Will Johnston: expand your mind with TEDx

Will Johnston is MC of this year's TEDx. Photo/ George Novak

Have you ever got that little butterfly in your stomach, goosebumpy, head-nodding-for-no-reason feeling of excitement about something you've got coming up on your calendar?

If you haven't had that in a while, please question your life choices, make some changes and get some of that kind of happy in your life. I know that times might be a bit tight on the old coin purse and life might be overly busy with kids and work, but you need it. For me those little things to look forward to are what can actually get you through a tough time.

So, I'm lucky enough to have been asked back to MC TEDx Tauranga 2019.

If you've been to TEDx before, or you've watched a TED Talk online (they all go online — YouTube TEDx Tauranga to see the past ones from here), then you know how diverse and amazing it is.

If you've never been then what you need to know in a nutshell is that it is not like anything you've been to before.

You roll on in on a Saturday morning, there are 10 speakers throughout the day with talks that last anywhere from 10 to 18 minutes. About 10 of the most opposite and unrelated topics you could think of.

They don't require you to come to any decision, they don't even need your participation and they are the farthest from boring you could get. There's lots of breaks in the day and some 'entertainment acts' in between them that are as diverse as the talks themselves.

Oh did I mention your food for the day is included in the ticket price? Nom.

Also, someone asked me the other day: "TEDx? That's that religious thing, yeah?" Nah, it's not. It literally has nothing to do with religion ... apart from the fact that the venue is Holy Trinity Church in Tauranga. Which is a sweet venue too by the way.

Okay, so enough of the sales pitch. Here's a little snapshot of some of the speakers:

●An American entrepreneur, designer, and creator whose drone design helped Emirates Team New Zealand win the 36th America's Cup ... and the secret behind it!
●A local lady who was adopted from Russia as a baby, established Tauranga Pryde and has been awarded for her work amongst the LGBTQ community, especially with youth.
●A dude who traps rats. And also happens to be an associate professor at the University of Auckland and mixes scientific methods with pest eradication.
●A lady who asks all the awkward questions about your routines that you'd never ask in public.
●A local guy who loves behaviour change, sustainability and civil disobedience who is one of the best storytellers you'll ever hear.
●A guy researching a cutting edge, personalised, cancer treatment taking a patient's own immune cells, reprogramming them and returning them back to the patient to fight the cancer.
●A lady who will expand your mind on how an app or a device can literally change the make-up of your brain.
●A man who looks at what supports and/or gets in the way of mutually advantageous relationships between Tāngata whenua and non-Māori.
See you there