TEDxEuston 2012 ...in pictures

They say..."a picture is worth a thousand words", but what do you say about 300 pictures that tell thousands of stories of hope, excitement, inspiration, accomplishment and aspiration. Stories of us and by us...told in pictures.

Enjoy this set of beautiful images of TEDxEuston 2012, delivered with an amazing attention to detail by Femi Sonmonu, Don Omope and supported by Osita Nwegbu!

The entire TEDxEuston Team wishes you a good end to 2012 and all the best in 2013!

First Set of Pictures from TEDxEuston 2012!

TEDxEuston 2012 announces Livestream around the world!

Dear TEDxEuston community, 

The 500 tickets for this year's TEDxEuston at the beautiful MERMAID events center on the bank of the River Thames in London are now nearly sold out. 

However - we are offering you another opportunity to watch from anywhere in the world with an internet connection - via livestream! 

http://www.livestream.com/tedxeuston

Please bookmark now and add to you calendar.  

Start times
London - 10 am
Lagos - 11 am
Johannesburg - 12 noon
New York - 5 am 
For all other time zone conversions - check here

You will be able to join the conversation with twitter and facebook while watching live! 

See you on the 1st!

Students Tickets sell out at TEDxEuston 2012

Our ticket prices at TEDxEuston are the barest minimum we need to charge, combined with what we are able to raise from sponsorship in order to bring you the event. As you know - it is organised on a completely not-for-profit basis. This year, having moved to a beautiful new venue - The Mermaid, and all but one of our speakers coming from outside Europe, we struggled to offer students a further discount - a decision that would hurt - as we know that a lot of our attendees come from the vibrant community of African students in various UK universities.

Last year, a couple from Germany, Sevket and Christiana attended TEDxEuston. It was their first time at our event. However, Sevket had previously attended the main TED conference a few times and was in Tanzania at the seminal TED Global conference that inspired TEDxEuston. After attending our event, he declared that he would not bother attending any other conferences in the next year, as he had found all the inspiration he needed!

When we opened up registration this year, he asked why we did not have any students tickets, and we explained our dilemma. By the time we had concluded our conversation, he had offered to help enable us to offer 50 tickets at a discounted rate to students! This is 10% of all available TEDxEuston tickets. This was only possible thanks to Sevket's intervention.

We have not warned him that we are sharing this story, as we know that his immediate reaction would be to object. We share it not to win him any brownie points, as he sure does not need any, but to show, with one example how the TEDxEuston community makes this event so special.

This sort of experience is what keeps us going. As we move into the last week of preparations, the TEDxEuston team thanks our community for engaging in all sorts of special ways. You are the reason we do this...the only reason!

1 week to go! 

Ayanda De First is back at TEDxEuston 2012

Ayanda De First.....what a guy!  He is back....at TEDxEuston 2012!

The original member of the Master Drummers of Africa and the founder of the Oduduwa Talking Drummers Orchestra Ayan DeFirst was born to a family of drummers and started his career as an apprentice by performing with his dad and uncles at the early stage of five. His dad kept changing the size of his drums as he grows until the age of 18 years old when he could choose his drum by himself. Ayan DeFirst initial ambition was to become a medical doctor or a pharmacist but this was disturbed by the talent he has on drumming. Ayan DeFirst now has his own group called Oduduwa Talking Drummers and has  worked with over 500 community and private schools within the UK delivering educational workshops on African Arts and music. Visit www.ayanthefirst.com for more information.

Silhouettez in the Dark performs at TEDxEuson

Something exciting is happening with music and dance all over the continent and its offspring. Silhouettez in the Dark epitomizes all that! But we are not going to give it away! This one will be special.....as will the rest of TEDxEuston - you will have to see it for yourself.

Silhouettez in the Dark is an Arts Alliance made up of four multi-talented individual female artists. Through the medium of Combined Arts; Theatre, Dance and Poetry, S.I.T.D present “truthful” information free from society’s over-censorship and media inflated ideals, promoting a culture of independent thought and taking a direct stand against the harmful effects of censored thought. Silhouettez aim to Edu-create. DK Fashola founded the company in 2008, since then S.I.T.D have performed across London, and toured all over the U.K. S.I.T.D are currently working on BROKENSQUARE; A London2Lagos Scheme which enables a connection and collaboration of performance artisits of Nigerian descent throught the medium of Theatre. WWW.DKFASH.COM/BROKENSQUARE

Inua Ellams performs at TEDxEuston

At TEDxEuston we will have some amazing artists including Inua Ellams. Inua will challenging convention wisdom on your perception of poetry. Inua is an award winning poet and performer, a writer with a style influenced by classic literature and hip hop, by Keats as it is by MosDef. Rooted in a love for rhythm and language, he crosses 18th century romanticism and traditional story telling with contemporary diction, loose rhythm and rhyme. 

Inua Ellams was born in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria in 1984. He works as a poet, playwright, performer and graphic designer/artist. He has seven books published including ‘Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales’ (Poetry, Flipped Eye, 2005) ‘The 14th Tale’ (Play, Flipped Eye, 2009) - which was commissioned by the Battersea Arts Centre and awarded a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival, before a sold out run at The National Theatre in London. His third theatre piece, ‘Black T-Shirt Collection’ (Play, Oberon, 2012) also ran at the National Theatre this year and will be touring this autumn. His poems were included in anthologies: Generation Txt (Penned in the Margins, 2006), City State (Penned in the Margins, 2009), The Salt Book of Younger Poets (Salt, 2011), The Shuffle Anthology (Shuffle, 2011 Press). His second pamphlet of poetry Candy Coated Unicorns and Converse All Stars (Flipped Eye, 2011) came out last November and he is currently working on a Radio play for the BBC about a dysfunctional Nigerian werewolf family, living in South London. None of these things really say much about Inua’s personality, but he he promises he is a nice guy. ‘Trust me…’ he says ‘… I’m Nigerian’.

Get one of the last tickets HERE.