DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA WORTH
SPREADING?
DO YOU WANT TO SHARE YOUR IDEA AT AN
OFFICIAL TED X EVENT at
GLOUCESTER GUILDHALL
24th June 2026?
We are a group of passionate individuals who are organising an OFFICIAL TED X event at Gloucester Guildhall 24th June. We are looking for inspiring ideas and perspectives from the community.
This year’s TEDx Eastgate theme is:
MERGE: When stories meet communities grow
APPLICATIONS CLOSED
Brief
This year’s TEDx theme is
MERGE: When stories meet communities grow
The event will explore transformative ideas that have been grown here in Gloucester. It will platform ideas and perspectives that challenge, inspire, and create meaningful impact. We are seeking talks that embody this spirit, inviting audiences into new ways of seeing our city.
APPLICATIONS CLOSED
Your idea must be connected to Gloucester and/ or you must be either born here, working here or living here. We are particularly interested from hearing from speakers from young people and those from underserved communities.
What is
a TEDx talk?
A TEDx Talk is a showcase for speakers presenting great, well-formed ideas. Talks are usually under 18 minutes and are delivered by a single speaker, though the ideal length varies based on the format. A great, well-formed idea can actually be one of two things:
· Something that’s new and surprising; an idea or invention that your audience has never heard about.
· A great basic idea (that your audience has maybe already heard) with a compelling new argument behind it that challenges beliefs and perspectives. In other words, an idea isn’t just a story or a list of facts. A good idea takes certain evidence or observations and draws a larger conclusion.
Speakers
Gloucester-born Tyler, inspired by his uncles, transitioned from B-boying to diverse styles like Popping. Tyler Attwood has spent the last 13 years inspiring and supporting people, particularly young people, through movement, public speaking, and community work.
Through a multi-artform presentation, Tyler explores how our actions, self-talk, and beliefs shape our realities. His work encourages people to prioritise their wellbeing, pursue what they truly want, and recognise that it is never too late to grow, change, or redefine themselves.
Alexander Beeching helps people find the voice they didn’t know they had.
A former London ad-agency copywriter, he has written campaigns for brands including Warner Bros, Pernod Ricard, The Times and Waterstones, learning firsthand that brilliant ideas mean very little if nobody feels them. Today he works with founders, leaders and creators to transform how they communicate on stage, on video and online.
His work blends storytelling, psychology, rhetoric and a touch of theatrical mischief to help people capture attention, build trust and move audiences to action.
Alexander is also the bestselling author of Draw Yourself Happy, published by Hachette.
He believes most people treat their voice like background noise.
But your voice is far more powerful than that.
It’s your signal.
Your story.
Your business card.
Your marketing engine.
And when you finally switch it on (properly) people don’t just hear you.
They remember you.
Demetri (Demi) Alvanis, founder of StrengthFlow and The Calisthenics Academy, is a 22-year old calisthenics athlete & coach born and raised in London. Having started the sport at 14 years old, Demetri spent 4 years competing, where he won a number of international titles and became the UK Vice National Champion in 2020.
Having reached a ceiling in his career due to the lack of infrastructure in the sport, Demetri took matters into his own hands and created his own unofficial governing organisation for youths doing Calisthenics, building an in-person community of thousands as a by-product. Demetri furthered the sport on a national scale and became a prolific figure in the UK Calisthenics world. Now focused on building StrengthFlow, Demetri is using his community-centred approach to bring calisthenics into the wellness space, as the primary mode of strength training that promotes sustainability and longevity.
Khadija Dilnawaz is a Filmmaker, Singer and Storyteller currently studying Film Production at the University of Gloucestershire. Born in Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents and raised in England, her perspective is shaped by multiple cultures, which deeply influences the stories she tells.
Alongside filmmaking, Khadija is a multilingual vocalist, musician and songwriter who blends music and visual storytelling to create emotionally immersive experiences. Her research on sustainable blue-green infrastructure and innovative energy source inventions have received national and regional awards. Passionate about creativity, science and social change, Khadija is particularly interested in experimental cinema and interactive narratives that challenge audiences to rethink how stories are told. Through her work, she hopes to inspire people to see everyday spaces, stories and ideas in new and unexpected ways.
Viva O’Flynn is a passionate advocate for community empowerment, cultural representation, and inclusive local growth. She is employed by Gloucester City Council as part of the City Growth and Delivery Team, where she contributes to initiatives that support regeneration, local enterprise, and sustainable development across the city.
Alongside her professional role, Viva is dedicated to strengthening community connections and celebrating cultural diversity. She serves as Secretary of the Filipino Association of Gloucestershire, helping to promote Filipino heritage while building bridges across communities.
