What things around us — or within us — hold potential beyond our familiar expectations of them? What remarkable impact is possible when we alter or expand or re-imagine the purpose of something?

At the January 26th TEDxAtlanta we’ll hear seven remarkable speakers talk about how they’ve repurposed things in a way that gives them new, often greater, sometimes even remarkable new value. Re:purpose is an idea that we’ll discover applies equally to cellos, cargo containers and corporations.

Building on the format that worked so well in September, TEDxAtlanta will preface and epilogue its speakers with the help of an innovative musician. Zoë Keating is a classically trained cellist turned computer programmer turned music sensation. Leading off the speakers — each of whom is only given 18 minutes to deliver the talk of their life — will be Matthias Hollwich. His New York-based architectural firm has re:purposed Atlanta as a canvas that helps us all to imagine the next 100 years. Closing out the day will be Kevin and Hannah Salwen, the father-daughter authors of The Power of Half. Hear how a casual but deeply principled comment by Hannah re-purposed her family’s life.