Author: TEDxTinHauWomen

Summary: As we rush eagerly to make the most of our bustling lives in Hong Kong, let’s take it back to Cristina Tahoces’s talk about how we can reach our full potential by eating with a purpose to: “Sleep, Love, Poop”.

Cristina Tahoces is a former banker turned nutritionist and current owner of Thrive Nutrition Practice. She left a successful career in corporate after having her first child and battling with severe health issues. After pursuing her Diploma in Holistic Nutrition, she started Thrive Nutrition Practice – which she now refers to as her “third baby” – to help others live their best life.

Cristina reminds us that everyone has to eat with a purpose to Sleep, Love and Poop. Christina reminded everyone about the importance of nutrition and how it can foster our development, something that we all often easily overlook.

To all the millions of people that struggle with sleep, she proposes a strategy to “plan to sleep from the moment we wake up”. A key part of this strategy is fuelling our minds and body to cope with all the stress and anxiety that come back to haunt us at night. Whether it be filling ourselves with the right amounts of protein, B5 and B6 vitamins or magnesium. She persuasively answered our most frequently asked questions about the sleepless nights we face.

Another one of her goals is to instil values of self-love and confidence to prevent us from ever having to remove things from our diet. She thrives on a simple yet effective mantra that has allowed her to lead a healthy life: “don’t give it up…trade up.” Associating life and nutrient dense foods as rewards changes everything, there will no longer be a need to buy that expensive organic-gluten free granola bar, because all you will want to do is dig in to that bowl of fresh homemade guacamole sitting in your fridge.

Finally, she talked about the power of poop. Our poop is very strongly correlated with our health and happiness levels, not many people know that 90% of serotonin production occurs in our gut and our poop actually determines our food cravings. Like she pointed out: “it’s time to stop your poop from controlling you”. Fill your diet with extra fiber and water to give yourself the control and detoxify daily. We all have the privilege to make choices and Cristina’s talk empowered the audience to make the best ones and take control of our lives just like she did.

#TEDxTinHauWomen #ShowingUpNow

To hear 2017 talks, click here

To buy tickets for 30 November, click here

Written by: Nikita on behalf of TEDxTinHauWomen

SUMMARY: One of the most common questions asked of the TEDxTinHauWoman planning committee is “How do you select the speakers?”.  In this post, our Head of Curation walks through the nomination and selection process. For Friday November 30, 2018, you can see the full list of speakers here 

After 7 years leading TEDx events, this has to be one of the most common questions I am asked – how we select our speakers! Answer: It’s a mix of process and intuition.

As the Head of Curation I am looking for ideas from our speakers that can showcase women in Hong Kong who are leading scientific breakthroughs and social movements, who can help the audience think about their lives and communities in new ways, and who will challenge and educate us through their talk. TEDx gives us an opportunity to showcase our ideas to the world and I feel a huge responsibility to make sure that our program reflects contemporary Hong Kong, modern women and the lives we lead. When designing the program it’s really important that we have diversity in the lineup, both in terms of ideas as well as representation of Hong Kong communities. The credibility of the speaker, the authenticity of their idea and message, and how I think their idea is relevant and resonates today for women is also part of the consideration.

For this year’s TEDxTinHauWomen we sourced speakers in three ways…

1. Nominations through our committee: we have a large and well-connected committee of women with networks throughout HK – business, society, charity, education, parent groups, etc – we ask them to list who they think should apply.
2. We have an open application process: we advertise to encourage people to apply to be a speaker. The first year of TEDxTinHauWomen we received around 18 applications, this 2nd year we received almost 60!
3. We actively seek people who fit a certain profile: sometimes when planning our program we can’t find the right person fit to fill a space in the program, so we deliberately go out to find someone that meets some specific criteria.

After we have a long list of applications, we review and rate the applications based on three elements…

1. Link to current theme: each year we have a theme that we are working towards and we seek talks relate to it (Reminder: this year’s theme is Showing Up Now!)
2. Relevance of the topic to HK and Global Women: we want to make sure our talks are locally grounded, with international relevance
3. Wow factor: this is quite subjective and gives the Curation Committee a chance to debate the ‘wow’ factors of each idea. Credibility of the speaker also plays a role in here. Questions the committee asks themselves – is it a trending topic (vs overdone and passe), is it groundbreaking, does it bring a new perspective?  

Throughout this assessment process we also keep an eye and close liaison with TEDGlobal to make sure that any talks people are proposing to keep to the TED Content Guidelines (you’d be surprised how many applications are automatically knocked out because they don’t meet these basic guidelines). This includes:  

• No selling from the stage
• No political agendas
• No religious proselytizing (including new age beliefs)
• Only good science

We then make a shortlist and have a face to face interview with the potential speakers. We debated a lot in our committee this year in the lead up to getting to a final line up. That debate and diversity of opinion really helped us to get to a speaker list that we felt comfortable with.

