The TEDxDouglas event returned to the island at the weekend and offered plenty of inspiration with the theme ’The power of an idea’.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design: it is a non-profit movement devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short talks, which has developed a worldwide following of millions since the first one-off event in 1984.

The licence holder for TEDxDouglas is Chris Stott, chief executive of the ManSat Group, and the event is curated by Emma and John Quirk.

John said: ’The snow tried its best to throw a spanner in the works on Friday, with our venue, the Youth Arts Centre, having to be closed over the weekend. But we quickly rearranged, and our sincere thanks go to John Foster at the Villa Gaiety, who agreed to give up his day off to open the Villa Marina Arcade and allow us to stage the event there.

’We must pay tribute to the work of Kurt Roosen and Owen Cutajar from the Manx Information Computer Technology Association, and their technical team, who took the last-minute changes in their stride and pulled everything together at such short notice.’

The speakers and performers included: tech4good advocate Vim Appadoo; user experience designer Liam Carter-Hawkins; Middle East business consultant Laura Cretney; Beach Buddies founder Bill Dale; co-founder of ManxBioMed Cluster and Jurby Wellness, Courtenay Heading; teacher Helen Moyer; astronomer Howard Parkin; local band Jules Verne Theory, and singer Simon Smart.

John said: ’The speakers and performers were all fantastic, unflustered by the changes, and delivered inspiring talks and performances.

’We would have been close to capacity at the YAC, and while I think we lost a few of the audience because of the weather conditions, it was a fantastic turnout.

’Inspired by the success of this year’s event, we are looking at holding TEDx "salon" events throughout 2018, leading up to the next TEDxDouglas in December next year.’

He said these would be smaller, more intimate gatherings, more informal than the main TEDx events.

Salons often revolve around a theme, sometimes with a speaker, and involve the audience watching existing TED talks and discussing both the talks, the theme, and how they might relate to our local community.

The details for the first salon will be announced early next year.