Lines of Connection – How Swindon’s New TEDx Event is Turning Local Stories Into Global Ideas
- Nov 24, 2025
- 3 min read
In June 2026, TEDx Railway Village will put Swindon’s ideas on a global stage, celebrating the connection between people, stories, and place.
Swindon is full of people who don’t realise just how powerful their stories are.
Behind the familiar streets and railway heritage are founders, educators, carers, artists, innovators, and quiet community leaders carrying ideas that could genuinely change how we work, live, and relate to each other. Most of them are too busy getting on with it to ever step onto a stage.
That’s exactly why TEDx Railway Village was born.
On Friday 19 June 2026, we’ll bring a new independently organised TEDx event to Old Town Hall Studios at Swindon Dance, with the theme “Lines of Connection.”
It’s an invitation for Swindon to pause, listen, and ask, What connects us as neighbours, as communities, and as part of a much bigger world?
Why “Lines of Connection”?
When we chose the theme, we wanted something that honoured Swindon’s history and pointed to its future.
This town was literally built on lines, railways, routes, and networks that carried people and ideas far beyond the local area. Today, those lines look a little different: connections between business and community, between innovation and wellbeing, between heritage and the next generation.
“Lines of Connection” is about seeing those invisible threads and giving the people who carry them a platform.
Our goal is to curate talks that feel deeply Swindon, but speak to universal experiences:
The way we lead, the way we create.
The way we care.
The way we rebuild when life doesn’t go to plan.
Building a stage and a community
TEDx Railway Village is more than “one big day out.” It sits within a wider social enterprise: Lines of Connection CIC, which we’ve set up to nurture civic creativity, cultural leadership, and community storytelling in Swindon.
The CIC exists to:
support people who might never normally see themselves as “speakers” to develop their ideas,
connect local organisations, schools, and businesses through storytelling and dialogue,
create an ongoing legacy of events, workshops, and media that live far beyond a single TEDx date.
In other words, the talks are the spark, the community is the fire.
What to expect from TEDx Railway Village
The event will feature a carefully curated line-up of live speakers and performances, filmed and produced to TEDx standards, in an intimate venue in the heart of Swindon’s cultural quarter.
Plus a few surprises.
We’re looking for talks that are:
Insightful – grounded in real experience or evidence.
Practical – with ideas people can apply in their own lives and work.
Distinctly Swindon, rooted in this place, while still relevant anywhere in the world.
Speakers will include people who were born here, those who’ve made Swindon their home, and those whose work is tied to the town’s future.
A Call for Ideas, Partners, and Connectors Over the coming months, we’ll be inviting:
Prospective speakers with a clear “idea worth sharing” connected to Lines of Connection – across business, innovation, community, arts, education, health, and beyond.
Local partners and supporters who want to help us bring the day and its legacy projects to life.
Volunteers and collaborators who care about storytelling, culture, youth voice, and community impact.
Anyone interested can register early interest and stay informed via our website.
About TEDx Railway Village
TEDx Railway Village is a local, independently organised event that brings people together to share a TED-like experience within Swindon’s historic Railway Village. Produced under licence from TED, TEDx Railway Village is curated to celebrate connection – between people, ideas, and place.
About Lines of Connection CIC
Lines of Connection CIC is a social enterprise founded by Robert Jandy and Debbie Bryan to nurture civic creativity, cultural leadership, and community storytelling in Swindon. The CIC is the producing body behind TEDx Railway Village 2026 and future projects that connect heritage, innovation, and imagination across the town.
About TEDx and TED
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a programme of local, self-organised events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks videos and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. These local events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organised TED event. While TED provides general guidance for the TEDx programme, individual TEDx events are self-organised, subject to certain rules and regulations.
TED itself is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organisation dedicated to discovering and spreading ideas that spark conversation, deepen understanding, and drive meaningful change across topics from science and business to education, arts, and global issues.
Connect with Debbie
For interview requests, collaborations, or speaking / story development enquiries related to leadership, visibility, and “ideas worth sharing”, you can reach me at:
