TEDx event attracts the crowds

SPELLBOUND . . . taking part at the TedX conference are (from the left) speaker Steve Marsden, library manager Andrea Ellison, Simon Wheatley from Code for the People, and Alison Hamilton, from the University of Manchester

OLDHAM joined the global community yesterday when TEDx came to town.

World-renowned speakers talked on subjects from graphene and the Large Hadron Collider to roller derby and poetry.

The event, at Gallery Oldham, was organised by Gareth Wood of Oldham Council’s marketing team. Another is expected in the new year. Almost 600 people watched the sold-out day online

Steve Marsden, from Chadderton, opened the event with news of his part in experiments with the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva.

“Code for everyone” was the theme of Simon Wheatley’s presentation — his company hosts a website for the Rolling Stones with Wordpress, one of several open-source content management systems. Simon explained the theory behind collaborative working and the sharing of expertise.

Rachael Turner, a former journalist with Al Jazeera in Qatar, outlined how she and friends founded MadLab in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, a creative space for technologists, home biologists and idle dreamers.

Julie Flynn, who helped found roller derby team the Rainy City Rollerss, wowed the audience with her enthusiasm for the project and tales of how the girls, all volunteers, have renovated a formerly derelict building as their HQ.

DJ Adams, from Failsworth, spoke about the importance of computer-code writing for the younger generation.

Dr Arvind Vijayaraghavan captivated the group with his description of how graphene - the world’s first “two-dimensional” material - was discovered, and went on to outline possible commercial uses for the material.