TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

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Parking, registration, lunch: Everything you need to know

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Hel­lo, TEDxSalem nation!

The big day is final­ly near. We can hard­ly believe it.

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Here is every­thing you need to know about TEDxSalem, Oct. 3 — Fear­less — at Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter, 200 Com­mer­cial St. SE, Salem, OR 97301.

SCHEDULE

8 a.m.: Reg­is­tra­tion and light break­fast

8:30 a.m.: The­ater doors open; seats are gen­er­al admis­sion

9 a.m.: Ses­sion one

10:30 a.m.: Recess and snacks

11 a.m.: Ses­sion two

12:15 p.m.: Lunch recess

1:30 p.m.: Ses­sion three

2:30 p.m.: Recess

3 p.m.: Ses­sion four

4:15: On-site after-par­ty (no-host bar)

REGISTRATION/TICKETS

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  • Starts at 8 a.m. (doors will be locked before that time, so please plan to be there no ear­li­er than 8AM).
  • Reg­is­tra­tion is locat­ed on the north­east side of the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter (see map above)
  • Look for our vol­un­teers wear­ing black TEDxSalem T‑shirts.
  • Name tags will be orga­nized by atten­dee’s last name, and you can pick it up at reg­is­tra­tion along with some great gifts.
  • Your name tag will be your pass for access to every­thing through­out the day: the ses­sions, the action breaks, the after par­ty.
  • No phys­i­cal tick­et is required. But please do bring your pho­to ID.
  • At this point, all name tags have been print­ed. If there is an issue with your name tag, one of our plan­ning team mem­bers will be there to help you at reg­is­tra­tion.
  • Doors to the the­ater open at 8:30am, seat­ing is gen­er­al admis­sion, and entrance into the audi­to­ri­um will be first come, first serve.

Tick­ets will be avail­able for pur­chase at the door for $55 cash or card only, no checks. Advance tick­ets at $50 ($45 for stu­dents) are avail­able through Oct. 2 at tedxsalem2015.eventbrite.com.

TRANSPORTATION/PARKING

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  • There’s lim­it­ed on-site park­ing.
  • We encour­age you to walk, bike, or car­pool.
  • Hand­i­cap-acces­si­ble park­ing will be avail­able.
  • See map for all park­ing avail­able in sur­round­ing areas.

FOOD/BEVERAGES

  • Cof­fee, tea and water avail­able start­ing at 8 a.m.
  • Lunch hap­pens at 12:15 p.m.. You’ll be able to choose from a vari­ety of options.
  • Enjoy a deli­cious assort­ment of break­fast options before the first ses­sion begins, plus snacks and bev­er­ages through­out the day.
  • All of this is includ­ed in your tick­et price!

ASL INTERPRETING

  • Amer­i­can sign lan­guage inter­pret­ing will be pro­vid­ed by Ben Cav­alet­to and Mish Kte­jik. Close vision inter­pret­ing will be pro­vid­ed by Sarah Nor­ris and Tedi Massey.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Fol­low us on Face­book, Twit­ter, and Insta­gram for all the lat­est updates, and share your excite­ment about the day using our hash­tag #TEDxSalem

QUESTIONS?

Please con­tact us at info@tedxsalem.us

Getting the most out of your TEDx Salem experience

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We’re only two weeks away from TEDx Salem 2015! If you still haven’t bought your tick­ets, don’t wor­ry, there’s still time to get them here, but hur­ry!

As for every­one else already com­ing down to the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter on Octo­ber 3, and also for those unsure what to expect, check out these 10 tips (re-post­ed) on how to get the most out of your TED expe­ri­ence.

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10. Take notes! Bring a small note­book or tap out a few quick notes on your smart­phone. You’re going to be exposed to so many ideas and insights in one day, and you def­i­nitely want to remem­ber those moments that made you smile, made you think or just jumped out at you. Take a moment, either dur­ing the event or at the end of the day, to jot down the insights you gained.

9. But be present in the moment. We love that you want to Tweet and Insta­gram through­out TEDxSalem, and we encour­age you to do so. But don’t get too wrapped up in your phone that you miss on a poignant moment dur­ing a con­ver­sa­tion or a TED talk!

8. And be open-mind­ed. Some of the ideas worth shar­ing may be a lit­tle shock­ing. Some might be a lit­tle con­tro­ver­sial, or entire­ly new to you. Don’t write off a TED talk if you find your­self bristling at it, or if you don’t under­stand it. Have an open mind and con­sider new ideas!

