Old Sexeian and Head of Digital Production at the BBC Natural History Unit James Brickell was one of four live speakers at Sexey’s School’s inaugural TEDx event last week. Joined by Professor Sophien Kamoun from the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, Ashley Kolaya, Program Manager at TEDEd, and Sarah Carson, Lead Women’s Rights Campaigner at ActionAid UK, James addressed a room full of Bruton’s students, parents and friends of the School.

Since leaving Sexey’s, James has enjoyed a fascinating career to date, including most recently working on the hit TV show, Planet Earth 2. He used his twenty minute talk to advise students on the evolving way in which viewers consume media today. Speaking passionately about social media, James cited the fact that a recent clip from Planet Earth 2 received ten times as many views on Facebook than the original airtime enjoyed. He also spoke about the opportunities that new technology provides for wildlife filming, including the use of drones.

TEDx is an initiative that enables global phenomenon TED-like talks to be made available independently for the local community, to unleash new ideas, inspire and inform. TEDxSexey’s School has been organized and run by members of the student body, who have sought and invited speakers from a range of disciplines.

Commenting, Harriet Grasby from the community in Bruton said, “What a wonderful endeavour of the team of Sixth Formers at Sexey’s School, to organize this TEDx event. I’ve been so impressed by the variety of the speakers’ topics tonight and have been left with some really interesting ideas to think about.”

Rachael Palmer, Sixth Former and Prefect at Sexey’s and lead organizer of the event added, “I have been so inspired by the global set of TED conferences that share “ideas worth spreading”. It is such an honour to be able to bring the TEDx talks to Sexey’s and to hear from such fascinating speakers. It’s been a long road as we have applied to be able to run this session, find speakers and comply with TEDx rules, but this evening has proven that it has all most certainly been worth it. Thank you to everyone in school and to the visitors tonight that have supported us.”

Photos from the event are available to view on Flickr, here.