TEDxEastEnd 2014: Society Beyond Borders

This year, FleishmanHillard offered PR support to TEDxEastEnd, which took place in Bethnal Green on Saturday.

The one day event explored the theme ‘Society Beyond Borders’ through a range of live speakers, TED Talks videos and performances. Speakers included research scientist, blogger and author of Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Brooke Magnanti; founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, Laura Bates; campaigner for human rights, democracy, civil liberties, LGBT equality and global justice, Peter Tatchell and pioneer of Viral Change™, Leandro Herrero.

‘Society Beyond Borders’ leant itself to a number of deeper dive topics – BBC’s Home Editor Mark Easton kicked off proceedings by focusing on identity; how do we define this, how does age affect our own identity perceptions and is ‘British’ identity dying out?

Later on in the day, we found out more about innovative free-trade zones which are being set up in London, how one gaming developer is flying the flag for diversity in the industry and the potential to 3D print using moondust as a material. The event certainly delivered a broad range of talking points.

Interestingly, Laura Bates’ inspirational presentation cleverly juxtaposed the premise of most of the other talks which looked at the benefits of breaking down borders – she noted that prejudice transcends such borders. However, her Everyday Sexism Project allows us to collectively fight against it, regardless of age, location, class or background.

Martin Wright, one of the last speakers of the day, alluded to the fact that the shrinking global technology gap is a wildly exciting prospect for the future. As a member of the tech team here at FH, the opportunities afforded to society through borderless technology really resonated with me.

Of course, the beauty of these events is the way in which, under one broader umbrella, we are able to analyse in more depth some of the prevalent trends and issues in modern society that are altering the way we think, share and interact.

Keep an eye out on TEDxEastEnd over the coming month for video replays of all of the sessions.