East London and Essex Education Conference and Exhibition 2023

3. Darren Edwards

Darren Edwards is a former mountaineer and Army Reservist who sustained a life-changing injury in the summer of 2016. The near-fatal climbing accident would leave Darren permanently paralysed from the chest down. With determination, grit and positivity, Darren has overcome adversity to become a Disabled Adventurer, World First Expedition Leader and Motivational Speaker. Darren’s personal story of overcoming adversity and building a resilient mindset is guaranteed to motivate, encourage change and inspire. Instilled with humour, down-to-earth honesty and a genuine sense for adventure and pushing the limits of his disability, Darren cares deeply about connecting with his audience and getting them to think – and act – differently. Darren’s talks are an infectiously positive call to action that nothing is achieved without a resilient mindset.

Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE

Floella tells of her childhood journey to England as a ten year old girl, a story which she wrote as a best selling book ‘Coming to England’. And her new autobiography ‘What are You Doing Here?’ She talks about how she overcame many adversities and obstacles by having a positive attitude and learning to face them with a smile and her philosophy of life her 3 C’s. She takes the audience on an inspirational journey by showing how they too can make a difference and change the world for children and young people, especially those from disadvantage backgrounds. Through her charitable work including her media appearances and life in Parliament she explains her mission to get everyone to focus on the important fact that ‘Childhood lasts a Lifetime’. Floella has become the first Caribbean woman to receive one of the United Kingdom's highest accolades, the Order of Merit. The award recognises distinguished service towards the advancement of the arts, learning, literature or science.

David Saddington

Influencing UK & international policy, fronting a pioneering climate media campaign on the BBC, Sky & ITV that reached over 3 million people and giving a TEDx talk at London's O2 arena are just a few of David Saddington's achievements as a climate change activist since experiencing a stark introduction to the impacts of climate change as a thirteen year old back in 2005. David is recognised as one of the UK's leading climate change experts. His first impact was working with the Prime Minister to add climate change to the UK school curriculum in 2007. He has since communicated climate change around the world by giving talks and media interviews. He has been recognised by the United Nations for his 'best practice' in simply communicating climate science. At only 25 he is energetic, passionate yet relatable when he talks about climate change. David is a well versed public speaker and lecturer who has spoken in schools across the UK, Italy and Hong Kong with ages ranging from primary to A-Level. He is capable of talking about climate change & associated issues to a wide variety of audiences and education levels. In addition to speaking David has blogged for media outlets like the Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and the Guardian. David talks about the science of climate (what is happening and why should we care) to the social impacts on our economy, health and society. In 2017 David was invited by the British Council to deliver an interactive lecture series in Hong Kong which told a very accessible story of our changing climate over the past 22,000 years. David also talks about; his own personal story in tackling climate which started when he was only 13, what we can all do to tackle climate and careers in the sector - as he works a consultant for governments and top brands. In 2017 he was presented with the WWF Earth Hour Hero award for his then 12 years of work tackling climate change.

Michael Quigley - Kataholos

Michael Quigley, BA (Hons) 1st class, MA, PGCE, is a former primary school teacher with extensive experience of teaching, coaching, leading and team membership, coupled with a life-long enduring passion for and interest in fitness, wellbeing and growing people. He is a published author and regular blogger as well as the creator of multiple online professional and personal development courses with his company Kataholos. He has over 10 years of teaching experience and has delivered training sessions over the last five years to thousands of people for organizations including the North and Western Chamber of Commerce, the Global Chamber, the FSB, DJH Mitten Clarke, Cooney Carey, the Chartered Insurance Institute all over the UK as well as internationally for Russell Bedford International. Michael has an extensive experience in public speaking, delivering for both the public and private sector regionally, nationally and internationally, both in person and online. He has delivered training sessions both in person and online for CII members all over the UK for 3 years so far. His Kataholos Online Learning Platform empowers over 8000 professionals in 100 countries currently, with e learning courses on stress, wholistic health, communication skills and motivation. Michael has a motivational podcast for business professionals, Food for the Journey on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and has two published books, "Guidelines for a Wholistic happy life" and "Loving Leadership.

Nicola Meek - Microsoft

Nicola Meek joins us from Microsoft. She believes she has one of the best jobs in the world where she worries about how we get teachers to use powerpoint less, and maybe get more maths learnt through through lock rooms or help new foreign language students making friends on day get more lock rooms in maths classes or getting the new kids with no English active in class and making finding friends. Microsoft’s mission statement is to empower every user on the planet to achieve more and Nicola believes we can really do that by helping schools and school leaders to do that using technology safely security and taking some of the workload away from teachers.