If you haven't heard of TED Talks by now, where have you been?
Seriously, they are fantastic!
With conferences taking place all over the globe, TED, who are a non-profit organisation, are dedicated to an 'Ideas Worth Spreading' ethos; bringing together the world's "most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less)."
Just look up TED on Youtube and you'll find countless videos about a huge range of subjects. Though please be warned that once you start watching them you could be there for some time.
This coming December, and as part of the Global TED Women event taking place in San Francisco, there will be more than 150 TEDx talks around the world, all exploring the global theme "Invented Here" and in London, two specific TED events have my attention.
The first is the TEDx Whitehall Women event set for Friday 6 December 2013 at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). With a strong focus on celebrating successful women in tech and business, there will be presentations given by the likes of Belinda Parmer (CEO of Lady Geek), Carla Buzasi (Editor-in-Chief at The Huffington Post UK) and Elizabeth Linder (Politics & Government Specialist at Facebook).
Then on Saturday 7th December, the TEDx Covent Garden Women talks will commence. This conference aims to "shed light on the issues facing women and brainstorming creative solutions to address them." Titled 'Un-labelled' this event is being held "to challenge socially, culturally and politically constructed labels" and it wishes to highlight the dangers of 'gendering' that, as it says, "affects the very existence of all human beings - men and women".
The two speakers taking part of particular interest to me are Laura Bates, founder of the award-winning Everyday Sexism Project (an ever-increasing collection of over 50,000 women's experiences of gender imbalance), and Leyla Hussein, co-founder of Daughters of Eve (an organisation that protects girls and young women who are at risk from female genital mutilation).
Other note-worthy speakers include Natasha Walter, author of Living Dolls: the Return of Sexism and the New Feminism, and the spoken-word poet Leah Thorn.
As mentioned earlier, both these events tie in to the Global TED Women theme 'Invented Here': celebrating "women's innovation, in all its forms, across many disciplines."
TED Women events like these highlight that while there are many women who innovate, lead and inspire, there are still millions struggling to break free from the defining and limiting stereotypes that shape the world around them.
TED has the power to break down barriers and to reach people from all walks of life, and it is at events such as these that women, and their supporters, get to connect and motivate each other to go out there and make a difference: truly believing that they can.
To be a part of the action, or to find out more about these two inspiring conferences, please visit:
tedxcoventgardenwomen.com
tedxwhitehallwomen.com