2025 Host
16th October 2025
Teesside University
MEET BEN PECHEY.
Our incredible host is back again this year!
Ben Pechey (they/them) is a non-binary writer, presenter, content creator, TEDx Speaker LGBTQIA advocate, diversity & inclusion consultant, and author. They have written and produced content for The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, Women's Health, Refinery 29 and Diva Magazine.
They have worked with major brands such as Manolo Blahnik, Condé Nast, Dr. Martens, The NSPCC, Virgin Atlantic and many more to educate and improve awareness of the LGBTQIA+ community. They are the author of The Book of Non-Binary Joy and Your Gender Book. Ben is a TEDx speaker, their talk focused on ensuring trans and non-binary people can find joy every day.
Ben was a huge part of the success of our first TEDxTeesside event, we’re so delighted to be welcoming them back to Teesside in October as our host. They will be expertly guiding us through the day of TEDx talks, performances, and inspirational conversations. You can watch Ben’s TEDx talk at TEDxLondonWomen here.
2025 Speakers
KIM MCDERMOTTROE (SHE/HER)
Kim McDermottroe is a multi-disciplinary artist - Creative Director, costume and puppet designer/maker, and illustrator.
Since 2003 she has worked under the business name Greener Lavelle.
A leading outdoor arts provider in the Tees Valley, developing skills, knowledge and experience within the community carnival sector and establishing strong relationships with the public, educational and heritage organisations, local authorities and businesses.
Kim works across most cultural sectors such as outdoor arts, theatre, dance, museums & heritage, TV/film. She also works with businesses who want creative solutions and has had four solo exhibitions of her illustrations.
In her talk, Kim will share how she’s navigated the last 22 years as a freelance artist, late autism diagnosis, how she hacks her own brain, and why she wears odd shoes.
TABBY KERWIN (she/her)
Tabby Kerwin is an award-winning performance coach, best-selling author, international speaker, and entrepreneur. Based in North Yorkshire and working with key clients across Teesside, she focuses on protecting mental health and enhancing performance. In 2008, she co-founded her portfolio business Mode for… with her late husband, and in 2023, she launched The PERFORM Experience Limited alongside her son.
A professionally trained musician who still performs, Tabby blends her performance background with lived experience, research, and education in positive psychology.
Tabby's journey as a best-selling writer and speaker is shaped by both professional expertise and profound personal loss. At just 16 years old, she lost her father to cancer, and later her brother died following years of poor mental health, and in November 2018, Tabby’s husband Simon, died from a ventilator associated pneumonia and treatment complications, having been diagnosed with a Germ Cell Tumour just four months before his death.
Since that moment, Tabby was determined to share her story, experiences and research as a coaching psychologist and widow globally to help others shift their mindset to flourish and grow regardless of what life throws at them.
'Widowhood made me happier'... It sounds a shocking and crazy admission doesn't it... and can you really name a TEDx talk that? Well yes, I can... because it's true.