TEDxSalem

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Tips and everything you need to know to have a great TEDx-perience

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Hel­lo, TEDxSalem nation!

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

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

First off, despite some win­ter weath­er head­ed our way, TEDxSalem will go on. Please ensure your safe­ty first, but if you’re able to trav­el safe­ly to us, we will greet you with great pro­gram­ming!

Now, on to the nit­ty grit­ty.

SCHEDULE

8 a.m.: Reg­is­tra­tion and light break­fast

Come ear­ly for break­fast, min­gling, and to make sure you get the best seats pos­si­ble. But don’t be too com­mit­ted to them! We know we’re crea­tures of habit, but at TEDxSalem, we encour­age you to sit in dif­fer­ent parts of the the­ater so you can meet a vari­ety of fel­low atten­dees.

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

9 a.m.: Ses­sion one

One way to make your invest­ment pay off dur­ing the talks is to take copi­ous notes! Use them to reflect on after the event and think about how these rev­o­lu­tions are applic­a­ble in your own life and com­mu­ni­ty.

10:15 a.m.: Recess and snacks

TEDxSalem is not only about talks, though they are what we’re most known for. At an in-per­son TEDxSalem event, you also get to enjoy break­out ses­sions, some of which build upon the talks you just heard. Make sure to take advan­tage, and inter­act with all the fun stuff we have planned. This is also a great time to meet the speak­ers and event vol­un­teers!

11 a.m.: Ses­sion two

Anoth­er key to hav­ing a suc­cess­ful TEDx day is an open mind. You may hear some ideas that are uncom­fort­able or chal­leng­ing to your estab­lished world view. That’s OK. In fact, that’s the point! Just let that dis­com­fort sink and mar­i­nate. You may be pleas­ant­ly sur­prised where that leads you!

12:p.m.: Lunch recess

Do your home­work. Our blog is full of good info about our speak­ers. Read up and see whose talks excite you most. Have ques­tions? Seek them out dur­ing the lunch recess and pick their brains. They will be among all of us, eat­ing at the same tables!

1:30 p.m.: Ses­sion three

You prob­a­bly hear this enough, but net­work! TEDxSalem is a great place to find new mem­bers of your team, whether that is in the pro­fes­sion­al or per­son­al sense. Dis­cuss what each of you bring to the table and how you can col­lab­o­rate to cre­ate the types of rev­o­lu­tions we will be talk­ing about!

2:15 p.m.: Recess

Use the vol­un­teers as a resource. They will be the ones in the black T‑shirts. If there’s any­thing that they can do to improve your expe­ri­ence, just ask! Be sure to thank them. TEDxSalem is a 100 per­cent vol­un­teer-run event. They do this because they believe in our mis­sion of spread­ing new and inter­est­ing ideas.

3 p.m.: Ses­sion four

Are you a social media enthu­si­ast? So are we! Share what you’re enjoy­ing about the day on your accounts and use the hash­tag #tedxsalem. Just don’t over-do it. You don’t want to miss the mag­ic hap­pen­ing beyond your phone screen!

4:30: Event Fin­ish­es

4:30 to ? After­par­ty at Tap­root Lounge & Cafe

At TEDxSalem, it isn’t over, even after it’s over. Join us at Tap­root in down­town Salem to cel­e­brate the day and hang out some more. It is our hope that you make some last­ing mean­ing­ful con­nec­tions while you’re with us, so def­i­nite­ly take advan­tage of every oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­nect!

REGISTRATION/TICKETS

  • 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 sec­ond floor Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter (see map below)
  • 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 8:30 a.m., 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 ($40 for stu­dents) are avail­able through Jan. 6 at tedxsalem.eventbrite.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRANSPORTATION/PARKING

  • There’s lim­it­ed on-site park­ing.
  • If you can, please con­sid­er walk­ing, bik­ing or shar­ing rides.
  • Hand­i­cap-acces­si­ble park­ing will be avail­able.
  • See map below for all park­ing avail­able in sur­round­ing areas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOOD/BEVERAGES

  • Cof­fee, tea and water avail­able start­ing at 8 a.m.
  • Lunch hap­pens at approx 12 p.m. You’ll be able to choose from a vari­ety of options.
  • Enjoy a deli­cious assort­ment of light 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

  • Inter­pret­ing ser­vices are pro­vid­ed as a col­lab­o­ra­tion between West­ern Ore­gon Uni­ver­si­ty inter­pret­ing stu­dents, the Deaf and inter­pret­ing com­mu­ni­ties, and TEDxSalem.

