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Stephen Collins

Stephen Collins

Licensee and Curator

Stephen Collins is pas­sion­ate and obses­sive (often at the same time, and not always to his ben­e­fit) and uses those dri­ving forces as TEDxCanberra’s cre­ative catalyst.


What do you do at TEDxCanberra?

I’m the licensee and orig­i­na­tor of TEDx­Can­berra. I have the title of Cre­ative Cat­a­lyst, which effec­tively means I come up with crazy ideas that we then shape to some­thing realistic.

After attend­ing TED@Palm Springs in 2009, I knew that as soon as the TEDx pro­gram was announced I had to bring TEDx to the national cap­i­tal. In doing so, the team have cre­ated some­thing spe­cial and inti­mate, with its own unique feel. I’m incred­i­bly lucky to be work­ing with these people.

I’ve been to TED three times now, and am plan­ning a fourth trip to TEDAc­tive and sec­ond to TEDx­Sum­mit in 2014.

What would you talk about dur­ing a 3-minute TEDTalk?

I’m incred­i­bly proud of the per­son my daugh­ter, Han­nah, is becom­ing. With a com­bi­na­tion of influ­ence from me and Alli, and her own inde­pen­dent think­ing, she’s emerg­ing as quite the young woman. I’d talk about being the kind of par­ent that encour­ages inde­pen­dent thought and never accept­ing things on face value as qual­i­ties in your kids.

Come up with five words that describe you.

Hus­band, Dad, obses­sive, geek, rugby nut. Actu­ally, that’s six. I cheated.

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