The final speakers for the annual TEDxWarwick event have been announced this week, completing the full programme around the theme of Building Bridges.

We are pleased to announce WMG Honorary Fellow, Rick Robinson, is one of the speakers at this year’s event. Dr Rick Robinson is Executive IT Architect at IBM, responsible for the development and delivery of their Smarter Cities solutions. Dr Robinson will speak on the subject of Smarter Stories for Better Cities – how to develop sustainable city systems, such as transportation and water, in rapidly growing economies. Cities around the world are growing at a rate of two people per second; five billion people are expected to be living in cities by 2030; astonishing developments in science and technology such as 3D printing, brain-computer interfaces and predictive analytics offer the opportunity in theory to develop new models of business and city systems that can supply, manage and exchange resources in ways that are more sustainable; and that create localised personal and community value. Dr Robinson works closely with regional and city government organisations to unravel the problems faced by this rapid population growth.

TEDx, an off-shoot of the prestigious global TED event conference, is a programme of local, self-organised events that bring people together to share their experience. TEDxWarwick is organised by a team of 26 students from the University of Warwick, and this year is being led by WMG’s Professor Lucy Hooberman, Professor of Digital Media and Innovation.

Professor Hooberman is bringing her knowledge and expertise, gained from a career within the media industry and at the BBC, to the 2013 student organisers. She describes her role as one of a ‘mentor’ to the team.

This year’s line-up of speakers also includes:

· Kate Cooper – Feeding the City, Feeding the Mind

· Tan Lai Yong – The Broken Bicycle Chain

· Stefan Bon – Nano Materials: The Science of the Small

· Andy Miah – I Scientist: The Art of Future-Gazing

· Gilean McVean – A Thousand Genomes, A Thousand Stories

· Sir Philip Craven – Paralympic Sport: Society’s Great Educator

· Fabian Oefner – When Science Meets Art

….and many more from a range of fields.

Tickets for TEDxWarwick 2013, which takes place on Saturday 9^th March, are now on sale from the TEDxWarwick website: http://www.tedxwarwick.com/2013/