Local fans of the California-based TED conference (technology, entertainment, design) have begun planning Asheville’s own TEDx event for late summer in hopes of highlighting our own group of inspiring thinkers with fascinating ideas.
TED (technology, entertainment, design) is an annual conference that defines its mission as “ideas worth spreading”. TEDxAsheville executive director Jennifer Saylor is currently seeking recommendations for local speakers and elaborates in a note via Ashvegas:
Dear friends and colleagues, TED, the California-based organization offering free talks from the world’s most interesting and inspiring speakers (Bill Gates, Al Gore, Brian Greene, Gladwell, Dawkins, etc.) is helping Asheville produce an INDEPENDENTLY ORGANIZED, homegrown TEDx event in Asheville in late summer. I’m serving as the 2009 executive director for TEDxAsheville and am looking for speakers. If you’re familiar with TED and have a recommendation or would like to speak yourself, skip the rest of this note and send me an email. If you’re not familiar with TED, it’s a free event where people with varying backgrounds do a 20-minute “speech of a lifetime.” It’s billed as “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world.” TED stands for technology, entertainment and design. Technology is NOT the primary focus, and singers, poets, comedians, actors and teachers share the TED stage with scientists, physicians, inventors and aid workers. TED is for anyone with a powerful message and a strong ability to impart it.
When asked “Why?” by Mountain Xpress reporter Jason Sandford, Saylor responds: “Because Asheville is such a creative place with a strong entrepreneurial spirit, a spirit of community, of helping, of learning. It
