Dr Karl Kruszelnicki speaking during the inaugural TEDxWollongong. Photo: Aaron Crotty.
From a live robotics display and climate science to deeply personal stories of loss and resilience, the inaugural TEDxWollongong delivered a night of big ideas, with organisers already planning its return in 2027.
Held on Saturday (7 March), the event brought together a diverse line-up of 12 speakers sharing heartfelt stories, innovations and thought-provoking ideas to a sold-out audience at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre in Wollongong.
Centred around the theme “Lookout”, the talks were also filmed for global distribution and are expected to be published to the official TED YouTube channel within the next two weeks.
Organiser Fairlie Hamilton said the response from attendees and speakers had been overwhelmingly positive.
“The audience seemed to really enjoy the diversity of the talks in particular,” Fairlie said.
“Everyone I spoke to had a different ‘favourite’, but generally speaking as an experience the event seemed to be a great success enjoyed by all.”
Orthopaedic surgeon Meghan Dares opened the line-up with her talk on “The Hidden Risk of Living Longer” with the message that “the first thing we lose as we age isn’t life. It’s mobility. But mobility determines how much of life we get to live”.
Greenwashing expert John Pabon revealed what the “Steel City” could teach the world about pragmatic altruism, senior research scientist Dr Greg Ryder explained why AI was “too hot right now” to the claps of thunder from outside, and former Wollongong boy and ABC scientist Dr Karl Kruszelnicki gave a rapid-fire talk arguing the need to urgently phase out fossil fuels and the subsidies propping them up and transition to a clean-energy future.
Ethereal vocalist Isobel Bee provided a sound healing experience, Aboriginal woman and counsellor Carlie Schofield spoke about intergenerational trauma after her mother was taken from her grandmother at three months as part of the Stolen Generations, and romance scam investigator Kylee Dennis provided personal insights on how “your next great love story could be a crime scene”.
For many of the speakers, the night was also a major personal milestone.
“There were a lot of nerves going into the event,” Fairlie said.
“Along with a sense of relief, they were all feeling pretty proud of their talks and the achievement of getting up on stage – which for several of them was a first.”
She said some of the talks left a particularly strong impression on the audience.
“Anecdotally, audience members had an emotional response to Project Bucephalus – a diverse group of kids who spoke about building robots and having great international success at doing so,” she said.
“And also to Jack Brown, who is the co-founder of Talk2MeBro, who shared his personal story of losing his cousin to suicide and how that spurred on the formation of his charity.
“It’s pretty clear that storytelling from the heart really connects with an audience and that’s certainly an insight that I’ll take into the curation process for the next TEDxWollongong.”
Fairlie said events such as TEDx offered a rare opportunity for Illawarra thinkers and innovators to share their ideas on a much larger stage.
“The core ethos of TEDx is ‘ideas worth spreading,’” she said.
“It’s about thought leadership, and to forge our future we need thought leaders to challenge conventional ways of doing things.
“An event like TEDx provides a global stage in our local setting of Wollongong so that our local thought leaders can be heard on a global platform.”
She said the event was an important moment for the region.
“It’s a really amazing opportunity for local voices to be heard by a huge audience, and a great cultural event for our city,” she said.
“I love our region and I know we are worthy of being heard outside of our borders.”
Despite the inaugural event having only just wrapped, Fairlie’s focus has already shifted to TEDxWollongong 2027.
“Now that we’ve had our local event, we want to hear from anyone who’s interested in being part of the organising committee moving forward so we can build out a team and make sure we are putting the absolute best resources into all elements of future events,” she said.
Fairlie said she also planned to draw inspiration from other TEDx events around the world.
“I’m going to take a look at how some of the licensees around the world are running their events so we can build out opportunities for all types of speakers to take to the TEDx stage,” she said.
Anyone interested in getting involved in organising TEDxWollongong 2027 can message Fairlie through TEDxWollongong’s Instagram.