After all of that, we then ask the speakers if they are willing to do it! We have had a few people who unfortunately had to say ‘no’ due to time commitments or other conflicts, so even if we have the perfect line up on paper, at the end of the day the practicalities of availability also come into it. Speaking at TEDx is more than a simple talk – it is a big time commitment from the speakers. As it includes participating in coaching to make sure the talk is a success and joining in community activities as part of the event development.

The TEDxTinHauWomen committee are confident we have a lineup up of speakers that will be compelling, captivating, inspiring and challenging for the audience. See the full list of speakers here https://tedxtinhauwomen.com/2018-speakers/.

#TEDxTinHauWomen #ShowingUpNow

To hear 2017 talks, click here

To buy tickets for 30 November, click here

Written by: Stefanie Myers, Co-Chair, Head of Curation and Community, on behalf of TEDxTinHauWomen

Intro: Small steps can make a big difference in bridging the gender inequality gap… we all have a role to play. 

Population wise, the number of women in Hong Kong outnumber men 55% vs 45%. However, when it comes to gender equality in the workplace, women have yet to reach parity. A contributing factor is that the social attitudes towards women in Hong Kong remains fairly traditional, pegging women in the role of homemaker and mother — despite them also being breadwinners. Women are also expected to look after elderly relatives, a phenomenon that continues to rise as Hong Kong’s population ages due to a low birthrate. In fact there is a substantial dropout rate of women from the workforce after marriage and childbearing. The statistics don’t lie:

• Women earn an average of 22% less than their male counterparts. A 2016 census report indicated that women working in Hong Kong’s education sector earned HKD 9,800 per month less than men, followed closely by those in the finance industry where women earned HKD 8,800 less than men.
• Women represent only 13.8% of Hang Seng Index company boards – half of the 26% in the UK.
• When it comes to women in leadership roles, Hong Kong lags behind the likes of Malaysia with only 29% in active participation.

When you don’t have enough visible women leaders to aspire to, it makes barriers to entry in the workplace seem even tougher for more than half of the population.  Luckily, there are signs of positive change. According to the UN’s 2018 Human Development Index Ranking, Hong Kong ranks 7^th out of 189 countries. This means we’re making progress in key areas such as years of schooling and Gross National Income but there is still more work to be done in other areas.

What should we be doing differently to propel change? In no particular order (or scientific methodology!), here’s a list suggestions at a grassroots level:

1. Engage men and boys from the onset.  We need our male allies to help us drive the gender equality agenda and understand the female perspective.
2. Continue to be part of the #metoo movement. Help facilitate dialogue and support both survivors and activists alike.
3. Check your bias and privilege at the door. Stereotyping and discrimination takes many different forms so be more conscious of what you say, do and how you act and how this makes others feel.
4. Get involved and give back. There are plenty of organisations that specifically advocate women’s issues. Events like TedxTinHauWomen’s “Showing Up Now” on 30 November are organised by an army of volunteers who want to make a difference.

What will you do to show up now for gender parity?

#TEDxTinHauWomen #ShowingUpNow

Get your tickets for 30 November here: http://pelago.me/TEDxTinHauWomen

Written by: Preema on behalf of TEDxTinHauWomen

Summary
Before our big event on November 30 this year, we reflect on the incredible women who spoke at last year’s TEDxTinHauWomen event “Bridges: Two Become One.” Last year’s theme inspired us to feature a diverse cohort of Hong Kong-based women to bridge different ideas and people. One of those women was Fiona Callanan-Thorsby, a corporate lawyer whose life was forever changed by the massive tsunami that hit Thailand in 2004. Here are some big lessons that she shared with us.

In 2004, Fiona Callanan-Thorsby was a 27-year old corporate lawyer who was working abroad in Thailand. She felt the most liberated she had ever felt – she was working her dream job, living in an exciting part of the world, and travelling to places on her bucket list. When the tsunami hit Thailand, Fiona survived, but she lost her bottom right leg. These are some of the lessons she shared with us in her captivating talk last year. You can watch it yourself here https://youtu.be/RRirte8mIWc

1. Use past accomplishments as fuel to topple current challenges.

Back in London after the Tsunami, Fiona wished for her old life as a regular 27-year old lawyer. It was a trying time facing this new reality. To cope, she reminded herself of past challenges she had overcome – notably, when following her teenage boyfriend resulted in poor grades and not heading straight to university. With hard work and perseverance, Fiona made it back on track to becoming a corporate lawyer. Like everyone else, Fiona has good days and bad days, but whenever she reaches a low point she reminds herself of how she dealt with challenges in the past. You never know – you might surprise yourself with your own strength.

