Re-Formations of Tomorrow

Our main event of 2017 took place on 02 December. 500 people came together for a full day of inspiration at the Audimax of the Technical University of Munich. 15 speakers and performers shared their remarkable ideas on stage. This year we had 3 TEDx(TUM) community ambassadors who shared their favorite TED talk with us.

About the Theme: Re-formations of tomorrow

We believe that what we design, discuss and do is driven by our inherent desire to improve our surroundings. But in this age of sensationalism and self-serving agendas, the shape, size and structure of our collective future is being steered in a surprisingly restrictive direction. The form of tomorrow seems to require a recalibration of our expectations, for us to identify our values with certainty and support an inclusive future for everyone.

At TEDxTUM, we invite you to join us in a discussion about the kind of place we want to work, live and grow in tomorrow. What will the ideas and concepts nourishing our inspiration be? What can we do to keep improving?

Watch the talks

Visit our video library to watch the TEDxTUM talks performed on stage

Event Experience

We always say only 50% of the value of a TEDx event comes from the talks. The other 50% come from the experiences and new friends you make. By 2017, our Audience Experience team has become one of our biggest sub-teams here at TEDxTUM. They dedicated a whole year of preparation, designing activities for in-between sessions and bringing them to life. For the first time, our partners also pitched in and showed how much they cared about inspiring our audience.

Pixel Ping Pong

Our most popular break activity was Pixel Ping Pong. Here’s how you play: you grab a friend (or a stranger!) and sit opposite of each other. One person starts to draw, as quickly as possible, letting their thoughts flow. Then the counterpart does the same and both players take turns until they consider the picture to be finished. The result? A graphical representation of your collective thoughts.

Sweet Feedback

Our team custom made an installation where our attendees could enjoy sweets and voice their opinion on our event at the same time. The sweets were divided into high containers and attendees could take what they needed most: Bliss, Luck, Inspiration, Love, and many more. At the end of the day, we knew which emotion was in highest demand because its container was the emptiest.

Gamified Cups

It’s always hard to take the first step and meet new people, especially in a loud room full of strangers. Luckily, some strategically-placed TEDxTUM coffee cups provided ice breakers and converstation starters. They contained small questions and activities geared towards making new connections. After all, you never know what could happen if you take the time to meet someone new.

Past, Present, Future

Our partner Rohde & Schwarz prepared an activity for each of the three time periods: Past, Present, and Future. Attendees could build a tin can phone, check the connection of their current smartphone, and imagine the communication of the future. These three time periods corresponded to the themes of our three sessions of the day: Re-Formations of the Past, Present and Future.

Speakers and performances

Taz Alam

Taz Alam

Poet

Thomas Bock

Thomas Bock

Professor in Building Realization and Robotics

Monica Bota-Moisin

Monica Bota-Moisin

Lawyer

Christos Chantzaras

Christos Chantzaras

Architectural Innovator

Daniel Aaron Donahue

Daniel Aaron Donahue

Immunologist and Virologist

Laura Fabbietti

Laura Fabbietti

Physicist and Professor

Jessamyn Fairfield

Jessamyn Fairfield

Physicist and Science Comedian

Jürgen Gradl

Jürgen Gradl

Scholarship Coordinator and Social Activist

Ramona Hacker

Ramona Hacker

AIESEC

Thomas Hildebrandt

Thomas Hildebrandt

Reproduction Manager

Angelika Kneidl

Angelika Kneidl

Crowd Behavior Simulation Expert

Manuel Opitz

Manuel Opitz

Bioengineer and Entrepreneur

Kai Stuht

Kai Stuht

Photographer

Nils Thuerey

Nils Thuerey

Associate Professor of Games Engineering

TED Talks shown at the event

At TEDxTUM 2017, we showed one TED talk in each session. Each of these talks was introduced by a member of our community who was driven by passion and a longing to spread the idea of this talk, as well as a personal story behind it.

Andrea Geipel had been following the TEDxTUM journey for two years. With an enthusiasm for engaging communication of science, she shared Ramsey Musallam’s fun and personal talk, “3 rules to spark learning,” which shows how to get students excited about how the world works.

Lin Kayser is a big fan of TED—particularly the TEDGlobal Conferences, showing his support by attending them regularly. It was there that he met Keller Rinaudo in 2017, and was blown away by his idea to provide access to basic health care to everyone, no matter how remote. Lin shared his talk, “How we’re using drones to deliver blood and save lives” with the TEDxTUM audience to spark a discussion about how engineers can shape our future.

As head of the TUM Graduate School, Michael Klimke is in charge of standardizing and improving the doctoral degrees on all campuses. As an educator focused on sparking positive change in the world of learning, he introduced Bill Gates’s talk titled, “Teachers need real feedback” to emphasize the importance of two-way communication in education.

Partners

Thanks to our generous partners, we can provide a high-quality event. If you’d like to get involved, please contact us.

Platinum Partner

Gold Partners

Silver- AND IN-KIND PARTNERS