritage is a basic human need. Follow Sada on Twitter @SomaliHeritage