24 October, 2026Victoria Theatre, Singapore2PM - 6.30PM

Where we set footWhere we belong

A note from our curator

Every landing is a beginning

Every year, our team at TEDxSingapore writes a love letter to this city-state we call home. This year, more than ever, I feel Singapore is changing at a pace that is hard to comprehend.

Today we gather on the very ground our colonial past recognised as the official "Raffles' Landing": Victoria Theatre and Empress Lawn. As Singapore keeps changing, perhaps the most important question is not simply where we are heading, but whether this island can remain a place where people find belonging.

Read the full note

Forests are being cleared. Coastlines, reshaped. Islands, reclaimed. Our heritage is evolving, from the languages we speak to the buildings we preserve and the ways we document our origins. We are even beginning to question long-held narratives about Singapore itself. Where did our story really begin? Who gets to tell it? And what does it mean to be Singaporean?

Every version of our nation's story begins with a clean arrival: a founder, a landing point, a date. Yet the more I look through our stories and archives, the less these narratives hold. Our landings sink. They are forced, transient, even built from waste. There was never a clean arrival, and perhaps many versions of our landings deserve to exist.

To me, landing points are not just about where we arrive. They are also about what we choose to preserve, what we leave behind, and where we hope to go next. Every landing can be a beginning: people arrive with hope, put down roots and turn an unfamiliar place into somewhere they call home.

This year, I hope we can find a new perspective on the land we stand on, and that each of you leaves with your own sense of what landing looks, and feels, like.

Vivian LimLead Curator, TEDxSingapore

Programme

Chart your day

Victoria Theatre, The Arts House and the Civic District

1:15PM
Registration opensVictoria Theatre foyer
1:45PM
Doors openFree seating, find your spot
2:00PM
Session 1: This Land We LoveIn the theatre
3:30PM
Session 2: Off the StageExplore the Landing Logs across the venue and beyond
4:30PM
Session 3: In Search of a Safe LandingIn the theatre
6:00PM
ClosingIn the theatre
6:30PM
End

Speakers & performers

The voices of Landing Points

Brice LiHas spent over four decades photographing and filming Singapore's forests and wild places.
Hafizah JainalTurns ancestral memories into drawings that explore identity and the cultural narratives we carry.
Ervin HanTells Asian stories through animation, connecting history, memory and popular culture.
Joy YongBlends Mandopop and pop rock into songs about identity, resilience and finding your own voice.
Ganesh KumarBuilt a community garden where nature, wellbeing and neighbours grow together.
Lim Yee ChuinReads a drink closely, from what is in the glass to the rules that decide what it can be called.
Hamzah MuzainiDocuments the maritime histories of Singapore's offshore islands, including those that no longer exist.
Neo Mei LinStudies how Singapore's marine life copes with a changing environment.
Ho Yong MinChases down the stories hiding in plain sight, from old street names to corners nobody thinks twice about.
Tan Ying YingExplores language, identity and belonging in multilingual Singapore.
Lester TanHas spent 16 years protecting Singapore's marine life, with a soft spot for horseshoe crabs.
Zee AngUses music to create brave, safe spaces for people of all ages and abilities.

3:30PM – 4:30PM · Session 2

Landing Logs

Every idea needs somewhere to land. Between Session 1 and Session 3, step out of your seat and onto a riverbank that has seen more landings than any history book remembers. Ten Landing Points are waiting to be smelled, tasted, played, read, walked and written on. There is no right order and no wrong route. Follow your curiosity, log what moves you, and bring it back for Session 3 at 4:30PM.

ALanding Points Photo WallLand in Frame · Victoria Theatre

Every landing deserves a record. Mark the moment you arrived: on your own, with the friend who brought you, or with the stranger you just met in the queue. Share it with #TEDxSingapore and #LandingPoints.

