Following the launch of our 2022 theme, we are delighted to announce that we have made £11.5m social and economic impact in Glasgow as we celebrates its 10th year of events, engaging learners and sparking ideas globally.

As well as the launch of ‘The Future We Choose’ its 2022/23 strategy, we can also announce our first Climate Action Initiative collaboration with Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) and global organisation Asia Pulp and Paper gets underway in October 2022 which we talked about earlier in the year.

A range of TEDxGlasgow campaigns, content and events over the next 12 months will explore ‘The Future We Choose’ strategy in detail. It will spotlight actions worth doing in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for an inclusive, climate-resilient transformational plan across health, wellbeing, energy, food, industry and society, that meet the needs of the most vulnerable.

Additionally the Climate Action Initiative which unites TEDxGlasgow partners to foster collaborations for accelerated action will continue and look to follow on from the fantastic example between GCU and Asia Pulp and Paper.

From our first talk in 2012-2022, TEDxGlasgow has achieved a cumulative social and economic impact of £11.5m; generated from action focussed projects, TEDx talk views, social media engagement, campaign roles, event contracts and attendees, tickets sold/free tickets and an NPS 68 score from TED. Significantly, we have engaged people in learning with 17.1m in talk views, 10,350 in ideas, while training 1410 volunteers - making a great impact in Scotland and the UK.

Curator and founder of TEDxGlasgow Gurjit Singh Lalli said: “We are proud to celebrate 10 years of TEDxGlasgow and to have made an £11.5m positive impact as we strive to build a more prosperous, sustainable, creative, fairer and healthier future for Glasgow and Scotland. 2021-22 has been a year of action and real change, driven by our incredibly dedicated community of volunteers, speakers, participants and partners. Thank you to everyone involved in TEDxGlasgow.”

Reflecting on a pivotal 2021 head of strategy for TEDxGlasgow Zebunisa Ahmed added:

“Recognising the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ statement that 2021 was a ‘make or break’ year to confront the global climate emergency, we knew that this year had the potential for impact, change and action. It saw the successful launch and implementation of our ‘Make or Break’ Climate Action Initiative, inspired by the globally-impactful COP26. We built a proactive community of organisations, which met at virtual ‘Climate Action Initiative Monthly Meet Ups’ and held an in-person workshop in Glasgow ahead of last October’s TEDxGlasgow annual conference.
“We reached people digitally through free live streams of our events. Our October conference reached 47K people online, and our January ‘Virtual Gathering’ reached 14K people, showing a growing appetite for learning how to make change happen.”

A key mission in 2021 was for TEDx partners to share their climate action work and knowledge; learning from one another and sharing their challenges and successes. Crucially, we enabled collaboration between partners, harnessing opportunities for working together across sectors to accelerate climate action. With COP26 illustrating how 2021 really was a Make or Break Year, the goal was to make tangible change that creates real impact.

Zebunisa Ahmed continued:

“Several exciting joint ventures were born as a result, enabled by the Climate Action Initiative and TEDxGlasgow. We are pleased to announce that our Climate Action Partners Asia Pulp and Paper and Glasgow Caledonian University are collaborating on GCU’s first Climate Justice Programme Advisory Group, which feeds into the Masters in Climate Justice, therefore supporting the development of employment and career opportunities in climate justice.”

As well as generating joint ventures and cross-working, we also reviewed ideas, inspirations and actions generated from the TEDxGlasgow Conference. In tandem, we examined global change and current affairs, such as how the current energy crisis and recent geopolitical events affect climate action plans and commitments.

“As we look to COP27 and the year ahead, today we launch our 2022-23 theme ‘The Future We Choose’, our strategic response to climate change and our call to action to government, public and private organisations, to work with us on a shared ideas platform for securing Scotland’s future. We are determined to effect more change that is both significant and authentic and we can only achieve that by working together.”

Founder and curator of TEDxGlasgow Gurjit Singh Lalli

10-Years’ Anniversary and £11.5m Impact in Glasgow