7. First in the door, last out the build­ing. Get there ear­ly. You can find your seat, chat up the per­son next to you, get com­fort­able with the the­ater and see what oth­er good­ies we’ll be offer­ing through­out the day (last year, par­tic­i­pants had the oppor­tu­nity to pur­chase books writ­ten by our speak­ers, or get some awe­some TEDxSalem swag). Stay the whole day and leave late. Lis­ten to every sin­gle talk, do the break­out ses­sions, ask a mil­lion ques­tions. By the end of the day, you won’t want to leave!

6. Bring some­thing to share. It can be some­thing tan­gi­ble like your busi­ness card, or some­thing that’s not, like a thought-pro­vok­ing ques­tion or even just a great book you’ve read recent­ly.

5. Do your research! We love a good sur­prise, and we hope some of the top­ics and thoughts our speak­ers will share with you will be delight­fully sur­pris­ing. But there’s some­thing to be said for get­ting excit­ed about your favorite speak­er ahead of time! Take a moment to famil­iar­ize your­self with every­one who will be talk­ing this year. Revis­it last year’s speak­ers to get in the spir­it of TED! Or vis­it the offi­cial TED blog for more engag­ing TED talks and choose a few favorites.

4. Net­work, net­work, net­work! TEDxSalem is not a pas­sive or iso­lated expe­ri­ence. You are in the beau­ti­ful Elsi­nore The­ater with hun­dreds of peo­ple just as excit­ed about new ideas as you are! Talk to every­one. Intro­duce your­self. Don’t ask what they do for a liv­ing; ask what they’re pas­sion­ate about. Make friends, get con­tacts, dis­cuss the TED talks with them. Force your­self a lit­tle out of your com­fort zone and chat up a stranger.

3. Our vol­un­teers are a resource! They are the heart, soul and back­bone of TEDxSalem, and they are there to make your expe­ri­ence extra­or­di­nary. If you need any­thing at all, don’t hes­i­tate to ask them!

2. Be sure to par­tic­i­pate in the break­out ses­sions. The high­light of TEDxSalem is our speak­ers, but there’s so much more that goes on through­out the day. If you real­ly want to make the most of your time, don’t shy away from sit­ting in on the break­out ses­sions and shar­ing your own ideas. It’s all about mak­ing you think.

1. Immerse your­self in the spir­it of TED! TED is a non­profit orga­ni­za­tion devot­ed to spread­ing ideas, usu­ally in the form of short, pow­er­ful talks. It began in 1984 as a con­fer­ence where tech­nol­ogy, enter­tain­ment and design con­verged (hence the name) and now cov­ers almost all top­ics, includ­ing sci­ence, busi­ness and glob­al issues. Keep all of this in mind as you approach Oct. 3. The day is devot­ed to shar­ing ideas!

 

TEDxSalem is an all-day event. Tick­ets are $40 for stu­dents and $50 for the gen­eral pub­lic and include talks, enter­tain­ment, par­tic­i­pa­tion in recess breaks, hands-on activ­i­ties between ses­sions, plus food through­out the day (break­fast, coffee/tea/water, snacks and lunch), a gift bag and a few oth­er good­ies. Find your tick­ets here.

ASL interpreting provided at TEDxSalem

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TEDxSalem, in our con­tin­ued com­mit­ment to acces­si­bil­i­ty, will pro­vide ASL inter­pret­ing and close-vision inter­pret­ing for our deaf and deaf/blind atten­dees.

This would not be pos­si­ble with­out the the help of of Ander­son Inter­pret­ing Ser­vices and West­ern Ore­gon Uni­ver­si­ty.

Here’s our offi­cial ASL inter­pret­ing team:

Plat­form: Ben Cav­alet­to and Mish Kte­jik

Close Vision: Sarah Nor­ris and Tedi Massey

Sup­port Ser­vices: Aman­da Allen, Nik­ki Rice and Ty Lewis

Tick­ets are avail­able at tedxsalem2015.eventbrite.com.

Not just talk: TEDxSalem live entertainment lineup

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Robotic Torrest beatboxes at TEDxSalem 2014 in the Historic Elsinore Theatre. (Photo by Anna Reed)
Robot­ic Tor­rest beat­box­es at TEDxSalem 2014 in the His­toric Elsi­nore The­atre. (Pho­to by Anna Reed)

When we think of TED and TEDx, we typ­i­cal­ly think of speak­ers giv­ing talks on a red rug on stage. That’s because many of us have only expe­ri­enced TED through videos online.