2. Push yourself out of your comfort zone.

Fiona was terrified of using crutches to navigate the busy city of London, but with some patience and practice, Fiona mastered getting around with crutches. The next mobility challenge was when she got her first prosthetic leg. To push herself, she signed up for a charity bike ride in Vietnam and began to teach herself how to cycle with her new prosthetic. Starting with the quiet streets of her London neighborhood and moving on to train for the ride by commuting to and from work by cycling. Through the commute, Fiona had to abandon her crutches (they couldn’t quite fit on her bike) and this pushed her to master walking with her prosthetic. Step by step, Fiona overcame her fear of relearning how to move. She even did another charity bike ride in Peru.

3. Always get good travel insurance.

A difficult reality to accept is that sometimes people make it through accidents out of sheer luck – something that Fiona recognizes about her own survival of the tsunami. Had it not been a speedboat that whisked her out of the danger zone and her travel insurance plan that covered an airlift to a hospital in Bangkok, it is possible that Fiona would not have made it through. Fiona now lives as normal and humble a life as possible, but reminds us that we should never overlook travel insurance when booking our next holiday.

Fiona now lives in Hong Kong with her two children and continues to work as a corporate lawyer while making it a mission to give back through work with NGOs, CSR initiatives, and helping people less fortunate. Notably, she is a member of the 2018 TEDxTinHauWomen organizing committee. To meet her in person, attend our next event. Tickets on sale here: http://pelago.me/TEDxTinHauWomen

#TEDxTinHauWomen #ShowingUpNow

Retold by: Roseanne on behalf of TEDxTinHauWomen

Women play an integral role in the making of our upcoming annual TEDxTinHauWomen event on Nov 30. Here we will identify the root causes for initiating this movement involving women around the world and what we have yet to accomplish.

Women represent half of the world’s population, and rightfully demand representation in the workplace, in governments, and in relationships – but there are countless examples showing that this is far from reality. The feminist movement has paved the way for tremendous improvements in the law with relation to women’s rights, but there still persists significant gender inequality for many. This is evident in many instances like the gender pay gap, hiring discrimination between men and women, and persistent male dominance in table conversations. The perception that people have about the capabilities of women needs to change, so that women’s voices are no longer interrupted or ignored.

Women’s voices are equally as important and while no one will disagree – the masculine-oriented culture that exists in many parts of the world results inequality, often unnoticed by many members of society. The planning and actual TEDxTinHauWomen conference on Nov 30 by 30 plus women serves as an open platform for women to bring forth unique and helpful perspectives to the Hong Kong community. The role of women in global issues like public health, in businesses and innovation has shifted into the foreground and it is vital that we encourage women that are #ShowingUpNow to foster this movement for the long run. Our organizing committee and the speakers are highly-educated, passionate and making phenomenal contributions to the development of different sectors of society – their voices require more attention now than ever. Join us in #Showingupnow on October 30

#TEDxTinHauWomen

Buy tickets here: http://pelago.me/TEDxTinHauWomen

Written by: Nikita on behalf of TEDxTinHauWomen

Summary: Never heard of TED or TEDx events? Or you need to convince your friend to attend TEDxTinHauWomen with you? Here are 6 reasons WHY you should consider “showing up” on November 30th for a life-changing afternoon!

Did you know that each day there are an average of 8 TEDx events happening around the globe? Maybe you’ve never heard of TEDx events, or maybe you’ve heard of them but don’t understand why you should attend. Here are 6 reasons WHY you should consider “showing up” on November 30th for a life-changing afternoon!

1. Showing up for… the amazing speakers!

Every TED and TEDx event boasts a uniquely curated line-up of speakers. The TEDxTinHauWomen organizing committee put in hours in selecting and interviewing the potential candidates, and the selected speakers put in months of effort to fine-tune their inspiring stories. We are proud to present a mix of influential speakers who are active drivers of social, cultural, industrial and personal innovation in the Hong Kong community.

Don’t believe me? Here’s the some of mind-blowing speakers from last year’s event: Liza Avelino – Filipino domestic worker in Hong Kong who followed her dreams to climb the highest mountain in Africa, Tricia Yap – former MMA Fighter turned coach and entrepreneur, Hillary Yip – a 12-year old CEO of an education startup sharing her perspectives of schooling in Hong Kong alongside her mother, just to name a few. Check out their talks from last year here!

2. Showing up for… the audiences

Who doesn’t like to be surrounded by other intellectually-curious people? Each year, 400 people from all walks of life join the TEDxTinHauWomen event, and I assure you that they will enthrall you with their enthusiasm and inspirations.

