Fairlie Hamilton will host TEDxWollongong next March. Photo: (Inset) Raven Co Digital and (main) Kellie O’Brien.
Wollongong will step onto the global stage next March when it hosts its inaugural TEDx event, giving Illawarra voices the chance to share bold ideas and powerful stories as they follow in the footsteps of inspiring thinkers such as Brene Brown, Simon Sinek and Sir Ken Robinson.
TEDxWollongong will see Illawarra and South Coast speakers, thinkers, and changemakers share short but powerful talks designed to spark conversation and provide thought-provoking perspectives around the theme “Lookout”.
Organised under licence from the world-renowned TED brand, Wollongong event licensee and curator Fairlie Hamilton said Wollongong was the perfect home for TEDx.
“The Illawarra is full of passionate people with ideas worth spreading,” she said.
“The city has a diverse history, and there’s amazing things going on at the Innovation Campus.”
With speaker applications now open and already coming in, she said her background in radio presenting and producing meant she was excited to curate the event’s content.
“Within the speaker line-up, there will be a few names that people do recognise and will want to go along and hear speak,” she said.
However, she said anyone’s story could reflect the TED slogan of “ideas worth spreading”.
“It doesn’t need to be someone who’s innovating in science or business, it can be someone who’s lived a certain life experience and has an interesting perspective based on that,” she said.
“I would love it if we got a couple of kids on stage and if we got a couple of much older people who’ve got a lot of life experience. That would be amazing.
“We’re just wanting local people that have some sort of fresh perspective that’s going to engage an audience.”
Fairlie said an example was one of the most highly recognised TED Talks, Brene Brown’s Power of Vulnerability.
“TEDx is an independently organised event that falls under the TED banner,” she said.
“However, the talks that happen on TEDx stages then move into the marketing engine that is TED.
“So there’s a potential for hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of viewers to see local voices on this global stage.
“That to me is why it was important.”
She said the only criteria was they stuck to the 2026 theme “Lookout”.
Inspired by the Illawarra escarpment, she said the theme had a double meaning – celebrating Wollongong’s natural beauty, while inviting audiences to take in fresh horizons of thought, creativity, and possibility.
Fairlie said that a decade ago the University of Wollongong hosted independent events specifically for universities called TEDxU events, but Wollongong had never hosted a TEDx event.
She said with Wollongong already attracting successful businesses, innovators, international events and major theatre productions, “there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have a TEDx dedicated to Wollongong so that local people can be heard on that global stage”.
“I work as a speaking coach, and while there’s plenty of opportunity to learn to speak, there’s less opportunity to actually speak,” she said.
“TEDxWollongong creates a huge opportunity for local voices to be heard.”
TED began in 1984 as a conference where technology, entertainment and design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues.
Speaker applications are now open until mid-December through the TEDxWollongong website, with the final line-up to be announced before Christmas and sponsors now being sought.
TEDxWollongong will be held on 7 March 2026 at a venue to be finalised soon.
