We’re doing TEDxZurich because we believe in the power of ideas well spread. It looks like TED agrees with us that the ideas presented at TEDxZurich are worth spreading.

Today, two of our speakers are featured on the home page of TED: Sebastian Wernicke with his talk from TEDxZurich 2011 in which he compressed 1000 TED talks into 6 words; and Karen Tse, who was one of our speakers at TEDxZurich 2010 about how to end torture.

You can watch both their talks on TED.com.

A special thanks to our team member Carola Ettenreich who took care of the great catering and could not be on stage when the TEDx-team was on there.

All talks from TEDxZurich 2011 can be watched in our speaker section, or, if you prefer to watch them all after each other, as a playlist right below.

Also, we’ve collected the best tweets throughout the day in one document, included links to all speakers, embedded some music and the TED talks that were screened. So here’s your chance to re-live TEDxZurich 2011.

Address: Fernsehstrasse 1-4, Zürich. Tram stop Fernsehstudio (NOT Leutschenbach). We strongly advise you to come by public transport as there are no parking spaces on site.

- Coming from Zurich Main Station (approx 25 mins): Tram 11 from «Bahnhofquai» in direction of «Auzelg». Exit at «Fernsehstudio».

- Coming from train station Oerlikon (approx 7 mins): Tram 11 from «Bahnhof Oerlikon» in direction of «Auzelg». Exit at «Fernsehstudio».

Größere Kartenansicht

Google Maps is aiming to publish the world’s most comprehensive map. Bernhard Seefeld will be talking about how this enterprise is evolving and is sharing his thoughts on who will be doing the mapping in the future and what is driving that.

Bernhard Seefeld, Product Manager for Google Maps
Bernhard Seefeld is the product manager for Google Maps. Prior to Google, Bernhard was the Lead Software Engineer at Endoxon AG and CTO and Co-founder of search.ch, one of the first local search engines and the first AJAX-based mapping site. Bernhard holds a master’s degree in theoretical physics from the University of Berne, Switzerland.

The LHC project at CERN has hit the headlines in the last couple of years. Everything on the big detector projects such as ATLAS is of a colossal scale from the fundamental nature of the science being done through to the size of the collaborations themselves. But comparatively little is said about the individual experience of the scientists – does the day-to-day life on ATLAS match up to the hype? Ellie Dobson gives her take on her experience of being involved in this huge endeavour, and asks whether there are any lessons that can be learnt in other disciplines from the collaborative scientific spirit that has been fostered at CERN.

Eleanor Dobson, CERN fellow
Ellie Dobson spent most of her early life planning to be a musician but did a rather unexpected u-turn at the age of 18 and after a brief foray into teaching ended up reading physics at Oxford University. She was awarded her PhD in 2009 in particle physics, and currently works as a CERN fellow. These days she can mostly be found hunting particles in the ATLAS detector as part of the LHC project, and will soon embark on a Marie Curie fellowship in affiliation with University College London.

We’ve had him at TEDxZurich 2010 already and those who have seen him know why we invited him back for TEDxZurich 2011. He says: “I blend the line between what is incredibly real and what is incredibly not.” We say: “It’s magic.”

Marco Tempest, magician and illusionist
Marco Tempest’s imaginative combination of computer-generated imagery, quick-cut video and enthusiastic stage presence has earned him a place in the pantheon of great illusionists. At 22, the Swiss magician won the New York World Cup of Magic, launching him into international prominence. Tempest’s award-winning television series “The Virtual Magician” airs in dozens of countries worldwide, while his lively phonecam postings on YouTube, done without post-production and video-editing tricks to astonished people on the street, get millions of views (search on “virtualmagician”).

Web: marcotempest.com – Twitter: @virtualmagician

• We will have a live stream of the entire event on tedxzurich.com where you can watch all the talks as they happen.
• Using the hashtag #tedxzh, you can see all the tweets about the event. Judging from last year’s TEDxZurich, there will be tons of tweets.
• We will collect the most interesting tweets and feedback in a Storify document.

All those elements will be embedded to www.tedxzurich.com on October 4. Check our website and tune in to a virtual day at TEDxZurich 2011.

In today’s academic culture, doing science usually means having a specialization. An in-depth, focused knowledge of a particular topic is essential for an individual to contribute in research, otherwise we may be reinventing the wheel all too often. However, researchers with interdisciplinary interests may see connections between unusual subjects as they cross boundaries and transfer knowledge; enhancing the collective wisdom. Dr. Arzu Çöltekin tells us how vision science, image and video processing, spatial perception and cognition, eye tracking, DNA sequencing, visualization, human computer interaction and geography come together in one research agenda.

Arzu Çöltekin, Senior Researcher at Department of Geography in University of Zurich

Arzu works in the Department of Geography in University of Zurich as a Senior Researcher and Lecturer. Arzu has lived and worked in interdisciplinary teams in shorter and longer stretches of time in five different countries; her home country Turkey, The Netherlands, Finland and Canada. Not surprisingly, she travels a lot and takes lots of photographs.

In 2008 Peter Schmid and his team made a discovery that would have a profound impact on the way we explain the emergence of mankind. The bones and fragments of this new species they had discovered, showed both human and australopith, or pre-human, characteristics. After publishing many articles in “Science” about the discoveries, overthrowing decade-old theories with his new evidence, and creating a stir within the anthropological community, Mr. Schmid wants to tackle the following question for us: Is Australopithecus sediba the missing link?

Peter Schmid, Anthropologist
Peter Schmid, senior lecturer at the Anthropological Institute, University of Zurich
Peter Schmid got his Ph.D. from the University of Zurich in 1983, and has been doing research in the field of anthropology ever since. He is also the curator of the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Zurich.

Web: Museum of Anthropology

Oy: Applauded as “Switzerland’s most innovative female singer”, Joy Frempong aka OY plays a wild mix of styles, making it hard to put a label on her, making it easy to be fascinated by her sounds. More on Oy.

Foto by Patrick Principe / schrillerille.ch

All Hands: A newly formed project of highly talented Basel-based musicians. We’re lucky to get to prelisten three songs of their upcoming first release. Their sound: Spherical pop tunes, roughend by electronical effects. More on All Hands.

Jojo Mayer: A Swissman in New York, probably one of the best drummers in the world. At TEDxZurich, he will give a talk on “Exploring the distance between zero and one” and will treat us to two live samples of his incredible drumming skills. More on Jojo Mayer.