THE inspirational TEDx talk at the University of Bolton has motivated students into action to stage their own conferences to change lives for the better.

Members of the university's The Changing Attitudes Changing Lives Society held a conference, which they hope will be the first of many to inspire and motivate students.

Themed on Changing Attitudes Changing Lives, the Psychology, Psychotherapy and Counselling (PPC) Conference was aimed at reaching out to more people as well as raising money to forward student research.

Laura O'Brien, PGCE in Education student and organiser, said: "After attending a lecture by Professor Patrick McGhee, at the recent TedxUniversityofBolton conference, the students began to think about how they could make things better for themselves and how learning could be more beneficial for them.

"Over the course of their three-year degrees, Psychology students do nearly 600 hours of experiential exercise or role play.

"Unfortunately there is no specific place for them to do this, so we decided as a group to build therapy rooms, using one of the existing labs in the Psychology Department."

The society put in a bid for funds from the Student Innovative Fund programme, which gives grants to ideas which will benefit all students.

The bid was used to stage the conference and extend the psychology department facilities. More money was raised on the day through raffles.

Over the course of the day hundreds of students attended lectures by Professor David Kitchener, Professor Jerome Carson, sports psychologist Paul Russell and postgraduate students Chathurika Kannangara and Ian Shuttleworth.

The lectures were designed to increase confidence among students and promote positive mental wellbeing.

Conference topics covered included education and the challenges of being a student in today’s different academic culture, as well as recovery, mental illness, art therapy, hate crime and restorative justice.

Laura said: "There has been great feedback from everybody and everyone has enjoyed the conference and got involved.

"The event also allowed networking opportunities between external guests, students and lecturers which was a great learning experience."

Now Laura and the rest of the team Pippa Illiff, Stacey Bush, Tina Butler, Colette McMahon and Omar Levene are confident that PPC will become an annual conference.

The annual TEDx conference invites the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes or less. Speakers have included co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates; renowned primatologist, Jane Goodall; American author, Elizabeth Gilbert; founder of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson and Nobel Prize winner, Daniel Kahneman.