The Technology Behind TEDxBristol – how Newicon is supporting the city’s leading ideas event

Dare to Disrupt. That was TEDxBristol’s theme back when Newicon started working them in 2017 — and it was the hook that drew them into a long and exciting partnership.

This year the partnership with TEDxBristol has developed even further. Their theme for this year’s highly anticipated event is Reflect, Rethink, Reboot — and this is echoed in the work we’re now doing for them.

Mark Probert, Digital Strategy Director at Newicon explains,

“We started working with TEDxBristol back in 2017 because we shared their mission, dare to disrupt, and wanted to help make the event a success. And we continue to work together today – sharing the same values, even as the theme changes. This year’s theme is Reflect, Rethink, Reboot – something we’re very invested in as a tech company that values innovative thinking and an iterative approach to solving problems. Whatever the future holds for Newicon and TEDxBristol, one thing we know for sure is that we’re excited to be a part of their journey.”

These shared values made it easy to jump on board with TEDxBristol, building their new website from scratch. In fact, innovation was built into the website itself; it was the first time Newicon used Neon, their very own custom web builder.

Mark continues, “In 2019, we’ve gone beyond the website (although that’s had a facelift too), to build TEDxBristol a whole new back-end system. In a nutshell, this system means that they can now collect applications from speakers and volunteers, organize them, and follow up on them — all in one place. It’s exactly the same kind of lean software solution that we’re building for our local SME as well as enterprise clients, helping them improve operational efficiency.”

Mel Rodrigues, Creative Director of TEDx Bristol. is delighted with how the system has worked,

“We had over 300 applications this year, which is a lot of work for our volunteer team who assess applications in their spare moments. The Newicon database system meant they could access applications remotely, work when it suited them, leave notes and comments, and crucially do away with long email chains and bits of paper! We had the added bonus of Neill from Newicon joining the speaker team, so sometimes he was sat there re-coding the site to better suit our needs on the go! The system has been a complete game-changer for us, as well as being environmentally friendly too.”

Where will the future take Newicon with TEDxBristol? No one knows. And that’s what makes working together so exciting.

Andrea Sexton
info@andrea-sexton.com