Introducing our hosts for the day

With just under 8 days to go for our TEDxPortofSpain 2015 event, we are pleased to present these two fine folks who will be guiding us through the day.

 

Keegan Taylor

Keegan Taylor is no stranger to the stage as he started a successful career in the entertainment arena at the early age of 8. As an avid contender and performer in cultural arts during his primary and secondary school years, Keegan developed an extensive body of work and contributed to the art forms of calypso and soca over his 25-year involvement in culture and entertainment. As the first Junior Soca Monarch of Trinidad and Tobago, Keegan has also took his brand of music and performance internationally with popular bands like Caribbean Traffic Jam (Traffik) and many other groups including well known chutney bands like Melobugz and Triveni to name a few.

In 2009, Keegan’s less talked-about love and experience in martial arts led him to explore and discover the world of Kalinda or stick-fighting in a very intimate way. In an almost anthropological manner, he immersed himself in it with the guidance of Moruga stick masters. He began a journey to seek mastery in this ancient African tradition, hoping to acquire and transfer the learnings of the art to the present generation of youth.

He aims to merge his love and competency in these diverse areas of Trinidad and Tobago culture to develop new ideas for change, innovation and even some level of retention of the old ways. With this, he hopes to create a better and more creative world for our children’s future. Keegan Taylor and his friend and business partner, Rondel Benjamin are the founders of Bois Academy of Trinidad and Tobago (B.A.T.T.). Together, they starred in the documentary film ‘No Bois Man No Fraid’ by Christopher Laird. Keegan was part of the duo for a TEDxPortofSpain talk on kalinda in 2013.

 

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Ardene Sirjoo

Ardene Sirjoo gets fired up about finding common ground to mobilize people. Ultimately interested in affecting positive change, she is driven to connect the right people to various causes and audiences. Her 8 years’ experience in radio broadcasting allows her to draw on human and information resources that support her work both on and off-air.

With a solid, postsecondary foundation in political education and the experience of student activism at the UWI St Augustine campus, Ardene’s foray into radio with i95.5fm at the start of the 2007 general election campaign seemed logical. Since that time, she has cohosted several talk shows, three of which she has helped to establish, including two daily programs. She has taken advantage of a range of additional opportunities, from production to live reporting to hosting diverse panel discussions. Still with i95.5fm, she is now in her fifth year of cohosting the weekly current affairs talk show, “The 95 Mandate”.

Ardene has also worked with a number of entities coordinating, curating and supporting projects in areas such as human rights, food security, capacity building, culture, entertainment, and social outreach. Committed to continued learning, she is currently pursuing the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification with the aim of applying this skill set to the execution and implementation of development projects relevant to the arts and culture.

 

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Tickets for the main conference are available online through our website. In-person (cash) tickets are currently available at locations listed below . Visit our website for updates. Tickets will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Limited quantities have been reserved for both cash and online purchases. 

Here are the details of the conference:
Date: October 14, 2015
Time: 12:00 noon – 8:00 p.m.
Venue: Queen’s Hall
$500 General Admission – Available until October 13