TEDxAtlanta has unveiled the speaker lineup for its inaugural TEDxAtlanta Youth conference, an event dedicated to amplifying the voices of young innovators, entrepreneurs, and advocates. Scheduled for the afternoon of Oct. 3 at Atlanta International School in Sandy Springs, the conference is part of TEDxAtlanta 2026’s Bold. Brave. Unbreakable. season and will follow the main TEDxAtlanta conference.
The Youth conference will feature speakers aged 16 to 23, with a program structured in two parts: Seen and Unleashed. The first segment focuses on the importance of taking young people’s experiences and ideas seriously, while the second highlights young individuals who are actively building alternatives to existing systems.
Jacqui Chew, TEDxAtlanta licensee and organizer, emphasized the conference’s unique perspective: “Young people hear constantly that they are the future. We were much more interested in what they have to say about the present.” Chew added, “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?”
Among the speakers in the Seen segment is Temple Lester, a STEM advocate who learned to speak up after being sidelined at science camp for being the only girl. She will explore what ideas are missed when young people are told to wait their turn. Nidhi Madam, a language and culture explorer, will discuss how a K-drama binge led her to learn Korean and reconnect with her family’s Telugu language, discovering that artificial intelligence often translates words without understanding cultural nuances.
The Seen segment also includes an On the Spot conversation between entrepreneur Zoe Oli and her mother, Evana Oli. They will discuss what happens when a child’s idea becomes a real enterprise and how parents navigate when to step in, step aside, or step forward together.
The Unleashed segment features Kanushi Dua, a circular systems designer who questioned why children’s clothes are treated as disposable after finding nearly new garments. Her talk will highlight an unexpected role for artificial intelligence in addressing waste. Ian Sun, a community-centered technologist, will ask who gets a say in how AI is built, considering what communities stand to gain or lose. Akos Vida, an accessibility innovator, will challenge assumptions about who belongs in the design process, drawing from his experience creating an accessible gaming controller. Ethan Benater, a possibility engineer, will share his journey developing a vaping-cessation solution, raising questions about what young people can create when they refuse to accept entrenched problems as inevitable.
The conference aims to shift the narrative from viewing young people as inheritors of the future to recognizing them as active participants in shaping the present. Back-to-school ticket prices for TEDxAtlanta, TEDxAtlanta Youth, and Complete Passes are available now. TEDxAtlanta, Georgia’s largest TED affiliate, has been organizing events since 2009, with more than two dozen speakers featured on TED. The organization is run by volunteers led by Jacqui Chew and is an initiative of nonprofit Ideas into Action. For more information, visit TEDxAtlanta.com.
