TEDxAtlanta Youth Debuts with a Focus on Young Voices Shaping the Present

TEDxAtlanta has unveiled the speaker lineup for its first-ever TEDxAtlanta Youth conference, an event designed to spotlight the ideas and initiatives of young innovators, entrepreneurs, and advocates. Scheduled for the afternoon of Oct. 3 at Atlanta International School in Sandy Springs, the conference will follow the main TEDxAtlanta event and is part of the 2026 season themed “Bold. Brave. Unbreakable.”

The Youth conference will feature speakers ranging in age from 16 to 23, along with an intergenerational “On the Spot” conversation. The program is structured around two themes: “Seen” and “Unleashed.” “Seen” will explore what changes when young people’s experiences and perspectives are taken seriously, while “Unleashed” will focus on young innovators who are questioning existing systems and building alternatives.

According to Jacqui Chew, TEDxAtlanta licensee and organizer, the event aims to challenge the notion that young people are merely the future. “Young people hear constantly that they are the future. We were much more interested in what they have to say about the present,” Chew said. “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?”

In the “Seen” segment, Temple Lester, a STEM advocate, will discuss her experience being sidelined at science camp because she was the only girl, and what ideas are missed when young people are told to wait their turn. Nidhi Madam, a language and culture explorer, will share how a K-drama binge led her to learn Korean and reconnect with her family's language, Telugu, while discovering that artificial intelligence can translate words but not always understand the cultural nuances behind them. Additionally, Zoe Oli, a young entrepreneur, and her mother, Evana Oli, will participate in an “On the Spot” conversation about what happens when a child’s idea becomes a real enterprise and the parent must decide when to step in, step aside, or step forward together.

The “Unleashed” segment will feature Kanushi Dua, a circular systems designer who, after finding a bin of nearly new children’s clothes, questioned why garments are treated as disposable when children outgrow them, and will propose an unexpected role for artificial intelligence in addressing this. Ian Sun, a community-centered technologist, will ask who gets a say in how AI is built, as it becomes embedded in everyday life. Akos Vida, an accessibility innovator, will share his experience building an accessible gaming controller and challenge the assumption that designing for someone is the same as designing with them. Finally, Ethan Benater, a “possibility engineer,” will discuss his work on a vaping-cessation solution and what young people can create when they stop treating entrenched problems as inevitable.

The event is designed to move from recognition to agency, asking audiences to consider young people not simply as inheritors of the future but as participants in creating it now. Back-to-school ticket prices for TEDxAtlanta, TEDxAtlanta Youth, and Complete Passes that include both conferences are available now on the [TEDxAtlanta website](https://www.tedxatlanta.com).

TEDxAtlanta is Georgia’s largest TED affiliate and a year-round platform for ideas, conversation, and community. Through conferences, salons, workshops, and special events, it brings together people who believe bold ideas can inspire action and create a better future. The organization is led by a team of volunteers headed by Jacqui Chew and is an initiative of the nonprofit Ideas into Action. Since its first conference in 2009, more than two dozen speakers have been featured on TED.