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

American Sign Language spoken here at TEDxSalem

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Ten stu­dents from West­ern Ore­gon Uni­ver­si­ty, pic­tured here with class­mates, will offer ASL inter­pret­ing at TEDxSalem Sat­ur­day.

TEDxSalem will offer ASL inter­pret­ing for the third year in a row so every­one can join the con­ver­sa­tion.

Salem is one of the few TED events around the world that offers the ser­vice thanks to our vol­un­teers. With­out them, it would cost thou­sands of dol­lars.

This year Salem teamed up with 10 ASL inter­pret­ing stu­dents from West­ern Ore­gon Uni­ver­si­ty, their men­tors and mem­bers of the deaf com­mu­ni­ty to make it hap­pen.

“It’s real­ly a won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty for our stu­dents,” said Vic­ki Dar­d­en, vis­it­ing assis­tant pro­fes­sor of inter­pret­ing stud­ies at WOU.

TEDx is a great way for the stu­dents, all seniors, to get real-world ASL inter­pret­ing expe­ri­ence, she said. But the part­ner­ship is a win for every­one. The event gets inter­pre­ta­tion, and the deaf com­mu­ni­ty gains access to the TED expe­ri­ence not only in Salem, but around the world online.

Each stu­dent will inter­pret one TED talk with sup­port from their men­tor, and the remain­ing talks will be cov­ered by men­tors. Stu­dents will also have a chance to refine their inter­pre­ta­tions for the videos, which will fea­ture the ASL inter­preter on the screen.

Dar­d­en hopes to con­tin­ue the part­ner­ship between WOU and TEDxSalem next year, she said.

“I look for­ward to a real col­lab­o­ra­tion between TEDx and our stu­dents,” she said, “to pro­vide access to the deaf com­mu­ni­ty as well as expe­ri­ence for our stu­dents and expo­sure for TED.”

TEDxSalem stu­dent inter­preters

Patri­cia Desrosiers
Jaymee Gowdy
Halle Hamil­ton
Jacob Hogan
Caitlin Mas­ter­son
Alis­sa McAlpine
Lynne Mur­phy
Allis­sa Phoenix
Shaw­na Put­nam
Caitlin Woods

It’s not too late! Get your tick­ets for TEDxSalem IV

Tick­ets are on sale now for Salem’s annu­al TEDx event Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 7, 2017. Tick­ets are $50, $40 for a stu­dent. You can also buy tick­ets at the door! The all-day event includes talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.us.

TEDxSalem entertainment fuses yoga, Broadway, Latin jazz, and Middle-Eastern folk dancing

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For those of you who have been to TED con­fer­ences in the past, you’ll know it’s more than just speak­ers (although they are cer­tain­ly a high­light!). It’s a whole day of inno­v­a­tive think­ing, engag­ing con­ver­sa­tion, mak­ing new friends, stretch­ing your brain, par­tic­i­pa­tion and enter­tain­ment. Beyond our ros­ter of speak­ers, we have break­out ses­sions and per­for­mances lined up to real­ly round out your day.

And if you’ve been to a TEDxSalem event before, you’ll know our enter­tain­ment always rocks.

This year is no dif­fer­ent. We have Mik­ki Trow­bridge teach­ing yoga; Ishtar Sumar with Iraqi folk danc­ing; Edna Vazquez per­form­ing folk, rock, pop and Mari­achi music; and a sur­prise per­for­mance from the folks at Enlight­ened The­atrics!

Mik­ki Trow­bridge

Mik­ki Trow­bridge has been teach­ing a flow­ing, vinyasa style of yoga since 2010. She received her 200 hour Yoga­Works cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in 2011 and also have com­plet­ed cer­ti­fi­ca­tions or advanced train­ings with Strala, Yoga Med­i­cine and Street Yoga. Her class­es are anatom­i­cal­ly informed and soul­ful­ly inspired and promise to be fun, flow­ing (often a lit­tle sweaty) and leave you feel­in’ good. She aspires to infuse her pas­sion for the prac­tice, her love of music and gen­uine, life-inspired mus­ings into each class.

