TEDxAtlanta has unveiled the lineup for its first-ever TEDxAtlanta Youth conference, scheduled for the afternoon of Oct. 3 at Atlanta International School in Sandy Springs, following the main TEDxAtlanta conference. Part of the 2026 season themed "Bold. Brave. Unbreakable.," the Youth conference will feature speakers aged 16 to 23 and an intergenerational On the Spot conversation, with the program divided into two parts: Seen and Unleashed.
"Young people hear constantly that they are the future. We were much more interested in what they have to say about the present," said Jacqui Chew, TEDxAtlanta licensee and organizer. "These speakers are asking questions that affect all of us: Whose ideas get taken seriously? What gets lost when technology doesn't understand culture? And what becomes possible when young people have the opportunity to build rather than wait?"
The first part, Seen, explores what changes when young people's experiences, ideas, and perspectives are taken seriously. Temple Lester, a STEM advocate, learned early what it means to speak up after being sidelined at science camp as the only girl; she now asks what ideas are missed when young people are told to wait their turn. Nidhi Madam, a language and culture explorer, discovered through a K-drama binge that artificial intelligence can translate words without understanding the culture behind them, a lesson that led her to embrace her family's language, Telugu. The On the Spot segment features entrepreneur Zoe Oli and her mother, Evana Oli, in a role-reversal conversation about what happens when a child's idea becomes a real enterprise and a parent must decide when to step in, step aside, or step forward together.
In the second part, Unleashed, young innovators turn from voice to action, questioning existing systems and building alternatives. Kanushi Dua, a circular systems designer, was inspired by a bin of nearly new children's clothes to challenge the disposability of garments, proposing an unexpected role for artificial intelligence. Ian Sun, a community-centered technologist, asks who gets a say in how AI is built, considering what communities stand to gain or lose. Akos Vida, an accessibility innovator, learned from building an accessible gaming controller that designing for someone isn't the same as designing with them, challenging assumptions about who belongs in the design process. Ethan Benater, a possibility engineer, created a vaping-cessation solution, raising a larger question about what young people can create when they stop treating entrenched problems as inevitable.
Together, Seen and Unleashed move from recognition to agency, asking audiences to consider young people as participants in creating the present, not just inheritors of the future. Back-to-school ticket prices for TEDxAtlanta, TEDxAtlanta Youth, and Complete Passes covering both conferences are available now. TEDxAtlanta, Georgia's largest TED affiliate, is a year-round platform for ideas, conversation, and community, organized by volunteers led by Jacqui Chew. Since its first conference in 2009, more than two dozen speakers have been featured on TED. For more information, visit www.TEDxAtlanta.com.
