News | TEDxAsheville

What Asheville is Saying about TEDxAsheville

Posted on November 11, 2011 by tedx

Danny Peck, a presenter at TEDxKatuah

Bold Life: “Standing at an intersection of technology and philanthropy, Asheville resident Justin Purnell is making something happen that couldn’t have existed before the digital revolution. Carrying out a mission started by his father, Purnell will dial up a video conference call to a Teach the World Online classroom (which teaches English as a second language to students around the world) November 13 during TEDxAsheville, a demonstration of what happens when people combine technologies and begin thinking in new ways.”

http://www.boldlife.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A20437

Summit Jaffe, a presenter at TEDxNextGenerationAsheville

Verve: “The lineup of speakers for this month’s event looks fascinating. TIME Magazine’s science and technology editor, Jeff Kluger, will speak on sibling relationships. Asheville’s Leah Quintal, who runs the Gift of Light for Haiti program, will talk about bringing solar lights to Haiti’s tent cities. 101-year-old Florence Ready will talk longevity. Joyce Roush, a Flat Rock resident who VERVE profiled in August, will discuss the benefits of organ donation (she was one of the first people in the country to donate a kidney to a stranger). Armenian folk singer Mariam Matossian will perform, along with a hip-hop dance troupe from the Urban Arts Institute. Sounds like a good chance to mix, mingle and be inspired by both out-of-town speakers and brainy Western North Carolinians.”

http://www.vervemag.com/november-2011/2011/10/31/tedxs-excellent-adventure-continues.html

Birke Baehr, a presenter at TEDxNextGenerationAsheville2010 & TEDxAsheville2011

Mountain Xpress: “At 2010’s TEDx Next Generation Asheville, Birke Baehr (11 years old at the time) gave a witty and to-the-point presentation titled “What’s wrong with our food system.” The five-minute video appears on the ted.com website (among over 1,000 “TED Talks”) and has logged more than half a million views.”
http://www.mountainx.com/article/37043/The-X-factor

Citizen Times: “This year’s speakers include a renowned science writer, activists, musicians and bloggers — all of whom aspire to change at least a little section of the world. The conference creates “a platform where humanity steps in front of the camera and shares best practices for being better human beings,” Saylor said.
http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20111106/NEWS/311060046/TEDx-Asheville-event-gives-speakers-platform-attendees-inspiration

See you Sunday! Get your tickets here!

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5 Reasons to Attend this year’s TedxAsheville

Posted on November 9, 2011 by tedx

A Cirque du Soleil for your mind!

1. Powerful Presenters: ENGAGE with the powerful thoughts and ideas of TIME magazine editor and “Lost Moon” (the book that became “Apollo 13”) co-author Jeffrey Kluger. Listen to Man vs. Debt blogger and 2011 BlogWorld presenter Adam Baker as he explains how he decided transform a nation blinded by debt. Learn how a local man is using artistic self-expression to re-charge the lives of local youth and have your soul lifted as you listen to a folk singer working to bring the music and culture of Armenia home to the Blue Ridge Mountains. (Oh, and there’s more)

2. Inspiring Ideas: Understand how sibling relationships shape our lives. Think about selling your possessions, paying your debt and doing what you always dreamed you could do. Listen to the heartfelt story of a local woman who turned an altruistic idea into a world-changing, life-saving movement… and that’s just the first two sessions.

3. Enlightening Interactivity: Engage with others in NEW extended, half-day event networking and interactivity breaks. You’ll have the opportunity to meet active members of the regional community, allowing you to collaborate for a better future and connect with the growing TEDxAsheville community!

4. Surprises: We can’t tell you what they are but, we CAN tell you this year marks our BIGGEST surprise in three years of events.Trust us, you don’t want to miss it!

5. Inspiration: We are here to empower, inspire, delight, invigorate and charge our community by sharing great ideas, captivating performances and new technologies. Join us for an experienced designed to shift your paradigm, challenge your worldview and recharge your brain!

