TEDx Grantham
Speaker line-up · 2026

Five voices
have arrived.

The full TEDxGrantham 2026 line-up is here: Emma Easton, Professor Paul Y. F. Lee, Hannah Worrall, Taryn Lee Johnston and Matt Craven. Five speakers. Five ideas. One afternoon in Grantham.

Emma Easton, TEDxGrantham 2026 speaker
First speaker announced
Speaker 01 · Rethink disability

Emma
Easton.

FRSA MA MCIM · Strategist and speaker · Lincoln, England

The idea

Disability is not simply a fixed quality within a person. It can emerge from the environments, systems and assumptions that decide who can participate.

A talk at the intersection of disability, accessibility and inclusive design — inviting us to look beyond the individual and rethink where the real barriers lie.

About Emma

Emma Easton FRSA MA MCIM is a Lincoln-based strategist at BBLX Strategy. Her work asks organisations to challenge broad assumptions, define the market they can actually reach, and turn evidence into sharper decisions.

She studied at Cambridge Judge Business School and has spoken at events about career progression, talent management and gender equality.

Professor Paul Y. F. Lee, TEDxGrantham 2026 speaker
Second speaker announced
Speaker 02 · Rethink surgical success

Professor Paul
Y. F. Lee.

MBBCh, MFSEM (UK), MSc (Sports Med), PhD, FEBOT (Eu), FRCS (Tr & Orth) · Consultant orthopaedic surgeon · United Kingdom

The idea

Surgical success is often expressed through familiar clinical measures, yet recovery is lived far beyond the operating theatre.

Professor Lee explores how we count success in surgery and joint repair — and how a broader view of recovery could change the choices made before, during and after treatment.

About Paul

Professor Lee is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon specialising in cartilage repair, joint preservation, sports injuries, and hip and knee surgery. Across more than 20 years in medicine, he has treated patients throughout the full pathway, from rehabilitation and tissue-preserving procedures to joint replacement when it is the right option.

His clinical practice is shaped by additional training in sports medicine and medical engineering, informing how he assesses anatomy, movement and recovery together. He also teaches and contributes to research in regenerative orthopaedics and clinical technology.

Hannah Worrall, TEDxGrantham 2026 speaker
Third speaker announced
Speaker 03 · Rethink success

Hannah
Worrall.

Brand strategist and business owner · Grantham, Lincolnshire

The idea

What If Success Is Just Survival in Disguise?

We have mistaken survival for success — rewarding the ability to carry impossible loads instead of building lives, workplaces and systems in which people can thrive.

Hannah challenges the way resilience, relentless performance and overwork are celebrated. Her talk asks what changes when success is measured by sustainability, health and humanity rather than by how much a person can endure.

About Hannah

Hannah Worrall is a Grantham-based brand strategist and the founder of Your Brand Lab. She works with entrepreneurs, organisations and community initiatives across Lincolnshire and the East Midlands, helping them communicate clearly and grow with purpose.

Drawing on lived experience of adversity, loss, leadership and health challenges, Hannah explores the line between resilience and survival. Her TEDxGrantham idea invites people to question the assumptions that shape how we lead, work, parent and define achievement.

Taryn Lee Johnston, TEDxGrantham 2026 speaker
Fourth speaker announced
Speaker 04 · Rethink reading

Taryn Lee
Johnston.

Publisher, writing partner and literacy advocate · Lincoln, Lincolnshire

The idea

The Spark

The spark that makes a child a reader has never come from a system, platform or campaign. It comes from a person — and each of us can help light it.

Drawing on cognitive neuroscience, literacy research and fifteen years inside publishing, Taryn asks why children are turning away from reading for pleasure, what that means for their futures, and what every person in the room can do before the week is out.

About Taryn

Taryn Lee Johnston is the founder of FCM Publishing, Independent Publisher of the Year in 2024, 2025 and 2026, and Chronos Publishing. She is also a writing partner, literacy advocate and Online Marketer of the Year 2024.

Working at the intersection of story, strategy and the business of books, Taryn brings the professional authority of fifteen years inside the publishing industry and the personal conviction of someone who owes everything to the people who first lit the spark in her.

Matt Craven, TEDxGrantham 2026 speaker
Fifth speaker announced
Speaker 05 · Rethink recovery

Matt
Craven.

Spa owner and small business advocate · Sleaford, Lincolnshire

The idea

The ROI of Rest

For a small business owner, recovery is not time away from the work. It is part of the operating system that keeps both the founder and the business going.

Drawing on 17 years of running an independent business and a background in sports science, Matt reframes rest as strategic resource allocation — a practical discipline that can protect decision-making, energy and long-term resilience.

About Matt

Matt Craven is the owner of The Grange Spa near Sleaford. For 17 years, he and his wife have built and run an independent Lincolnshire business, giving him first-hand experience of the pressure, responsibility and isolation that can sit behind entrepreneurship.

Combining that experience with his grounding in sports science and business, Matt is interested in how the periodisation principles used by athletes can help founders plan stress and recovery more deliberately. His TEDxGrantham idea asks business owners to treat recovery as an operational asset rather than a reward earned after the work is done.

The full line-up

Five voices.
One remarkable afternoon.

Every speaker brings a different lens to this year’s theme: Rethink. Join all five at The King’s School, Grantham, on Saturday 10 October 2026.

See the full line-up live · from £20
Saturday 10 October 2026 · The King’s School

Be in the room
when the ideas land.

Book tickets · from £20