TEDxIdahoFalls announces speakers and theme for 2019 event
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IDAHO FALLS– Organizers with TEDxIdahoFalls announced the theme and speakers for the 2019 event Monday.
“The point is to get together, grow together, learn together and become inspired together,” TEDxIdahoFalls curator and public relations director Andy Crossman says.
This is the sixth year of the Idaho Falls event with this year’s theme being “Intersections.” Speakers have been challenged to interpret the meaning of that word and put an innovative twist on their presentation.
Brad Christensen, the original founder of the local event, has been instrumental in creating the annual theme.
“Ideas are so much more powerful when they breed, when they interact or intersect,” Christensen says.
“Some of our most brilliant inventions have been the intersection of two people’s minds coming together,” Lead organizer Janece Moore says.
During the TEDxIdahoFalls event, local speakers from various backgrounds will be presenting their ideas to encourage and inspire the community. Crossman says the speakers consist of business owners, ranchers, housewives, college professors, and others.
“We’re going to have something for everyone. You’re going to have ideas that you can apply to your daily life, you’re going to get things that change the way you look at the world,” Crossman says.
Crossman says it’s not a lecture or networking event. He says it’s a conference where people can come to connect, share ideas and have a conversation.
“It’s more about coming and learning and becoming inspired,” Crossman says.
Although TEDx is affiliated with the non-profit international TED organization, the “x” means the event is independently organized. However, the conference has to follow the same strict guidelines as TED.
“On the TED platform you don’t recruit a speaker, you recruit an idea and somebody to talk about it. That’s the really unique aspect,” Christensen says. “You might have really good speakers that get passed up because their ideas just aren’t truly unique or innovative.”
Organizers say the community can look forward to the event on March 9 next year. It’s set to be held at the Performing Arts Center at Thunder Ridge High School. There will also be a dinner for those who want to stay and network after the talks.
“We have such great ideas here in our community. It takes something unique like the TEDx platform to get them all together,” Crossman says.
Both Christensen and Moore hope the community will take advantage of the opportunity to think outside of the box, and their comfort zone.
“We live in a world today that’s becoming more and more polarized and we need to find opportunities to come together, to share those ideas to see what we share in common. I think those commonalities are those intersections that we share,” Crossman says.
“I am hoping people can take away listening to an opinion that they may not agree with. Why not listen to others even if you don’t agree with what they have to say,” says Moore.
For more information on the conference and how to get tickets, go to TEDxIdahoFalls.com, or click here. Sign up for the newsletter or follow them on Facebook.
TEDxIdahoFalls 2019 Speaker Lineup
Kerry Buxton
Thomas Eiden
Charity Haderlie
Jessica Hunter & Clellie Laws
Billie Johnson
Todd Kelson, PhD
Bruce Kusch, PhD
Neal Larson
Wendy Pratt
Lige Rose
Sheri Sanders
Patrick Toussaint