Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore discussed the “inconvenient truth” about climate change. Novelist Isabel Allende shared tales of passion. Global health expert Hans Rosling offered new insights on poverty. They had different messages but a common venue: TED, an annual gathering of leading “thinkers and doers” who come together to share “ideas worth spreading.”
Now, DU is hosting its own version of a TED conference.
The University will host TEDxDU — a “Celebration of DUing” — on Thursday, May 13. The independently organized event, under license from TED, will take place in the Newman Center’s June Swaner Gates Concert Hall and will be simulcast in other campus venues.
“TEDxDU will be an ambitious presentation of the ways in which our identity as a change agent and action leader is manifested,” Chancellor Robert Coombe wrote in a March 5 message to the campus community. “It will showcase our commitment to improve the human condition through the lives of our graduates and the work of our faculty and staff. It will demonstrate the ways in which the quality and focus of our intellectual enterprise are changing lives, here in Colorado and throughout the world.”
TED — which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design — was first held in Monterey, Calif., in 1984. TEDx (x=independently organized TED event) is a new program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Although TED provides general guidance for the TEDx program, individual TEDx events — including DU’s — are self-organized.
Presenters at TEDxDU will include International Peace Initiatives founder Karambu Ringera (PhD human communication studies ’07) and Barry Hughes, director of DU’s Pardee Center for International Futures. Additional speakers will be announced on the TEDxDU Web site, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Seating will be limited, and registration will be by invitation and online application. The University will begin accepting online ticket requests April 2.
All TEDxDU presentations will be available online following the event.
“TEDxDU is not simply a one-day event, but rather a focal point in our effort to raise awareness of the great things going on at DU,” Coombe wrote. “We hope to leverage the global reach of the Web to find new collaborators who share our interests and passions.”