From urban farmers, to a BAFTA winner, Hackney proves that it has no shortage of talent. On Saturday 18^th August, TEDxHackney hosted a Salon at the Shoreditch Town Hall, with a theme on local heroes. We invited six local heroes to give a talk on how they have turned their passion into a profession and transformed Hackney into one of London’s vibrant districts. The Salon proved to be an educational experience as the speakers in their own ways, taught us how creative communities are the future of the world.

Dan Beaumont, founder of Dalston Superstore talked about his passion for music that led him to collaborate with other passionate individuals to open Dalston Superstore, which is a nightclub, bar, eatery and art venue all in one. Shawnee Keck who is a policy advisor at Hackney council talked about the rise of employment and development in Hackney district: ‘Hackney is a new centre; one of the biggest in global revenue juxtaposed by one of the biggest centres of poverty’, she said. Femi Adeyemi, founder of NTS radio wowed the audience with his own personal story and made audience laugh when he told them he was once sacked from a job at an online retailer for falling asleep in the toilet. But nonetheless he believed that if you have an idea, you should go for it and if you fail, do it again. FARM: shop founders, Andrew Merritt and Paul Smyth had brought fresh produce with them to showcase to the audience. They shared their history behind FARM: shop and why they wanted to bring the idea of urban farming into the city. BAFTA winner, Kaffe Matthews discussed ways of experiencing sounds. She discussed her award-winning ‘Sonic Bed’ that pulsate sounds when somebody lays on it. To wrap up the Salon, Newton Dunbar delivered his short story about founding Four Aces Club, which became a hotspot for legends like Bob Marley, Mick Jagger,  Bob Dylan to name a few.

The entire purpose of the Salon was to instil an idea in the minds of audience members that each one of them can contribute to their communities. Our speakers reminded us that nothing is impossible to achieve if we put our heart, mind, soul and passion into what we love doing.  As Dan Beaumont said, ‘Collaboration is the glue that joins creativity and commerciality’. At TEDxHackney Salon, we hoped for potential networking between audience members and between them and the speakers, to share ideas that could lead to possible collaboration in the future. After all, creating ideas leads to creating businesses.

(videos and pictures  from this Salon will be arriving shortly at www.tedxhackney.com/)