Cape Town, South Africa – 9 April 2026: TEDxCapeTown has announced a new partnership with purpose-driven plant-based food brand Chilled, marking a bold step in aligning its event experience with it
Janet Sawari is the CEO and founder of The AI Review (TAIR Labs); an AI Research and Innovation Lab. Janet is a serial entrepreneur and passionate about education, social impact, and driving women's empowerment through gender inclusivity in tech.
Kelsey Buchalter is a nutrition advisor, speaker, health coach and host of “The Human Theatre” podcast. She is passionate about mental and physical health optimisation, the significance of lifestyle interventions in the treatments and prevention of health problems, and understanding the body through an ancestral lens.
Kumbirai Makanza is a multiple award-winning cleantech entrepreneur that’s passionate about Africa and its potential for sustainable development and will be taking the TEDxYouth@CapeTown stage to inspire a change in the mentality of sustainable development in Africa, with a focus on turning remittance into sustainable investment.
Tasnika Goorhoo is a chemical engineer, equality advocate, and research analyst who is determined to ensure female empowerment and sustainable progress in the energy sector.
She’s taking the TEDxYouth@CapeTown stage to share how, within the turbulent landscape that is the energy transition, gender equality needs more momentum - starting with more women in the space.
Armed with extensive experience in social development, Yvette Zihhalirwa is on a mission to amplify her social impact by uniting her love for wellness, food and nutrition. She’s adding a bold dash of imagination as to how we could better promote good health in African regions.
Ziganekozihle’s idea is about distributing films to marginalised communities in South Africa through our culture of infrastructure sustainability. She believes it is essential that girls from marginalised societies see their experiences through cinema and art, and as a filmmaker, produces authentic stories that are reflective of girls like her.
Ellen Louw is an expert in Social Media Intelligence – a fascinating role that allows her to sift through our globally accessible, real-time information: what we post on social media; what we search for on Google; what we comment in forums; and what we publish as blogs.This unique skill has seen her smarts summoned by various companies, ranging from advertising to healthcare.
Tell us why you think you would be a great TEDx speaker! Please read our 2022 event theme description, 'Our Leap Ahead' before applying.
Dr Mao Amis is passionate about sustainability and the climate. He holds a MSc and PhD in Conservation Biology and will be taking the TEDxCapeTown stage to share how leadership provided by grassroots communities will aid in building ecological and economic resilience.
Chaeli Mycroft, a conqueror of mountains and a multi award-winning ability activist, believes that through teamwork we can achieve anything. Chaeli constantly seeks new ways of overcoming perceived barriers and boundaries. Her #PowerOfX talk will be centered around how embracing our vulnerability is the solution to how we trust in our strength.
Abe is a ukulele and guitar teacher as well as the creator of Laughing Abe, a musical education superhero who promotes kind learning with visual support. He developed his own method of teaching people to play the ukulele and other instruments in 2017 and is determined to create a more inclusive musical education system that makes use of visual aids.
Robyn Phillips and Jabulani Sibiya are taking the TEDxCapeTown stage to share their vision for closing the gap between young talent and the creative industry. This is Robyn: homemade chai tea enthusiast; mental health activist; and Creative Lead of Touch South Africa, a non-profit that transitions young creatives into the creative industry.
Jabulani Sibiya and Robyn Phillips are taking the TEDxCapeTown stage to share their vision for closing the gap between young talent and the creative industry. This is Jabulani: Stoney Ginger Beer enthusiast; youth mentor; and founder of Touch South Africa, a non-profit that transitions young creatives into the creative industry.
Paddy has assisted high-performing teams, in spheres of business and sports, achieve exceptional feats for the last 25 years. On the TEDxCapeTown stage, he’ll be sharing better ways to harness collective intelligence of a team/ group by relating his methods to the sports teams he’s coached and incredible wins he’s helped them secure.
Pride is eager to provide solutions to our economic challenges and is continuously on the lookout for ways to unlock opportunities through repurposing what we already have. Her idea worth spreading is centered around how corporations can ignite the startup boom needed to reboot the economy, by reimagining their role as business accelerators.
Brett Thompson, an advocate for how we can use innovation to drive better food systems within the alternative protein and animal advocacy space, will deliver a talk that presents an opportunity for abundance in food - where every person and every animal is a winner.
Denisha Anand, a researcher, intersectional environmentalist and biodiversity restoration project manager of a 109ha wetland system in Cape Town, will take us on a journey of how custodianship allows us to reclaim natural and cultural heritage.
Nonhlanhla Mkumbuzi, an experienced medicine researcher, is hoping to change the way female African athletes are viewed within sports science literature. Often, they’re overlooked and invisible within this space - her TEDxCapeTown talk aims to change that.
Gregor Rohrig is a passionate visual anthropologist who hopes to use his knowledge as both a reflective and observational tool to help document and understand the thriving elements of work culture.
Nadene Grabham is the co-founder of Baby Savers SA, an organisation hoping to legalise a safe alternative to unsafe baby abandonment. She’s driven by a need to give South African children who would normally be abandoned a chance at life, and taking to our stage to present her practical solution.
Zandile Ndhlovu is determined to create diverse representation in the Ocean arena. She’s an ocean lover, diversity and inclusion consultant, podcaster, and freediving instructor taking to The Power of X stage to expand the narratives around Black people and water through storytelling and her organisation, The Black Mermaid Foundation.
Generational wealth creation in our townships is easier than we thought. Lonwabo Marele is an entrepreneur and multimedia journalist taking the TEDxCapeTown stage to foster a different perspective about how we look at townships and entrepreneurship in townships.
Josephine Eyre wants to help people connect deeply - using technology as an enabler. She’s a PhD candidate, focused on creative collaboration in the metaverse, and will be taking the TEDxCapeTown stage to explore how virtual reality could reignite workplace creativity and inspire us to achieve the impossible.
This Womxn’s Month, we invite you to be inspired by 7 TED Talks from womxn across the globe on topics from gender bias in artificial intelligence to harnessing your inner fury and letting your voice be heard, courage, the unreliability of a single story, and more.