The energy is rising. It’s time to ENGAGE.
Get your tickets now at TEDxAsheville.com

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To Infinity & Beyond….

Posted on November 6, 2011 by tedx

Fasten your seatbelts and keep all arms & feet inside the spacecraft. Helmets off as your mind will need to be fully exposed to ENGAGE with one of the most accomplished & proactive writers of our time. Who is this year’s TEDxAsheville headliner Jeffrey Kluger? Former writer for Discovery magazine, Family Circle & Science Digest as well as writer & editor of the New York Times Business Magazine and senior writer & editor of TIME Magazine.

Do you remember the movie Apollo 13? The Blockbuster hit with Tom Hanks & Kevin Bacon detailing the 7^th manned mission to the moon? Kluger co-authored the book that was the basis of that amazing Ron Howard flick. In fact, that was just the beginning of his space exploration adventures. He went on to personally pen several other novels about U.S. exploration into the unknown.

Planteary systems and space travel aren’t the only areas of expertise for Mr. Kluger however. He has explored the minds of animals such as Kanzi, a 29 yr. old ape following in the famous KoKo’s footsteps, communicating with humans using English & sign language. After spending time with Kanzi, Kluger concluded, “Humans have a fraught relationship with beasts. They are our companions and our chattel, our family members and our laborers, our household pets and our household pests. We love them and cage them, admire them and abuse them. And, of course, we cook and eat them.”

His fascination runs deep, pushing him to explore the depths of issues such as e-waste in Ghana, birth defects caused by pollution in China, endangerment of the shark species , and more. In fact, he continued his foray into the depths of the biological understanding with a look into the cognitive influence of human siblings on one another. His interest grew out of a desire to understand the relationship amongst familial ties and discern what ones place in the family tree says about who they are and therefore how successful they will be. His findins suggest that if you were the first born you’re in good shape. His book, “The Sibling Effect,” tells us that the first born will be taller, more intelligent, the most loyal to the family & the most driven to achieve!

Come listen, learn and engage with the diverse depth of information that Mr. Kluger has to share!

See you next Sunday @ TEDxAsheville2011!

To read more about Jeffrey Kluger, check out these articles:

Posted in About TEDx, Events | 1 Comment

TEDxAsheville open house and volunteer party April 26

Posted on April 18, 2011 by tedx

On April 26, meet the people behind Asheville’s TEDx events, change your life with Asheville’s best volunteer opportunities, and be part of a tribe that wants to change the world, starting with Asheville.

Starting with you.

TEDxAsheville open house and volunteer party

Arcade Asheville 130 College St downtown Asheville

6-9 pm

Tuesday, April 26

FREE!

YOU CAN BE PART OF TEDxASHEVILLE

The Asheville TEDx team is looking for volunteers, supporters, and people who just want to learn more, and your whole family could be part of one of Asheville’s most educational, meaningful, well-attended and life-changing events.

Our vols get free tickets, invaluable real-world professional experience that can kickstart or transform a career, fun with a supportive, youth-friendly team, and total backstage access. They also get to party at Arcade.

Come out, have FUN, and learn more about what’s happening with TEDx in Asheville!

MORE ABOUT OUR EVENTS

Our annual TEDx conferences are inspired by the TED Conference, a major global nonprofit event where some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers share what they are most passionate about before an audience ready to listen and spread their own great ideas. Our events focus on ideas worth spreading, virtuoso performances and live demos of cutting-edge new products and technologies.

This year we’re offering a NEW science-focused TEDx event as well as monthly salon events, student TEDx events in area schools…

MORE ABOUT OUR TEAM

We need help bringing Asheville something amazing. If you’re up to it, we offer the toughest job that will ever completely transform everything you ever thought you ever were.

Please note that these are all unpaid, volunteer positions in an all-volunteer organization. You’ll take your pay in fun, learning, community connections and life-transforming experience.

And it’ll be worth it.

