If you follow our blog, you already know about the Demo Alley, an area for innovative start ups. In our choice of companies we were supported by two business supporting institutions from Kraków. Once again, Lesser Poland voivodeship is supporting the organisation of TEDxKraków – thank you!

As part of the national campaign “Kręć Kilometry” (“Spin kilometers”) people compete to win designer bike stands. Also in ICE you will have a chance to cycle on a stationary bike and ‘donate’ the completed kilometeres to a city of your choice. You will also be able to win exciting prizes and charge your phone with the bike.

Furthermore, there will be two competitions, organised for you by our partners. The first one requires patience and attention – you will have to choose the speaker who inspired you best and think how you will spread their idea. The best choices will be rewarded with smartwatches. And if you’re using Instagram, on Saturday, share pictures from the conference adding a hashtag #mojekropki or #mydots. You can win a flight in the tethered helium baloon that you can see opposite ICE.

Speaking of photos, during the conference look for a volunteer with a polaroid, so you can get your own TEDx portrait! When feeling tired, you can relax on ECOfurniture or ECObench equipped with Wi-Fi, while enjoying a cup of amazing coffee, brought to you from various parts of the world.

Our partners support us also from the technical side – they provide Wi-Fi, support our webpage and will also allow you to reach the conference quickly and comfortably, thanks to the new type of cab, which is now available in Kraków…

If you like what you just read, go to the tab “Partners” and see who is helping us organise this year’s conference. Also, if you’re with us on Saturday, look for the partners’ representatives (people wearing badges on blue lanyards) and thank them. If it wasn’t for their support, TEDxKraków 2015 would be a very different event.

Tomorrow, Marcin Zastawnik, who specialises in acoustics, will introduce us to the subject of easy, enjoyable every-day support in scientific calculations. Apart from doing a PhD at the University of Science and Technology Department of Mechanics and Vibroacoustics, Marcin owns his own acoustic treatment company. He is also vice chairman of the board of the Boinc Polska foundation, which supports and promotes the idea of distributed processing.

Tomorrow’s event second pillar is Łukasz Kostka, hacker who is passionate about combining modern technology with good design; since 2012, together with Jakub Krzych he is running a company called Estimote. They create Beacons – wireless sensors which could change the quality of our interactions with the environment in different areas of life – from shopping to smart city.

He was also one of the organisers of KrakSpot – Krakow’s oldest BarCamp.

Interesting speakers guarantee interesting talks. However, apart from inspiring speeches, we are also organising an afterparty – hopefully, this will convince you to stay with us a while longer.

After two hours of looking for common denominators we want to give you a chance to meet, mingle and exchange ideas. If you learn something new that you can hardly wait to discuss, you want to get to know us better or simply have a great evening, join us at The Stage (Łobzowska Street 3).

The party starts at 8:30 PM, so straight after TEDxKrakówSalon.

Steve Jobs in one of his speeches spoke about the experiences of life, which in hindsight, seemingly unrelated to each other, ultimately contribute to who we are and what we achieve. The essence of one’s success is the ability to combine all these experiences. Where have you collected your dots?

(laugh) The connecting factor is the attribute that I still remember from my own experiences and I can observe looking at the next generation. What characterizes all children is curiosity and readiness for challenge – a combination of these two gives the kick.

My first dot, first challenge after graduation, was Pascal Publishing House – my very first intensive study of life. During that times we learned from our mistakes, and by drawing our own conclusions we gathered invaluable experience. We created a then innovative concept of a tourist guide supporting the needs of parents traveling with children.

Many years later I had the idea of adding some life into museums. The project was called “Muzeobranie” (eng. Museumtaking), a special day when children, together with their parents, can not only see but also experience the exhibitions. At that time no one had ever heard of the “night of the museums” which is so popular now, and museums themselves were like zoos, keeping the most interesting animals locked inside.

The idea fell on the fertile ground of the Malopolska Institute of Culture and very quickly resulted in action. Together with museums’ staff we managed to create a fantastic atmosphere and children acquired knowledge simply using different senses and their own hands.

The third dot was Children’s University, which I spoke about in my TEDxKraków speech.

The reason of creating this initiative was the sense of helplessness which I had as a parent seeing how school does not meet the cognitive needs of children. Hearing my then 6-year-old daughter claim that her her life is over because she has to go to school, was the direct trigger. I had to do something about it!

You spoke at TEDxKraków in 2011. What happened since then?

Among other things, I went to San Francisco to find new possibilities of development outside Poland for the University. In Kraków and other Polish locations of the Children’s University we find and invite best people to cooperation – scientists, artists, various experts. Those who have both knowledge and passion. But is it possible to cooperate with those who really change the world?

We managed to recruit a group of a few very interesting international scientists, inventors and researchers, but the children’s questions to Bill Gates still wait for his response…

What is your dream ?

In my dream it is schools, not children universities, are the most exciting places to learn. Sir Ken Robinson talks about it in the most famous TED Talk.

Also, ca. 25,000 children aged 6 to 14 years had some contact with the University. But there is still  around 2,5 million of children in Poland – 100 times more!

How has the experience of TEDxKraków influence you?

Invitation to become a TEDx speaker means that someone recognised you as a person who’s got something to share with others. It gives you a great sense of responsibility – I am using 15 minutes of time of a couple hundred intelligent people. It is incredibly motivating! And that motivation does not end when the talk is over, it is more like a lifelong club membership.

After one of TEDxKids@Kraków events where both speakers and listeners are children, one of the parents sitting in the audience heard from his son: “Dad, when I become a speaker, I’m going to talk about…” and the boy shared his exact plans for his speech with him.

This is really the core of this idea: to share knowledge and make other people enthusiastic about it. A kind of a chain of responsibility, action and positive impact.

What are your favourite TED talks?

I have two: “The power of introverts” by Susan Cain and Gever Tulley’ s talk on TEDxKraków 2013 about making makers.

Whom else would you like to see on the TEDxKraków stage?

Whom I’d like to see? This question is for creativity (laugh). I don’t have a ready list in my head. That could be people whom I’ve met while looking for interesting speakers for children, e.g. Manu Prakash, the Stanford University scientist, who invented the paper microscope. His invention is supposed to help protect the health of the Third World because the microscope that folds like origami costs only 50 cents.

Or Deborah Gordon, who investigates behaviour of ants in different environments, including the outer space. Ants do not have a central management system, therefore are a very valuable source of knowledge and inspiration for fields like robotics.

I would also like Jimmy Wales to be TEDxKrakow speaker one day. He could talk to children about information, knowledge and wisdom. All in all, Wikipedia is the basic source of information for the young generation.

People you proposed could appear both on a TEDx event and in a children university.

Do these two audiences have something in common?

Of course! Children absorb information and have natural interest in things, just as the TED and TEDx audience. People with passion can speak to very different audiences. Wouldn’t it be great if people like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg spent an hour of time to respond to children’s questions? We haven’t talked to them yet, but on Stanford University nobody refused us when we asked (laugh).

Agata, on behalf of the TEDxKraków team I would like to thank you for the interview and I wish that nobody refused you in the future!

Agata Wilam, the founder of the Children’s University in Kraków, spoke at TEDxKraków 2011. Her Talk, which can be found here, was about what children and scientists have in common.