Mik­ki teach­es pri­mar­i­ly in the Salem, Ore­gon area with stu­dio class­es at Indi­go Well­ness Cen­ter and pri­vate class­es at Ore­gon State Hos­pi­tal and at a vari­ety of local busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions. In addi­tion, she hosts reg­u­lar Yoga + Beer events at local brew­eries around the state and offers StandUp Pad­dle Board Yoga class­es in Pacif­ic City.

Ishtar Sumar

Ishtar Sumar is an Iraqi folk dancer using move­ment to con­nect with cul­ture. She is a dance and fit­ness instruc­tor at Chemeke­ta Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege with expe­ri­ence in Mid­dle East­ern dance, as well as jazz, hip-hop and mod­ern dance plus health and fit­ness.

With cer­ti­fi­ca­tions and degrees in his­to­ry and sports fit­ness, Ishtar uses her danc­ing to teach move­ment and the his­to­ry of Mid­dle-East­ern folk dance. Ishtar is also the vice pres­i­dent of the Iraqi Cul­ture and Arts Asso­ci­a­tion in San Diego, as well as the chair of the Iraqi Jour­nal­ist Union in Amer­i­ca.

Edna Vazquez

Edna Vazquez is a Port­land-based Latin Amer­i­can singer-song­writer who per­forms orig­i­nal com­po­si­tions that pay homage to her inter­na­tion­al influ­ences with a pas­sion that comes through in every note of her music. She lifts the audience’s spir­its dur­ing her cathar­tic live per­for­mances with a vocal range that allows her to tran­si­tion seam­less­ly between folk, rock, pop and Mari­achi, all while explor­ing jazz stylings. Edna’s songs are deeply root­ed in uni­ver­sal human emo­tion and she has trav­eled far and wide spread­ing her mes­sage of light, love and cul­tur­al heal­ing.

Born in the Mex­i­can state of Col­i­ma but raised in Jalis­co, Edna spent half of her life immersed in the cul­ture and music of Mex­i­co and Latin Amer­i­ca, mov­ing to the Unit­ed States as a teenag­er. Her pas­sion for music and per­for­mance was born from these bicul­tur­al roots and has led her on a path of self-dis­cov­ery through song that has brought her suc­cess at each turn in the road. Whether shar­ing the stage with her musi­cal influ­ences or win­ning the first prize on Saba­do Gigante with her ren­di­tion of Cucur­ru­cucú Palo­ma, Edna’s spir­it and pow­er­ful vocal per­for­mance have been the cor­ner­stone of her career.

Enlight­ened The­atrics

Found­ed in 2013 by the­atre pro­fes­sion­al Vin­cen­zo Meduri, Enlight­ened The­atrics, a 501(c)(3) non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion that aims to fur­ther the cul­tur­al enrich­ment of Salem by pro­vid­ing pro­fes­sion­al musi­cal the­atre expe­ri­ences and edu­ca­tion for all.

A Salem native and grad­u­ate of Sprague High School, Vin­cen­zo earned a Bach­e­lor of Fine Arts in Musi­cal The­atre from Elon Uni­ver­si­ty in 2011. Fol­low­ing grad­u­a­tion, he pur­sued his dreams in New York City dis­cov­er­ing a love for direct­ing and teach­ing, which inspired him to return to Salem to estab­lish an orga­ni­za­tion for artists, stu­dents and dream­ers ded­i­cat­ed to instill­ing hope, edu­ca­tion and inspi­ra­tion in gen­er­a­tions to come.

Enlight­ened The­atrics brings the Broad­way expe­ri­ence to Salem, while con­tin­u­ing to breathe new life into a rich, his­tor­i­cal insti­tu­tion at the cen­ter of the city’s cul­tur­al, social and eco­nom­ic evo­lu­tion.

In Jan­u­ary 2015, the Meduri fam­i­ly acquired Salem’s His­toric Grand The­atre. Con­struct­ed in 1900 and list­ed on the Nation­al Reg­is­ter of His­toric Places, the the­ater has served as a sta­ple of Salem cul­tur­al life for more than a cen­tu­ry hous­ing and host­ing every­thing from per­form­ing arts to enter­tain­ment, retail, restau­rants and more.

It’s not too late! Get your tick­ets for TEDxSalem IV

Tick­ets are on sale now for Salem’s annu­al TEDx event Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 7, 2017. Tick­ets are $50, $40 for a stu­dent. You can also buy tick­ets at the door! The all-day event includes talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.us.