Check out our teams and volunteer with us! Contact organizer Anne Manner-McLarty at anne@tedxavl.com.

VOLUNTEER WITH TEDxAsheville

School events: Be part of the team that organizes a TEDx event at YOUR SCHOOL.
NEW TEDx event: Love the wonder and beauty of science? Be part of our NEW all-ages TEDx science event!
Marketing: Looking at a career in marketing or nonprofits? Get invaluable, you-won’t-get-this-anywhere-else real-world experience helping one of Asheville’s most successful community-focused events.
Publicity: Help create and run publicity campaigns for Sir Ken’s appearance next month, TEDxAsheville later this year.
Web design: HELP!
Salon events: Monthly community events focused on the future of Asheville kick off soon.
Finance: Willing to donate your time as a CPA or financial administrator? We’ve got to admit, we’re glad someone is.
Administration: Nerd or techie wanted: We’re learning how to keep a permanent record of documents and best practices for a 50-member tribe devoted to making the world a better place, starting with Asheville.
Participant experience: We’ve got the coolest people in Asheville on our stage and in our audience. Help us help them get the most out of being part of our event.
Technical production: If you like theatre, webstreaming, running events, working behind the scenes, stage managing, and all that fun stuff, we’re offering you a chance to be behind the scenes, learning everything you want to learn.
Content: Help us decide who to put onstage in 2011. Yep. You can do that with us.
Design: Help us design TEDxAsheville 2011. It’s an awesome job, and somebody gets to do it.
Outreach: We’ve started outreach to Burnsville, Hendersonville and Franklin. Where else do we need to go to get people thinking about great ideas, great performances and cutting-edge tech? Want to help us get there?
Ticketing and house: Help us ticket TEDxAsheville (Eventbrite?) and run our event like a well-oiled machine.
Social media: Work with social media professionals to promote major events including our NEW monthly salon series, world class education presenter Sir Ken Robinson, and our annual TEDxAsheville event.
Graphic design: Get real-world cutting-edge experience with a social media friendly organization that needs logos, ads, icons and a branded family of profiles across multiple platforms.
Systems and processes: These are key to becoming a sustainable organization putting on great events indefinitely. If it’s your thing, we stand ready to listen and learn.

HOW CAN YOU HELP? TELL EVERYONE ABOUT OUR VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES AND OUR EVENT!

And on April 26, come on out and say hey.

Posted in TEDx in Asheville events, Volunteers | 2 Comments

Do schools kill creativity?: Top TED presenter Sir Ken Robinson in Asheville April 27, tickets available now

Posted on April 12, 2011 by tedx

Passion, creativity, reinventing education, taking on the future. Visionary cultural leader Sir Ken Robinson in Ashevillle April 27.

In a talk applicable to creatives, business leaders, education leaders and anyone interested in actualizing personal and community potential, Sir Ken will address how our community can ready itself for an unknown future by ridding ourselves of outmoded educational systems based on creating workers rather than creatively engaged human beings capable of innovation, vision and self-actualization.

Sir Ken will be speaking to Asheville, supporting our efforts to move art into schools as a means to build creativity into the system, leading to innovation in the economic sphere.

And we here in Asheville are ripe for change and innovation. With the Asheville Chamber adding arts and culture to its directives, and the Downtown Master Plan’s Sub-Committee that brought people together from all aspects of the arts world for the recent Creative Sector Summit, Sir Ken’s ideas can guide and encourage us as we creatively navigate through the challenges we face.

Additionally, he will speak to everyone as individuals who seek happiness and fulfillment in our lives, searching for the passion we yearn for in our jobs and within our homes and family–-a concern that’s the subject of his latest book, ‘The Element.”

Tickets available here:
http://www.ticketmaster.com/Sir-Ken-Robinson-tickets/artist/1361877

The Fine Arts League of the Carolinas Art School and TEDxAsheville present: Sir Ken Robinson, “Changing Educational Paradigms”
Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
Wednesday, April 27
6-7 p.m.

