Countless people the world over are responding to challenges life poses in ways that can inspire many. The learning that emerges from an educator's work in Afghanistan, for instance, can help sow the seeds for uninterrupted education of girls in a remote Indian village. A conduit for the sharing of these ideas has been the TED Talks platform, where experts and change-makers from different walks of life speak of their experiences in the form of short, powerful talks. For the upcoming edition of TEDxGateway 2018, an independently organised TED Conference, over 20 such motivational speakers will share their stories with an audience in Mumbai.

"We search the year round for speakers who can inform, impact and inspire a large set of people. Once confirmed, the team follows it up with extensive sessions with our speakers over a long period of time to refine their core idea and insight from their body of work into 12-minute talks," says Yashraj Akashi, senior ambassador, TEDx India and curator of the conference. "This year, we have in store speakers working towards tackling some of humanity's toughest questions, answering them with break-through innovation, enterprise and enduring optimism. We've changed the way we've been looking at ideas by bringing thoughts that are raw, real and relatable to each one of us," he adds.