Losing competences, the importance of loneliness for development, analysis of suicide notes, the use of algorithms in law or the possibilities of cosmic radiation particles – these are some of the topics that appeared during this year's edition of the TEDx Warsaw conference. This is a popular intellectual and cultural event that attracts more and more interested people – both speakers and listeners. The reason is the formula of short, 18-minute, and therefore specific, presentations on inspiring ideas. Every year, around 3,000 such events take place around the world.
TED – Technology, Entertainment and Design – is a brand of regularly organized scientific conferences, where speakers have a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas, experiences and stories. TEDx is an independently organized event licensed by TED, which aims to spread inspiring ideas in local communities – in accordance with the slogan “ideas worth spreading”.
The popularity of TEDx is growing rapidly – currently over 3 thousand events are held every year, including in Poland. One of the largest in our country is TEDx Warsaw, organized since 2010, which this year took place on June 6.
TEDx
– The TEDx Warsaw brand is attracting more and more interested people. This is visible, for example, in the number of speaker applications, candidates for presentations – in this edition we had 900 of them. So it was really a lot of work on our part to choose the ten most interesting speeches. What is important is that we first choose a topic, and only then look at who is presenting it – Ewa Turek, curator of TEDx Warsaw, tells the Newseria agency.
Thanks to TEDx, not only scientists and world leaders can have their say, but also local activists, teachers, artists and entrepreneurs. Every event, regardless of scale, operates in the spirit of community, education and openness to new perspectives. The most important thing in events are people – often from very different backgrounds, who are united by an idea, experience or story that they want to share with others.
– A very important slogan that guides the TEDx organizers is diversity in terms of topics, gender and age. Therefore, we want to ensure that different topics are covered throughout the day. Of course, what is a certain guiding line, because this is also our modern time, is technology, but we try to make the topics really different, so that it complements the whole – explains Ewa Turek.
As the organizers emphasize, TEDxWarsaw 2025 is an event that did not seek easy answers, but asked bold questions that are important for contemporary people and society. During this year's edition, Marcin Sarzyński reminded us about disappearing professions and skills and appealed to learn from master craftsmen before they disappear.
Aleksandra Mae Orlikowska argued that loneliness can be a driving force for development – during the pandemic, she set off alone by bike through 12 European countries. Dr. Kamil Rudol, in turn, shared his reflections on the condition of courts and whether the law still needs truth in the age of algorithms.
The Warsaw stage also featured mountaineer Leszek Cichy, who spoke about each person facing their own Mount Everest, and Dr. Halszka Witkowska, who presented her conclusions after analyzing over 800 farewell letters from suicides.
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Mick Griffin spoke about the fear of failure, Noemi Zabari – about the purpose of muons, particles created from cosmic radiation, Ewelina Gdaniec – about the use of VR and AR in teaching history. Kamil Sołdacki demonstrated how conversational AI transforms reading into an interactive dialogue with literary characters.
– Topics related to technology are very important today, and we have speakers who talk about this topic from different angles. For me, the topic that technology will not change a person if a person does not allow it was also important. This is of course good news, but also a signal to turn on mindfulness, creative thinking, observing yourself and space – reminds the curator of TEDx Warsaw.
TEDx talks often last only 8-12 minutes. That’s the amount of time the average person can focus without losing focus. Participants speak concisely, to the point, and without digressions. The fact that TEDx events are so relevant and accessible is what makes them so popular. Most of the talks end up on social media—the TEDx YouTube channel launched in June 2009 and has since surpassed 43 million subscribers. The 237,000 videos have been viewed more than 8 billion times, and their popularity is driving more and more people to the events.
– The room where this year's TEDx Warsaw took place has 750 seats and that is already too few for us. Very often, tickets sell out within a dozen or so minutes – says Ewa Turek. – We are waiting for spaces that can accommodate more people in a theater-style setting, so if such a room is available for us in Warsaw, we will be happy to show greater possibilities.