Tickets: $25 adults and $14 students in advance
$30 for adults $18 for students at the door.
Ticket link: http://www.ticketmaster.com/Sir-Ken-Robinson-tickets/artist/1361877

Tickets are available now at the Civic Center Box Office, by telephone at 866-820-4553, and online from Ticketmaster:http://www.ticketmaster.com/Sir-Ken-Robinson-tickets/artist/1361877

Why don’t schools and workplaces get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson, one of the world’s leading critics of the modern educational system, argues it’s because we’ve been educated to become good workers rather than creative thinkers.

Students with restless minds and bodies — far from being recognized for their energy and curiosity — are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. “We are educating people out of their creativity,” Robinson said.

He speaks to audiences throughout the world on the creative challenges facing business and education. Anyone who believes there are better ways to educate our young people and ourselves is invited to experience Sir Ken’s newest talk, “Changing Educational Paradigms.”

The Fine Arts League of the Carolinas offers free tickets to major sponsors of Sir Ken’s Asheville appearance. For information on a partnership with the League for sponsorship options including a meet-and-greet with Sir Ken, contact Sheri Kahn at kahn@fineartsleague.org.

Don’t miss out! Tickets available online here!

Posted in TEDx in Asheville events | Tagged Sir Ken Robinson | 1 Comment

Get involved in TEDx: leadership meeting Sunday Jan. 16

Posted on January 9, 2011 by tedx

2009/2010 TEDx organizer Ohia at work

Asheville’s 2011 TEDx leadership team is forming.

At our next organizers’ meeting, roles will be discussed, created and filled.

Do you have skills to share? Are you ready to take responsibility and help create TEDx experiences in Asheville? Do you know someone who is?

Skills needed include: publicity, direction/production of large events, fundraising, audience experience, volunteer management. There are also talents needed that we don’t yet know. We welcome input and skills from the community.

Gather with the 2011 TEDx team on Sunday, Jan. 16 at 12 pm for an optional pot luck lunch and leadership meeting.

For directions or more information, please call Jennifer at 828-231-7205 or Ashley at 206-225-3336.

See you there!

- the TEDxers of Asheville

Posted in Volunteers Needed | 3 Comments

TEDxAsheville salon discussion event Weds Jan 12: PLAY

Posted on January 7, 2011 by tedx

TEDxAsheville kicks off its 2011 event season with a video talk about bringing play into our lives, given by a researcher who found that as a group, people who commit murder have something in common: a lack of play in childhood. (The same researcher also found a connection between adult play and success.)

So what does lack of play in adulthood cause? Come out and tell us, because we bet you already know. These salon events are meant to make us all think, talk and help each other learn.

Here at TEDxAsheville, we aren’t doing resolutions, we’re adopting a byword. And our word for 2011 is PLAY. So if you love TED, great ideas, building community or watching talks from some of the world’s greatest thinkers, join us for the first TEDxAsheville community salon event of the new year, TEDxAsheville: PLAY.

The theme is play, we’re meeting at the ice cream shop (!), and we’re watching a talk on play. From TED.com:

Dr. Stuart Brown came to research play through research on murderers — unlikely as that seems — after he found a stunning common thread in killers’ stories: lack of play in childhood. Since then, he’s interviewed thousands of people to catalog their relationships with play, noting a strong correlation between success and playful activity. His book Play describes the impact play can have on one’s life.

With the support of the National Geographic Society and Jane Goodall, he has observed animal play in the wild, where he first concieved of play as an evolved behavior important for the well being — and survival — of animals, especially those of higher intelligence. Now, through his organization, the National Institute for Play, he hopes to expand the study of human play into a vital science — and help people everywhere enjoy and participate in play throughout life.

“Finally, a good excuse to goof off … Brown builds a compelling case for the importance of recreation to success and creativity — and insists that grown-ups need it too.” – Discover Magazine

TEDxAsheville salon discussion event: PLAY
Wednesday, January 12
5:30-7 p.m.
The Hop Ice Cream, Merrimon Square location (640 Merrimon Ave, Suite 103)
a FREE community great-ideas event for all ages old enough to sit through a 15-minute video talk

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TEDxAsheville 2011 planning meeting: want to help us put on a show?