In 2025–2026, she serves as the Mock Mayor of Barton, championing community pride, youth engagement, and grassroots leadership.
Viva believes thriving communities are built when people feel seen, valued, and empowered to shape the future of the place they call home.
Jemma Jamie Skidmore is a picture book illustrator, author and mother, based at Jolt Studios in Gloucester.
Her clients include BBC, AppleTV, Netflix, Galison, Simon & Schuster and Oxford University Press.
Jemma worked in the film and TV industry in London and Vancouver before returning home to Gloucester. She has been illustrating full-time since 2021.
Caroline Jaine - also known as “The Resilience Guide” - is based in Gloucester in the UK. An author and former Diplomat who has served overseas in some tough assignments, she is the founder of “The Resilience Academy” and is also a Root Cause Therapist.
She is passionate about empowering people to be free of trauma, negative experience, and repeated unwanted behaviour, and helping them to rewrite their own stories. She does this through therapy and healing, but has also created amazing online self-directed programs that “dig deep” into self development.
Christina has been working in the nonprofit sector since Linkin Park were topping the charts. She enjoys the things that other people find boring, like policies and spreadsheets, and so focuses on jargon-busting and demystifying stuff to help people run their organisations.
Christina works with charities and community groups to make their work easier to manage and fund and has trained 1500+ people in fundraising, organisation set up and building organisations that are run by and for the community. The people she loves to support are working on tiny budgets, and accomplishing amazing things through sheer determination to change the world.
Wherever possible Christina likes to do her bit to smash the system. Outside of work she is a board member for an equalities campaign and an adoption peer support volunteer. She spends the rest of her time chasing after two toddlers and finding stickers and bits of weetabix on her clothes.
Ian Evans is the self-declared smelliest person in Gloucester. After a career that took him from flying fast-jet fighters to managing major projects across industries and continents, he now moves more slowly, through the erased sensory history of working communities.
Ian is the originator of the Nose Witness methodology: a community practice for recovering smell-memories before they vanish, capturing shared experiences and building understanding across generations and cultures. He believes heritage has long been designed for the dominant senses of sight and sound, while the people defined by smell have been systematically forgotten. His work asks a simple, radical question: what happens when we design from smell first?
A graduate of the Arts Council's Future Producers programme, Ian will deliver his TEDx talk in the city he calls home - Gloucester.
Amy started in youth theatre from the age of 9 years old and has been part of multiple theatre companies around Gloucestershire. Since leaving school, she has been involved in local community theatre, being in plays such as “The Young, The Bold, and The Murdered” and “The Farndale Murder Mystery” with the Gloucester Crown Players; and Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” with the Playhouse Company.
She took a break during university to study filmmaking, where she specialised in producing, and realised her love of live events. From then on, she has curated, coordinated, and supported events across Gloucestershire. Her interest is in immersive experiences and storytelling, mixing her love of performance with her multimedia background.
Greta Grip is a locally tolerated drag artist and occasional legendary performer. Having won the title of Gloucestershire in 2022, Greta has performed across the country, curating her own shows and safe spaces for queer people to just be entertained! She is a high energy burlesque/cabaret performer with influences from horror, 80’s, camp, goth and club.
Her bread and butter is lip syncing with a passion for audience interaction, and whiskey. Greta’s focus is to make everyone feel safe, cared for and confident when she is on stage. She is not better than anyone, and nobody is better than her. Greta is driven to grab Old Drag and New Drag in each hand and slam them together to create something truly sexual, horrible, dazzling
Sarah Taylor Phillips is a Gloucestershire-based founder and future-of-work voice
behind Career Voyage and VoyAGEing, her Later Greater LIFEING framework for
designing longer lives around health, wealth, purpose and contribution. She cares deeply about how work and lifeing shape identity, confidence and community and about challenging the quiet ageism that sidelines people long before they stop contributing. In her mid 30s, she co-founded a multi-million-pound interim start-up in the Forest of Dean, that opened doors for experienced marketers and helped shift hiring away from age-based assumptions.
She has continued to work across marketing, talent strategy and workforce design, helping organisations unlock overlooked talent through micro-workships, job-share and fractional roles. She also helps individuals 50+ understand, believe and articulate how brilliant they are, so they feel visible, confident and valued. Through her TEDx idea that 55+ is a diamond
stage of life, Sarah reframes ageing as absolutely fabulous: we don’t fade with age, we get better and better.
Tickets
Come and be part of the first TEDx event in Gloucester’s history!
TEDxEastgateStreet is a one-night gathering where ideas and people come together. Through inspiring talks, performances, and meaningful conversation, the evening explores how creativity, leadership, and human connection intertwine.