TEDxSeattleSalon: Becoming Thought Leaders
TEDxSeattle speakers who have brought innovation to the fields of business and medicine, through non-standard approaches, will share how they did it during this mid-week evening discussion.
Maura O'Neill, the former Chief of Innovation for the U.S. Agency for International Development (a role she developed in the Obama administration) is a serial entrepreneur, instructor, and researcher on the topic of "narrow-mindedness" and its effect on science, medicine, business, and government. She was also a featured speaker at TEDxRainier in 2015. That presentation is linked, below.
Mónica Guzmán is a journalist reinventing media as a way for Seattleites to better connect. She is also the co-founder and director of The Evergrey, a new community media newsletter and platform that helps us, "Live like you live here." Prior to The Evergrey, Mónica was a columnist at the Seattle Times, GeekWire, The Daily Beast the the Columbia Journalism Review.
Mavis Tsai is a UW research scientist and clinical psychologist, and the founder of a new movement to increase deep social connections. This movement is spreading through cities on a global scale, led by facilitators whom she trains on learnings based on her research. Her work creates more accessible ways to provide meaningful connections at an affordable scale for all people, worldwide. For a sneak peek, you can also check out her previous talk at TEDxEverett.
When you purchase a ticket, you can expect an interesting and interactive discussion of thought leadership and innovation.
Blue jeans or blue water? Fashion powering conservation around the world
Most people don't link high fashion with the conservation movement but Ava Holmes founded Fashion for Conservation (FFC) to do exactly that.
Ava and her team of industry-leading fashion professionals and her colleagues in the conservation movement have been raising awareness as well as funds by producing wildlife-inspired fashion campaigns and hosting events at Fashion Weeks around the world such as Elephantasia, a campaign to help protect African elephants, And now Elephantasia can be seen as part of TEDxSeattle in the first fashion show included in a TEDx talk. Inspired by her film producer mother and by her father, an instructor in outdoor survival skills, Ava grew up with a deep love of nature as well as beautiful art. A noted producer, Holmes’ career in fashion has always been influenced by her connection to nature, so combining her interests in fashion and conservation became an obvious choice. Eschewing traditional fashion production because of its excessive waste, Holmes decided fashion should be the solution to its own problem and created Fashion for Conservation. It’s working. Her nature-inspired approach to fashion is featured on the catwalk in fashion weeks worldwide as well as in mainstream media, reaching non-traditional audiences with a message of conservation. Fashion for Conservation now funds a variety of innovative conservation projects in threatened ecosystems around the world.
Creating purposeful wonder
Inspired by the view through his first telescope of a fuzzy, but awe-inducing glimpse of Saturn, entrepreneur Jim Haven was spellbound by wonder.
He is now creating ways to discover and share that sense of wonder with others. Haven’s message to all of us is look up and wonder. A lifelong daydreamer and former advertising creative, Jim learned from some of the most creative people in the business before forming a creative agency in Seattle and London. It was this relationship with creativity that inspired him to change careers and a chance encounter with Saturn that has sparked his present endeavor. Jim has turned his focus skyward, co-founding Look Up where he serves as Wondernaut and Executive Director. Look Up explores the power of wonder through art, science, and space. The organization is creating collaborative experiences designed to incite wonder.
Nature's internet: how trees talk to each other in a healthy forest
This fascinating talk presents the scientific research that shows the interconnectedness of life in the forest ecosystem.
It takes us beneath the forest floor where we learn how trees are communicating and exchanging resources. Going beyond the simple view of a forest as a resource to be exploited, it presents the forest as a complex network of life. Her examination of the relationships that make up the complexity of nature present compelling support for the idea that “We are all one”
What’s happening in the arctic and why it matters to you
Elizabeth creates a soundscape as she tells of her two trips to the North Pole. The moving experience motivated her capture the stories of those living in the Arctic Circle, bringing this incredibly remote place to life and showing it's relevance to us all.
Finding Bigfoot Hike and Overnight Camp
Come help us solve one of the greatest mysteries alive by channeling your inner field biologist as we hike alongside Animal Planet’s ‘Finding Bigfoot’ host Ranae Holland. Ranae is a field biologist who has traveled the globe in search of Bigfoot evidence, and has dedicated her life to educating people on how to decipher fact from myth using science.
We will start the day with an afternoon exploration hike under a canopy of trees alongside a river using all of the fun equipment a scientist would use while researching a natural phenomenon. Following our hike we will spend the evening cooking around a fire, listening to live music and hearing some of Ranae’s favorite Bigfoot stories. We will wrap up the adventure with breakfast around a fire and head home. This is sure to be a memory of a lifetime.
Meet at the Denny Creek Campground (near Snoqualmie), campsites 30,31,32.
What to bring: Active shoes, comfortable/active clothing, something to stay warm at night and a rain coat in case of rain, sleeping bag, pillow and tent. If you are missing any of the required gear (i.e., Tent, Sleeping Bag, etc) please email us and we will be sure to provide you the gear you need.
Encounter the everyday wilderness
Life in the city is commonly at odds with our concept of nature, wildlife, and natural beauty—but we're just not paying close enough attention. Nature writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt shows us how we are always intimately connected to the wilderness and nature, no matter where we choose to live our lives.
The writing of Lyanda Lynn Haupt is at the forefront of the movement to connect people with nature in their everyday lives. Her newest book is The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild, was published by Little, Brown in fall, 2013. Her previous book, Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness, was published by Little, Brown in July 2009, and was awarded the 2010 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award. Lyanda's first book, Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds (Sasquatch, 2001), explores the relationship between humans, birds, and ecological understanding, and is a winner of the 2002 Washington State Book Award. Her second book, Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin's Lost Notebooks, published by Little, Brown, continues to resonate with audiences interested in natural history, Darwin, birds, and their intersection.
Lyanda has created and directed educational programs for Seattle Audubon, worked in raptor rehabilitation in Vermont, and been a seabird researcher for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the remote tropical Pacific. Her writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including Utne, LA Times, Image, Open Spaces, Huffington Post, Wild Earth, and Conservation Biology Journal. She lives in Seattle with her husband and daughter, and their mixed backyard chicken flock.