Posted on December 2, 2010 by tedx

TEDxAsheville: We're not nerds or anything

The team behind TEDxAsheville 2009 and 2010 launch TEDxAsheville 2011 with a Sunday December 19 planning meeting. This is not a general meeting for new volunteers, but anyone interested in leading a committee or helping shape and lead TEDx in Asheville in 2011 is welcome to attend.

Multiple skill sets are needed, including: marketing, publicity, administration, accounting, and many more. TEDxAsheville is a local festival inspired by the TED Conference and TED.com. Check out TEDxAsheville.com and TED.com for more information, or email Jennifer Saylor at Jennifer.freelance@gmail.com.

TEDxAsheville planning meeting
Sunday, Dec. 19, 4:30 pm
East Asheville
Call 828-231-7205 for more details.

Who should attend: Anyone interested in a leadership role or in making decisions about the future of TEDxAsheville in 2011. Anyone from a sister WNC TEDx event who wants to support our community’s continued experience of quality TEDx events.

What to bring: a covered dish for a shared meal.

What to expect: to spend 90 min-2 hours talking, followed by a shared meal. This planning meeting will be timed and facilitated.

Here’s to more excitement in 2011! Asheville, it’s all about you. Come on out and be part of the fun!

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TEDxAsheville 2010: The Wrap-Up

Posted on November 8, 2010 by tedx

2010 TEDxAsheville performer River Guerguerian. Photo by Micah McKenzie

In 2009 a small, but dedicated group of volunteers, fueled by their commitment to ideas worth spreading, created an event to showcase local thinkers who are changing the world. With little to work with other than their energy, passion, and determination, this team packed out The Orange Peel, with hundreds more turned away at the door.

TEDxAsheville was on the map. But is it possible to capture lighting in a bottle twice?

On August 29, locals and visitors filled The Orange Peel in a sold-out show to hear talks from a CNN Hero, a man who has lived in the woods since he was 16.

The speakers challenged the audience to embrace possibilities, reject limitations, unleash creativity, and live the life of purpose that each of us knows is waiting.

Unlike 2009, this year’s conference was a ticketed event. 2010′s $25 admission fee, charged solely to cover costs of the event, in no way dampened the enthusiasm of local idea-philes, who sold out the event days in advance, proving that in Asheville, big ideas can compete with cool indie bands for mindspace.

The TEDxAsheville 2010 Lineup

Breah Parker: “Drawing on the Spirit Within”

Eustace Conway: “Traditional Lifestyles in the 21st Century”

Jeff Schmitt: “My Adventures on the Road to Wellness”

Angela Shelton: “Squish, the Heart of the Matter”

Doc Hendley: “Extraordinarily Ordinary”

Laurey Masterton: “Bees, Bikes, and Cooking for Survival”

James Navé: “The Imaginative Storm into the Creative Form”

River Guerguerian: “Ancient Technologies”

John Miles: “Innerprenuership–Happiness in the Workplace”

Billy Jonas: “The Art of War: A Neo-Tribal Operetta In Three Parts”

Check out the TEDxAsheville Flickr gallery here.

***

The energy of TEDxAsheville 2010 continues with two new efforts.

TEDxNextGenerationAsheville Executive Director Ashley Cooper and TEDxAsheville Technical Director Brett McCall joined forces to create a series of salon events. Follow TEDxAsheville on Facebook for more details!

And TEDxAsheville’s Head of Marketing and Publicity is creating her own TED-inspired community project: The Community Restorative Garden Initiative, an alternative sentencing program where local judges can send nonviolent youth offenders to work on a sustainable, locally focused farm and educational facility.

Where there are great ideas, there is the spirit of TEDx. Thank you for supporting our TEDxAsheville events!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments