In line with past Tedx events the program consisted of an entire day's schedule of speakers mixed with musicians and poets as well as, for the first time, a crowd funded meal.
Some of the speakers included University Sydney law school Professor Ronald McCullum who gave an inspiring talk on his struggle to successfully overcome blindness through the use of technology and Jennifer Robinson lawyer for Jullian Assange of Wikileaks fame, who tackled the topic of testing the current limits of the law and gave her thoughts on where these limits are likely headed in the near future.
Robinson received a standing ovation in one of the more moving moments of TEDx Sydney 2013 when she told the audience ''We need more public support to make it harder for government to maintain its current position," and emphasized her feeling of government's complicity "completely ignoring ongoing human rights abuse."
Other speakers approached a wide range of topics including hunger and food shortage potential solutions, the growing impact of technology on daily life in both Australia and the world, democracy in the digital age and youth education.
A total of 18 talks were given throughout the day and evening.
The entertainment lineup between speakers was assembled by Music coordinator for the event Jordan Verzar with is expressed goal being to "seek out experimental new visions and voices to keep in TED's tradition"
Verzar added ''Collective high impact and socially conscious art that entertains while still serving to educate when possible remains their highest of creative goals and he hoped they reached that."
In a piece of exciting music history two of Australia's most acclaimed roots/rock music stars collaborated live for the first time at TEDxSydney 2013 Butler & Lang. Butler has sold more albums than any other Australian independent artist. Lang is recognized worldwide as one of the best living rock guitar players and dynamic live performers.
The Great Gatsby film star iOTA gave a hypnotic performance of his extraordinary vocals which were perfectly suited for prime Australian venue the Sydney Opera House.
Also giving a set that left the crowd speechless was Tom Thum. Thum performs strictly with a microphone, replicating a backup band with his human beat box ability at one point simulating scratched vinyl and even very popular pop and dance star's catalogs.
Over 2,200 people attended TEDxSydney 2013 many new attendees attracted by the promotional video work of our partner - Hunting With Pixels (http://www.huntingwithpixels.com.au) and the very active social media discussions centering around TEDxSydney.
After the critical success of TEDxSydney 2013, TedxSydney 2014 is already in the planning stages. Jordan Verzar commented it will most likely be held again at the Sydney Opera House and feature an expanded schedule of both speakers and musicians with an expectation the 2,200 attendance will be surpassed as word of TEDxSydney spreads.
For more information about TEDxSydney their web address is http://tedxsydney.com.
A look at the event from TEDx can be found on their website here: http://tedxsydney.com/site/item.cfm?item=3B65B7C9C290F6C978B7B6DF0D33633E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agl_kNSSLaM