The val­ue of attend­ing a live TEDx event is the full expe­ri­ence. That includes live talks, of course, and we spent a lot of time pro­mot­ing our speak­ers. But that’s only half of it. With your tick­et also comes break­out activ­i­ties, snacks, a full meal, lots of free stuff and live enter­tain­ment.

Here are the per­form­ers that will keep you delight­ed through­out the day on Oct. 3:

Riv­er City Rock Star Acad­e­my: A rock school for young musi­cians will very pos­si­bly melt your face off and get your blood pump­ing.

Rich McCloud: Singer, song­writer and spo­ken word artist, McCloud will get your soul stir­ring into peace­ful bliss.

Vor­tex Remover: Made up of Salem’s Peter DeG­root and Rob Groves, Vor­tex Remover is an exper­i­men­tal rock duo that’s a lit­tle bit weird, but a lot of bit fun.

Break­dancers: Some of Salem’s best break­dancers will take the stage for a thrilling show­case of tal­ent. Try not to let your jaw drop to the floor.

Enlight­ened The­atrics: Salem’s own the­ater com­pa­ny (now based at the his­toric Grand The­ater) will have a sur­prise per­for­mance for us. But since it’s a sur­prise, that’s all we’re going to tell you!

Our team work tire­less­ly to curate the most ful­fill­ing and fun day and we’re so excit­ed to share it with you. If you haven’t already, buy your tick­ets at tedxsalem2015.eventbrite.com.

Coming to town for TEDxSalem? Here’s what else you could do

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Look, we’re a lit­tle biased. We live in Salem. We love Salem. We think Salem rocks, which is why so many of us work so hard to bring you TEDxSalem, as a show­case for just how cool this city, and our com­mu­ni­ty, is.

But if you’re vis­it­ing us from out-of-town, (wel­come!) you might be won­der­ing: What else is there to do here?

We have some ideas for you.

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The Capi­tol, obvi­ous­ly. Sort of a no-brain­er, but we’d be remiss not to include it. Guid­ed tours occur on week­days only, but it’s worth wan­der­ing in just to see the rotun­da.

The His­toric Elsi­nore The­ater. Oth­er­wise known as the set­ting of TEDxSalem 2014! This beau­ti­ful old the­ater shows clas­sic films, sym­phon­ic per­for­mances and nation­al tour­ing enter­tain­ment.

Eat your way through down­town. You’ll already be down­town for TEDxSalem, so why not do some explor­ing? We have clas­sic, long-stand­ing lunch coun­ters, qual­i­ty Ital­ian, Span­ish and French restau­rants, local­ly beloved estab­lish­ments and cozy cof­fee shops.

Head to the river­front. You could stroll the pedes­tri­an bridge, go for a spin on the Carousel or just soak up the atmos­phere. Or take a dri­ve to sprawl­ing and gor­geous Bush Park and Minto-Brown.

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Taste the best wine Ore­gon has to offer. We’re pret­ty par­tial to Pinots. There are dozens of world class vine­yards and winer­ies just out­side city lim­its, many of them offer­ing wood-fire piz­zas, cheese plates or full kitchen options. Yum!

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Take in a show, comedic or musi­cal. The options are darn near end­less. There’s fam­i­ly-friend­ly improv at Capi­tol City, the hottest indie films at Salem Cin­e­ma, or the lat­est musi­cal at the Pen­ta­cle The­atre (Addams Fam­i­ly launch­es the same week­end as TEDxSalem!).

Feel col­le­giate at Willamette. Our local uni­ver­si­ty has one gor­geous cam­pus, with wind­ing trails and autumn leaves just beg­ging for a leisure­ly stroll.

Art? Check. His­to­ry? Check. See the lat­est exhib­it at the Hal­lie Ford Muse­um of Art, peruse the finest pieces for sale at the Bush Barn Art Cen­ter, see the film-famous Ore­gon State Hos­pi­tal muse­um or soak up local his­to­ry at the Willamette Her­itage Cen­ter.

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If wine isn’t your thing, maybe beer is? Our small but wild­ly tal­ent­ed (and deli­cious) col­lec­tion of brew­eries are win­ning awards and mak­ing head­lines.

