TEDxSeattleLive: Watching TED 2018 "The Age of Amazement"
To introduce TED2018, TED owner Chris Anderson and TED Head of Curation Helen Walters asked the audience to complete a simple task: to turn to someone whom they didn’t know and state what, over the last year, the main emotion is that they’ve felt. In Seattle, the crowd that was gathered at TEDxSeattleLive followed suit. Strangers exchanged quick greetings and with just a few minutes for the exercise began sharing their hope—and fears—from the past year. 
While there was plenty of apprehension in the crowd, there was also hope for what the next year would bring despite an increasingly divisive global culture. Seattle has long been known as a city filled with forward-thinking innovation and passion for change, so it’s no surprise a day full of learning and inspiration was met with such an openness to how an idea can shape the future.
The event screened two different sessions over the course of the day: “Doom. Gloom. Outrage. Uproar.” then “Wow. Just wow.” Between the two sessions, the audience listened to topics ranging from the #MeToo movement by Tracee Ellis Ross, to how artificial intelligence can upheave the job market as we know it today by Kai-Fu Lee.
Behind the Scenes with Luly Yang, Fashion Designer [SOLD OUT]
Luly Yang is a multi-award-winning artist and internationally known fashion designer based in Seattle.
Her most recent project: the exciting and highly visible new uniform design for Alaska Airlines’ 19,000+ employees. (Learn more about the uniform design project in this video.)
In this one-of-a-kind experience, you’ll go behind the scenes of Luly’s studio in the heart of Downtown Seattle to see firsthand how she transforms her vision and fabric into art. As you tour her space with fellow art aficionados, you’ll learn about her creative process, as well as how designs are conceived, and then made real. All along the way, you’ll hear Luly tell her compelling story of leveraging her role as a graphic designer in the field of architecture into an internationally award-winning fashion design career.
Luly has been named a “Women of Influence" by the Puget Sound Business Journal, "Best Custom Dress Designer" by Seattle Bride Magazine for 13 consecutive years, and has received the Nellie Cashman Woman Business Owner of the Year Award. She has also designed costumes for Seattle-based Teatro ZinZanni, and was commissioned by Pan Pacific Hotel to design their new uniforms for their grand opening. Her shows have benefited non-profit organizations such as Camp Korey, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Swedish Hospital, Fred Hutch, and others.
Luly Yang couture, ready-to-wear, accessories, bridal, cocktail, evening wear and menswear are available in Seattle, Beijing and Europe.
Light appetizers and drinks will be available during your adventure with Luly.
This adventure is capped at 40 so we suggest registering soon.
Location: Luly Yang’s private studio (closed to the public)
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.
Setting scientific research free
The results from taxpayer-funded, scientific research are often locked behind a paywall.
Jennifer Hansen, a senior officer in Knowledge and Research at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, says the cost of accessing that data is too high. Limiting access to the research results in social inequity and puts human lives at risk. She argues that the current model of research distribution is overdue for disruption. Hansen says it’s time to foster a scientific revolution through open access to data. Jennifer Hansen is an equity advocate with a fierce dedication to ensuring information and scientific knowledge is free and available to all. Her professional career has revolved around closing the digital divide and inspiring others to believe in the power of knowledge to shape their world. Ms. Hansen currently works at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as the Senior Officer for Knowledge & Research. She drives the strategy development and management of the foundation’s research outputs and is an influencer in shaping the future of scholarly communication. She championed and led the implementation of the Foundation’s groundbreaking Open Access Policy – a policy requiring that all its funded published research be immediately available to everyone, everywhere without barrier or restriction. Nature called the bold action to open up scholarly research the”world’s strongest policy on open access research.” And, The Economist described it as “something that may help to change the practice of science.”
Virtual reality can be a powerful tool for understanding each other
Virtual Reality is a work in progress, says Sandy Cioffi, and she outlines exciting ways VR is being used to experience "the other," to virtually "walk in someone else’s shoes."
Artists as using immersive media, to create new narratives that would allow you to put on a high-tech headset and feel what it’s like to float down the Amazon river, experience life as a different gender, or scatter in the wake of destruction on a Syrian street. With examples of some of the most exciting work going on in this new media, Sandy argues that VR can provide a seismically new way to understand ourselves and, in the end, give us a greater understanding of what it is to be human. Sandy Cioffi was the Director of SIFFX, the Seattle film festival's celebration of virtual reality and immersive filmmaking and is currently director of the New Media and Virtual Reality X Fair coming in 2018. As a filmmaker, Sandy has worked with human rights organizations in global hot zones and has worked extensively with Hate Free Zone (now One America) producing films about treatment of immigrants post-September 11th. In 2005-2008, Sandy traveled to the volatile Niger Delta in Nigeria to film "Sweet Crude," documenting conditions and interviewing the region’s key stakeholders, including leadership of the armed resistance movement. She has been active in political advocacy for the Delta’s people, appealing to media, U.S. legislators, international diplomats, and NGOs. Sandy has worked as an artist-in-residence at many middle and high schools in Washington State and through the mentor/apprentice film program at the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center. She was the founder and Director/Chair of Film + Media at Cornish College of the Arts. Currently, Sandy is directing a non-fiction media project with CREA, a feminist human rights organization. She is the co-founder and Creative Director of the start-up fearless360º creating immersive media and education events around the world. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
Disease eradication is within reach
Steve Davis is working to bring an extraordinary vision to reality—the global elimination of some of the world’s most deadly and debilitating diseases.
Davis is the president and CEO of PATH, a 40-year-old, Seattle-based, global health-focused, non-governmental organization which works on vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, devices, and system/service innovations. In this talk, Davis lays out the “how to” of disease elimination calling on his diverse experience as a former human-rights lawyer, a nationally-recognized technology business innovator and social activist. Steve Davis, president and CEO of PATH, combines extensive experience as a technology business leader, global health advocate, and social innovator to accelerate great ideas and bring lifesaving solutions to scale. Prior to joining PATH in 2012, he served as director of Social Innovation at McKinsey & Company, CEO of the global digital media firm, Corbis, interim director of the Infectious Disease Research Institute, and he practiced law at the international law firm K&L Gates. Earlier, he worked extensively on refugee programs and policies, and Chinese politics and law. Mr. Davis is a lecturer on social innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He currently is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves on the board of InterAction, and sits on several advisory groups, including the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Social Innovation and the Clinton Global Initiative’s Global Health Advisory Board. He also serves as a trustee of the World Economic Forum’s Global Health Challenge. Mr. Davis earned his BA from Princeton University, his MA in Chinese studies from the University of Washington, and his law degree from Columbia University. He also studied at Beijing University.
Let’s make connectivity mobile — by heading to space
Access to the internet has changed the world, but with expectations in the next 15 year of 30 billion connected devices, we are facing a connectivity crisis. The ONLY option for meeting the increased demand for bandwidth is to go to space and we have the technology to get us there.