SINGAPORE — With the country still in its Jubilee year celebrations, TEDxSingapore will be presenting its biggest event yet — more than 30 speakers, writers, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs and other experts in their fields will be exploring the idea of The Undiscovered Country over two days next month.

The independently organised Singapore spinoff of the famous TED events usually holds one-day events comprising six to 18 speakers, but TEDxSingapore’s founding curator Dave Lim and lead curator Michelle Wan have decided to scale it up for this round, their 33rd event thus far. They are expecting around 1,700 people to attend, which is three times more than their previous TEDxSingapore event.

The Undiscovered Country, which took a year to plan, will also be simulcast “live” for the first time.

The line-up includes travel writer and Lonely Planet co-founder Tony Wheeler, the jet-setting entrepreneur who produced his first travel guide with a friend 42 years ago from their kitchen table. On the other end of the spectrum is migrant worker and poet Zakir Hossain Khokon, who left his job as a freelance journalist in Dhaka to work as a construction worker in Singapore. He also won the top prize at last year’s Migrant Workers Poetry Competition.

The audience will also hear from data visionary and global health expert Hans Rosling, the most prolific and most-watched TED speaker in TED history. The youngest speaker is 12-year-old Dylan Soh, who illustrated and co-wrote the book The Big Red Dot.

Topics covered include technology, entertainment, design, society/space, youth, history and heritage. According to Wan, the speakers were curated to ensure a diverse range of ideas, talents, genders, ages and backgrounds, in line with their aim of bringing different people together to inspire ideas and action, and to unearth unknown voices in the community. They had received 70 candidates, which they then whittled down to the current 30 talks.

Beyond the talks, some speakers will be offering attendees complementary activities or hands-on experiences. For example, singer-songwriter Inch Chua, who spent four months in Pulau Ubin working on her fifth album, will be inviting attendees to tour the island with her and explore her creative space. Meanwhile, National Parks Board’s biodiversity expert Lena Chan is exploring the idea of a Singapore Botanic Gardens tour.

“It’s about connecting people that love and value ideas. You’re always stuck in this silo thinking about ideas in your own little box, but at TED, because you’re exposed to different fields, you may suddenly get ideas and inspirations beyond what you would normally have,” said Lim.

TEDxSingapore is on Nov 6 and 7 at Nanyang Technological University. Tickets at S$98. For more info, visit http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/16973