Still need a place to stay? May we rec­om­mend the Grand Hotel in down­town Salem? Not only is it right next door to the Con­ven­tion Cen­ter, but TEDxSalem atten­dees get a dis­count! Just men­tion that you’ll be at the con­fer­ence and get a room for $129, plus tax.

Look­ing for oth­er must-see tips about Salem? Ask any of our vol­un­teers or team mem­bers! Still need tick­ets for TEDxSalem? Nev­er fear, they’re still avail­able online.

Noah Schultz: Incarcerated at 17, writer and poet at 18, TEDx speaker at 23

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Noah Schultz
Noah Schultz

Try to describe Noah Schultz in just a few words and you can’t help but slip in a few tan­ta­liz­ing details.

He’s a writer and a poet. He has major dreams for Ore­gon and for him­self. For the past sev­er­al years, he’s been incar­cer­at­ed at the MacLaren Youth Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty. Cur­rent­ly at a work study tran­si­tion pro­gram in Flo­rence, he’ll be tem­porar­i­ly released just in time to join our ros­ter of speak­ers at TEDxSalem.

But since he has such a way with words, we thought we would let him do the intro­duc­ing.

How did you come to learn about TEDxSalem? What made you want to get involved?

I was dis­cussing my goal of speak­ing at a TED event with a friend of mine when she men­tioned know­ing some of the orga­niz­ers. I got very excit­ed and asked her if she would be able to con­nect me with them. TED pro­vides the plat­form to deliv­er hope through a pos­i­tive mes­sage, or new idea. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

Tell me a lit­tle more about the sub­ject of your TED talk.

My talk is an infu­sion of poet­ry, my life sto­ry and the wis­dom I have learned from the expe­ri­ence of being incar­cer­at­ed at an ear­ly age. I want peo­ple to walk away from this talk ready to take on the thing they have pushed to the side. Humans are meant to per­sist, sur­vive and reach unimag­in­able lev­els of excel­lence. I hope this talk stokes the inner fire inside of them.
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You’re a tal­ent­ed writer, and your work has been show­cased online. What orig­i­nal­ly got you into writ­ing?

Thank you, I feel very blessed to have been well received in that area.

When I was 18, I signed up for a group called Write Around Port­land. This is a non­prof­it locat­ed out of Port­land who was offer­ing their ser­vices to MYCF (MacLaren Youth Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty).

This was where I was exposed to cre­ative writ­ing. We were giv­en jour­nals and spent two hour ses­sions writ­ing to prompts and shar­ing with oth­ers in the group. In this class, I felt like what I had to say mat­tered. The feel­ing writ­ing gave me was like no oth­er. This was the one place I could escape to. It was and is my ther­a­py.

Can you talk more about the expe­ri­ence of being incar­cer­at­ed at 17?

There is a lot I can say about that expe­ri­ence. I am going to save that for the talk. To be incred­i­bly brief, I can say that this has been some­thing that has altered my life path for­ev­er.

What would you most want peo­ple to know about you?

I would want peo­ple to know that I care about them, off the bat. I believe that we are all con­nect­ed through the beau­ty of life. Each one of us makes up a piece of some­thing big­ger. That way of think­ing con­sis­tent­ly influ­ences each of my inter­ac­tions.

I would also want to let them know that I am a very ambi­tious indi­vid­ual who is focused on mak­ing a pos­i­tive impact on the plan­et Earth before leav­ing it.

What are your plans for the future?

When asked this ques­tion my brain usu­al­ly goes into a state over­load. I have so many ideas with writ­ten plans of action ready for imple­men­ta­tion upon my release.

I am an aspir­ing social entre­pre­neur who is pas­sion­ate about the erad­i­ca­tion of pover­ty, human traf­fick­ing and envi­ron­men­tal issues. At this moment, I am work­ing on devel­op­ing and launch­ing a Kom­bucha busi­ness and pub­lish­ing my first book.

See Schultz and oth­ers speak at TEDxSalem Oct. 3.

The all-day event is $40 for stu­dents and $50 for the gen­er­al pub­lic and includes talks, enter­tain­ment, par­tic­i­pa­tion in recess breaks, hands-on activ­i­ties between ses­sions, plus food through­out the day (break­fast, coffee/tea/water, snacks and lunch), a gift bag and a few oth­er good­ies. Find your tick­ets here.