Thirteen speakers uplifted and challenged their audience with passionate talks at the second TEDxSevenMileBeach event, held at the Grand Cayman Marriott Beach Resort on June 10. The 110 people who were in attendance enjoyed thought-provoking presentations which spoke to the theme: The Life of an Idea: Plant. Nourish. Harvest., with each speaker giving talks on heartfelt issues affecting the Cayman community.

All the presenters, including seven local speakers, touched on subjects such as children, education, LGBT equality, financial management and relationships, with each one successfully planting ideas in the minds of the audience with the intent of creating further healthy discussion within the community.

Shannon Seymour, the Founding Director and Registered Psychologist at The Wellness Centre, spoke about creating a community into which special needs children could successfully fit. Kelly Bos, a psychotherapist focusing on individual, marriage, and family relationships, challenged us all to be much more present in our lives, saying one could derive a sense of satisfaction of being truly present in the moment, while Faculty Head of Science at Cayman Prep and High School Jason Nehra spoke to the ever-growing issue of Cayman’s waste problem.

Fourteen year old Cayman Prep student Zoe Conolly Basdeo received one of the loudest applauses of the day for her polished and professional presentation detailing the need for the Cayman Islands to embrace young people who questioned the so-called ‘norms’ of religious and cultural beliefs. Ms Conolly Basdeo successfully pled her case for the need in Cayman for creating a voice for young people and received an enthusiastic standing ovation for her speech as a result.

Ms Conolly Basdeo finished her presentation by saying: “The positive values of equality and freedom must be taken from our foundation and applied everywhere, in such a way that no one, regardless of their beliefs, is made to feel unworthy.”

Other local speakers at TEDxSevenMileBeach include Avital Zeisler, Billie Bryan, Chris Bailey, Kim Kadiyala and Laurie Kingwell.

TEDx licensee and event organizer Marzeta Bodden spoke about the success of the event: “We believe that bringing together a diverse group of people from a cross-section of the Cayman Islands community will allow great ideas and solutions to emerge. I strongly believe that the authority and passion which each presenter brought with them today has definitely allowed us to achieve our goal,” she said.

TEDxSevenMileBeach was broadcast live through Livestream, with over 2700 unique viewers watching, a 297% increase from 2014. The livestream viewers were from 65 countries combined, a significant accomplishment for such a young event.

Ms Bodden went on to thank everyone who gave such tremendous support to the event.

“On behalf of the all the organizers, our deepest thanks goes to our incredible set of speakers, as well as all the volunteers who worked behind the scenes to make the day such an important success. We would also like to thank our attendees for participating in our interactive sessions and our sponsors for making TEDxSevenMileBeach a resounding success. We look forward to seeing the ideas presented at TEDxSevenMileBeach flourish and grow within our community.”

Sponsors of TEDxSevenMileBeach include: Grand Cayman Marriott Beach Resort, Tower, Dart, Intec Research and Production Services, Rotary Club of Grand Cayman Central, Cayman Islands Department of Tourism, Butterfield, Fidelity CEO, Cayman National, Caribbean Creations, Better Angle and Cayman Music Therapy. Other event supporters include Foster’s Food Fair, the Lobster Pot, Island Fresh Produce, Nyyss One Productions, the Office of Her Excellency the Governor and Stephanie Scott.

As an important way to give back to the community, attendees brought children’s books to be donated to the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman Central Little Free Library project.

All talks will be available for viewing online in coming weeks, visit www.TEDxSevenMileBeach.com for updated information.