Yesenia Gallardo: Save the planet, eat an insect

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yeseniaWhile crick­ets, grubs and insect eggs might not top your list of snack foods, they pop up in cui­sine around the world, and they just might be the key to a green­er plan­et.

“It just makes a lot of sense,” said Yese­nia Gal­lar­do, a TEDxSalem speak­er, envi­ron­men­tal­ist and insect entre­pre­neur.

“The sus­tain­abil­i­ty and the nutri­tion is there.”

Insects are ener­gy effi­cient, so they con­vert what­ev­er they eat to mass much more quick­ly, she said. For exam­ple, it takes two pounds of feed to get one pound of food from insects com­pared to 25 pounds of feed for one pound of beef, she said. There are sim­i­lar sav­ings in water and land.

Gal­lar­do under­stands that insects aren’t for every­one. For those will­ing to try, it seems that crick­ets are the eas­i­est to stom­ach.

“I don’t think they’re the most deli­cious insect out there,” she said. “They are the gate­way bug.”

An even eas­i­er sell might be sam­pling pow­dered insects, which are added to ener­gy bars, chips, cook­ies and oth­er snack foods.

Eat­ing insects wasn’t a gas­tro­nom­ic stretch for Gal­lar­do, a Salem native. She spent her sum­mers in Oax­a­ca, Mex­i­co, and many of the region’s dish­es include insects. One pop­u­lar dip, made with ant eggs, tastes like bacon-fla­vored mush­rooms, she said.

She used to raise crick­ets in an indoor micro-farm. She sold her tiny, tiny live­stock to food man­u­fac­tur­ers, but it was too hard to cli­mate con­trol the space.

Now the Yale Uni­ver­si­ty grad­u­ate is work­ing a dif­fer­ent angle: crick­et poop. Not for food, but for fer­til­iz­er. It’s a renew­able resource that doesn’t deplete nat­ur­al ones strain­ing under the demand for soil amend­ments.

“It has so much poten­tial,” she said.

Get your tick­ets for TEDxSalem IV

Tick­ets are on sale now for Salem’s annu­al TEDx event Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 7, 2017. Tick­ets are $50, $40 for stu­dents. The all-day event includes talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.us.

Jerry Braza: Sowing the seeds of mindfulness

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This picture was taken in Homer, Alaska where Braza is helping leaders create a more mindful community.
This pic­ture was tak­en in Homer, Alas­ka where Braza is help­ing lead­ers cre­ate a more mind­ful com­mu­ni­ty.

TEDxSalem speak­er Jer­ry Braza plants the seeds of mind­ful­ness one con­ver­sa­tion, one sem­i­nar and one com­mu­ni­ty at a time.

When he talks his words fall slow and steady. His eyes stay fixed on the per­son in front of him. There is nowhere else to be but here, right now.

In Homer, Alas­ka, Braza taught hun­dreds of edu­ca­tors, health-care work­ers, men­tal health providers and par­ents the ben­e­fits of mind­ful­ness and how to cre­ate that still­ness with­in. Once they heal them­selves, he said, they can heal the com­mu­ni­ty.

Braza is an ordained dhar­ma teacher in the lin­eage of Bud­dhist Mas­ter Thich Nhat Hanh, spread­ing mind­ful­ness at retreats, sem­i­nars, work­shops and class­es. But mind­ful­ness didn’t always come nat­u­ral­ly to the retired West­ern Ore­gon Uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sor.

“I was always in a rush,” he said about his life 35 years ago.

“I always felt anx­ious. I felt like I was always late. I was with some­one, and I was not real­ly there.”

He remem­bers skip­ping pages when he read books to his kids at night because he felt like he didn’t have the time.

Braza start­ed to take class­es on med­i­ta­tion and mind­ful­ness. He trav­eled to India, Chi­na, Viet­nam and Thai­land to study. Then he mixed in his Catholic roots of con­tem­pla­tion and devel­oped a sec­u­lar mind­ful­ness prac­tice that he now shares.

One sim­ple way to prac­tice, he said, is to linger longer on some­thing beau­ti­ful. We often focus on neg­a­tive things. Instead gaze on some­thing of beau­ty such as leaves on a side­walk, the moon, a flower or some­one you love. Stay with that image for a full 10 breaths.mountain

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 …

Catch Braza at TEDxSalem this Jan­u­ary to find a lit­tle more peace in your life and your com­mu­ni­ty.