BLanding Points Engagement WallLand in Words · Victoria Theatre

Session 1 has left you with something: a question, a spark, a quiet disagreement. Pin it to the wall and see where everyone has landed. By Session 3, the wall becomes a living map of what this room is thinking.

Installations A and B are designed and built by Paper Carpenter, a Singapore cardboard design studio.

CChio Books by BooktiqueLand on a Page · Victoria Theatre

A lifestyle brand that makes books fashionable and reading irresistible. Browse titles chosen as much for their beautiful covers as for what lies inside, trade recommendations, and leave with the book you did not know you were looking for.

DOrigameLand by Play · Victoria Theatre

The Singapore studio behind Kopi King, Chope!, Overparked and 13 Animals. Pull up a seat and play their two newest card games: The Runaway Robot and The Purple House.

EPOSTCARD Scent GalleryLand by Scent · Victoria Theatre

Scent is the fastest way back to a place. Explore six scent worlds, guided only by a single word on a card. Pick the one that speaks to you, spray it onto your own Landing Point card, add a sticker and write down why it found you.

FItalian Wine ClubWhere the Wine Lands · Victoria Theatre

A curated pour of Italian wines, made for lingering conversations about what you have just heard and what is still to come.

Served to guests aged 18 and above. Please drink responsibly.

GTad Coffee Company & OLLA CoffeeLand by the Cup · Victoria Theatre

A Singapore specialty roaster and Singapore's first mobile coffee cart, brewing between sessions so you can recharge and head into Session 3 wide awake.

HWhere Ideas Land by Quek Jia QiLand by Exchange · Victoria Theatre

A participatory installation from her project Open Assignment. Explore an assignment gifted by someone else, then create your own. What lands with you may become a place for someone else to begin.

IBricolage Preservation StationLand by Taste · The Arts House, Annex Building

See how scraps become staples through fermentation, pickling, drying, salting, jams and cheong. Then taste the results: fruit-core cheong, salted citrus, lacto-fermented pickles, spent-coffee shoyu and smoked soy sauce. The makers will be on hand for your questions.

XTEDx Adventures: A Civic District walk with The UrbanistCivic District

Step beyond the grand facades and discover the stories behind them. Trace moments of nationhood at National Gallery Singapore, find the trees that gave a familiar park its name, and explore the riverfront at the Asian Civilisations Museum before arriving back at Victoria Theatre.

A to H are at Victoria Theatre. I is at The Arts House, Annex Building.

Volunteer stories

People behind the X

Every idea worth spreading has people behind it. TEDxSingapore is powered entirely by volunteers: people who give their time, energy and talents to bring ideas and communities together. Meet two of them.

The man behind the words

Philip · Speaker Curator, Lecturer

Good ideas deserve to be heard. Philip helps them find their voice.

For Philip, it started with a love for words and language, and a desire to challenge himself. Much of his work happens long before a speaker steps onto the red circle: video calls, script reviews and conversations with speakers and fellow curators. Sometimes those conversations get heated, but they are all part of bringing out the best in every speaker and their idea.

One memory that has stayed with him? Escorting two elderly speakers up a staircase when one missed a step and fell backwards, narrowly brushing past a glass panel. Thankfully, the speaker sprang right back up, completely fine. A backstage scare with a happy ending.

"To contribute to something bigger than myself."

The heart of the volunteer crew

Nur Qaireen · Volunteer Manager

Part hype person, part friendship matchmaker, and everyone's go-to person.

Qaireen never imagined herself volunteering at events. That changed during her internship with The Idea Co, where she worked on TEDxSingapore Open House 2026 and TEDxSingapore Play. When her internship ended, she was not quite ready to leave the community behind.

Today she is the one checking if everyone has eaten, making sure people get their breaks, and creating a space where anyone can ask for help, have a chat or simply feel included. Her unofficial superpower? "Making everybody friends with everybody, with nobody left out!"

"You know you're a TEDxSingapore volunteer when you can talk to anybody about anything and be yourself!"

Partners