We purposefully include breaks in between talks so you will rub shoulders with the speakers and diverse audience members. The venue is also designed to encourage movement and conversation. Luckily, everyone is keen on sharing their ideas so you are encouraged to start up a conversation with the person sitting beside you!

3. Showing up to… be challenged intellectually and emotionally

TED stands for “Technology, Entertainment and Design” – and it is a must for every TED and TEDx Talk to cover one of those areas. However, there is so much more you’ll hear and experience during the event than just that. Be prepared to be surprised, break a laugh, feel moved and perhaps even shed a tear!

4. Showing up for… a meaningful cause

TEDxTinHauWomen is a self-organized and non-profit event. All our proceeds and sponsorship go towards holding the annual event itself and to 3 charities we support each year. You will have a chance to interact with these charities at our event and further understand their causes and how you may help.

The whole event is run by a team of passionate volunteers who have dedicated months of their free time to making this incredible event possible. Each believes in the power of creating a sustainable platform for women around the world.

5. Showing up for… possibilities!

TEDxTinHauWomen is not an ordinary seminar where everyone sits for a few hours and listens to a panel of speakers. We strive to create new experiences throughout the event – be it watching a live-stream from Palm Springs, learning about a new cause through the specialized booths, or connecting with a new friend in the lovely space. No matter what, you will to take away “something” that will not be available after the event!

6. Showing up for WOMEN IN HONG KONG!

TEDxTinHauWomen is the only women-dedicated TEDx community in Hong Kong. By attending the event, you’re making a personal statement to show up for women in Hong Kong.

We hope to draw attention towards and spark actions addressing the lesser-known (or purposefully covered-up) topics surrounding this community. By attending, you’re demonstrating to those around you that “Showing Up for Women” matters and you are part of that change.

Are you ready to join us for mind-opening journey?  Get your Tickets today at pelago.me/TEDxTinHauWomen!

#TEDxTinHauWomen  #Showingupnow

Written by: Yvonne on behalf of TEDxTinHauWomen

With an amazing line up this year, the TedxTinHauWomen committee knew we had to find a venue that was just as incredible as our speakers who are Showing Up Now…! with ideas worth spreading.

We’re pleased to say that we’ve found somewhere up to the task – Sky100.

Sitting at the top of ICC, Hong Kong’s tallest building, Sky100 gives sweeping 360° views and offers a dynamic and unique space.  And what better way to pay homage to our namesake Tin Hau, Goddess and Protector of the sea, than with a breathtaking view of Victoria Harbor.

We chose “Tin Hau” – an indigenous goddess of the sea (and deity icon in Hong Kong) meant to protect fishermen and sailors.”  In Hong Kong, there are approximately 100 Tin Hau temples spread throughout the city. TEDx events are community-driven and must be named after a local area such as the name of a city, neighborhood, street.

Be ready to be inspired not just by the iconic HK skyline, but by the powerful stories and ideas that will be shared on the stage.  From this high up, you can’t help but see the city from a new perspective, which is what TedXTinHauWomen is all about – appreciating ideas and approaching issues from another point of view.

Early Bird Tickets on SALE now – looking forward to seeing you all there!

#TEDxTinHauWomen #ShowingUpNow 

Author: Fi on behalf of TEDxTinHauWomen

TEDxTinHauWomen will be hosting its second annual event on November 30, bringing another round of exciting talks to our Hong Kong audience. As preparations go into full swing, we are excited to announce the theme of our event this year, “Showing Up Now,” which will inform each and every aspect of our programming.

What Does Showing Up Now Mean?

This year’s theme puts the spotlight on how women worldwide are taking matters into their own hands, showing up for themselves and others to catalyse change in their communities. We will look at ways in which women stand up and make a real difference. In our fast-paced world, it is becoming vital that we respond in real-time, thus the emphasis on “Showing Up Now”. This theme underscores the urgency for women to make an impact.

How Will This Year’s Event Explore Showing Up?

The theme has endless possibilities for interpretation and discussion. It provokes questions like: Are we truly present when we show up for others?

Do we show up on time?

Are we showing up genuinely?

Why do we show up?

Our talks this year should prompt you to consider:

What matters to you?

What do you care about?

And more importantly, are you showing up for it?

Whether you are showing up to an equal rights march, to help your mom out at home, or to take some time out for yourself – these are all ways you can create a positive impact and achieve a sense of purpose. The speakers this year will be showing up on stage for an idea that they truly care about and think is worth spreading, which should inspire you to take action yourself. For all of you that want to be motivated by fresh perspectives, mark your calendars for this year’s TEDxTinHauWomen event on November 30th. Take our word for it, it will be worth it to show up!

Early bird tickets are on sale NOW! Hurry up and book your tickets at pelago.me/tedxtinhauwomen 

Author: Nikita Agrawal on behalf of TEDxTinHauWomen