Get your tick­ets for TEDxSalem IV

Tick­ets are on sale now for Salem’s annu­al TEDx event Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 7, 2017. Tick­ets are $50, $40 for stu­dents. The all-day event includes talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.us.

Alia Braley: The power of non-violent action

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“When I was younger, know­ing that my grand­par­ents were involved in the Amer­i­can Civ­il Rights move­ment of the 1950s and 1960s was inspir­ing to me,” said Alia Bra­ley, who has been work­ing as a researcher and advo­cate of strate­gic non­vi­o­lent action for the past three years, cur­rent­ly with the Albert Ein­stein Insti­tu­tion.  alia-braley

For her TED Talk, Bra­ley will dis­cuss the mas­sive impact of strate­gic non­vi­o­lent action in the world today, from the pro-democ­ra­cy protests in Hong Kong in 2014 to the anti-cor­rup­tion protests of Guatemalans in late 2015, where pro­test­ers in both the cities and coun­try­side came togeth­er to orga­nize a gen­er­al strike that crip­pled the gov­ern­ment and led to the prompt res­ig­na­tion of sev­er­al lead­ers includ­ing the pres­i­dent.

To be clear, non­vi­o­lent action is not the same as paci­fism. It is a form of con­duct­ing con­flict that is often used for prag­mat­ic rea­sons — because it is pow­er­ful and it works.  It also should not be con­fused with civ­il dis­obe­di­ence, which has a pre­cise def­i­n­i­tion as a sub­set of the infi­nite tac­tics avail­able to non­vi­o­lent activists.

“Non­vi­o­lent action is basi­cal­ly the abil­i­ty of diverse peo­ple to active­ly engage in struc­tur­al change in their soci­ety on their own terms” she said.

The aca­d­e­m­ic study of non­vi­o­lent action is only just in its infan­cy accord­ing to Bra­ley, but the use of non­vi­o­lent action goes back to ancient times. His­to­ry holds many famous exam­ples of suc­cess, includ­ing the strug­gle for inde­pen­dence in India asso­ci­at­ed with Gand­hi, as well as less­er known exam­ples, like the Baltic resis­tance against Sovi­et inva­sion in the 1990’s.

Rig­or­ous study of non­vi­o­lent action is impor­tant, she said, in order to assess and improve its effec­tive­ness. Today, more soci­eties are using non­vi­o­lent action than ever before, but often with mixed results.  The cas­es often cit­ed include the rise of author­i­tar­i­an­ism in Egypt, and the desta­bi­liz­ing blood­shed and dis­place­ment caused by the Syr­i­an civ­il war.  How­ev­er, it should be not­ed, she says, that the trou­ble in Egypt and Syr­ia has arisen as a result of vio­lent actors that dis­rupt­ed the ini­tial suc­cess of non­vi­o­lent move­ments.

Through con­nect­ing with orga­ni­za­tions like the Albert Ein­stein Insti­tu­tion, non­vi­o­lent activists are able to access the resources and knowl­edge that may help them to plan effec­tive­ly and avoid some of the most com­mon pit­falls.

Despite the vio­lence preva­lent in today’s news, non­vi­o­lent action is a dri­ving force in domes­tic and inter­na­tion­al rela­tions, Bra­ley said.  For an exam­ple of a suc­cess­ful non­vi­o­lent move­ment with max­i­mal­ist goals, she sug­gests that peo­ple learn about the move­ment that over­threw Slo­bodon Milo­se­vic in the for­mer Yugoslavia as depict­ed in the doc­u­men­tary Bring­ing Down a Dic­ta­tor.

alia1“So many of the dev­as­tat­ing and heart­break­ing prob­lems in the world today come from polit­i­cal vio­lence and the threat of polit­i­cal vio­lence,” she said.  But although peo­ple know their needs, they often feel pow­er­less to cre­ate change.  “Learn­ing about how strate­gic non­vi­o­lent action works helps indi­vid­u­als and groups put their knowl­edge they already have about their soci­ety into action that can cre­ate real and last­ing change.”

 

Get your tick­ets for TEDxSalem IV

Tick­ets are on sale now for Salem’s annu­al TEDx event Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 7, 2017. Tick­ets are $50, $40 for stu­dents. The all-day event includes talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.us.