TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

on-stage host

Singer-songwriter Kristen Grainger to host TEDxSalem VI

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Kris­ten Grainger will take the stage Jan. 5 as the first woman to host TEDxSalem, and we couldn’t be more thrilled.

She’s an award-win­ning singer/songwriter in the band True North and a long­time com­mu­ni­ca­tions strate­gist in Ore­gon pol­i­tics and high­er edu­ca­tion.

Despite writ­ing speech­es for two Ore­gon gov­er­nors, one attor­ney gen­er­al and three uni­ver­si­ty pres­i­dents, she said she is not a speech giv­er so TEDxSalem will be a refresh­ing change of pace.

“I am excit­ed, flat­tered and up for the chal­lenge, par­tic­u­lar­ly since, hav­ing viewed pri­or hosts’ videos, I know that have some big shoes to fill. I’m also proud to be the first female host for a Salem TEDx event.”

We offer you a Q and A with Grainger to get to know her before the big day.

 

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence?

My long-time friend and sis­ter-in-law is a physi­cian and doc­u­men­tary film­mak­er and was part of a TED talk spon­sored by the Gates Foun­da­tion about world health. (She shared her doc­u­men­tary “Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Opti­mists” about find­ing hope in the slums of Kolkata.)

That was my first expo­sure to TED. It was mem­o­rable because, well, it was a fam­i­ly mem­ber on a world stage, issue-wise. The total effect of all of the pre­sen­ters in that new con­text was mind-blow­ing.

 

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive?

Rox­ane Gay’s Con­fes­sions of a Bad Fem­i­nist and oth­ers — the inter­face between the speak­er and the lis­ten­er is pow­er­ful and the for­mat is acces­si­ble and con­ducive to learn­ing. I gained greater aware­ness of spe­cif­ic issues and broad­ened my own perspective/world view.

 

Ever thought of doing your own talk? What would it be about? 

Not real­ly before now. If I did:

  1. Why does col­lege cost so much?
  2. How Women Lead
  3. It’s In Me, and It’s Got to Come Out: Cathar­tic Song­writ­ing

 

You are on the board for The­atre 33. I am curi­ous to know more about what that is.

It is a non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to help­ing region­al play­wrights vet and improve new works. The­atre 33 pro­vides pro­duc­tion resources to pro­duce plays as works in progress. The play­wrights get feed­back from a live audi­ence and use that info to improve or mod­i­fy their work mid­stream. This is of huge ben­e­fit to the cre­ative process.

 

When did you start the band True North? What is your lat­est project?

I co-found­ed the band with Dan Wet­zel in 2005. We just released our fifth album, which debuted at #1 in Jan­u­ary on the nation­al folk charts, and it’s still in the top 25. Two tracks on the album won the Wild­flower music fes­ti­val song­writ­ing con­test in in Dal­las, TX last May.

 

What does RE (this year’s theme) mean to you?  

I love that it is total­ly with­out a pre­cise def­i­n­i­tion and sub­ject to inter­pre­ta­tion — it leaves the field wide open, an intel­lec­tu­al grab bag, if you will, of top­ics, sto­ries, issues, and per­spec­tives.

 

Any­thing else that might be inter­est­ing to add?

Cau­tion: I did not com­mit to leav­ing my ukulele at home, because RE could also be inter­pret­ed to mean “Refresh­ing­ly Enter­tain­ing [Host].”

 

Name: Kris­ten Grainger

Age: “Old­er than Bran­di Carlile; younger than Sheryl Crow.”

Edu­ca­tion: BA in English/Creative Writ­ing from Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton

Job Title: Spe­cial Assis­tant to the Pres­i­dent for Strate­gic Ini­tia­tives at Willamette Uni­ver­si­ty

Home­town: Boston, MA

Fam­i­ly: Hus­band: Dan; Step­son: Jake; Daugh­ter: Sam and Son-in-Law: Evan

Pets: Dog, Cody

Favorite movie: “RBG” (today, any­way!)

Favorite song or artist: “Skele­tons” by Rick­ie Lee Jones

Hob­bies: Music, music, music. Also hik­ing, fish­ing, read­ing, movies, and fam­i­ly stuff.

Favorite book: “Pos­ses­sion” by A.S. Byatt

What do you want to be when you grow up?: Pro­fes­sor Karen Hol­man, obvi­ous­ly. Doesn’t every­one??

TEDxSalem VI

TEDxSalem VI is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. It runs 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 5 at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Tick­ets are on sale now for $55, $45 for stu­dents. 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.com.

TEDxSalem 2015 host announcement: 2013 alumnus Keith Seckel

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Kei­th Seck­el is not flashy and he does­n’t demand your atten­tion. He has his own way of draw­ing you in, with a qui­et and under­stat­ed sin­cer­i­ty that makes you want to cling on to his every word.

His gen­tle pres­ence is what made him one of the most mem­o­rable speak­ers of the inau­gur­al TEDxSalem in 2013, with his touch­ing talk on death — and ulti­mate­ly — life.

Keith Seckel
Kei­th Seck­el

These qual­i­ties are what make co-cura­tors Bri­an Hart and Car­lee Wright so excit­ed about hav­ing Kei­th host TEDxSalem at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter this fall.

There are many deci­sion that go into plan­ning a TEDx event, and find­ing the right host is up there with select­ing speak­ers. The job of a host involves many respon­si­bil­i­ties than might be read­i­ly vis­i­ble to the audi­ence.

“You are not only the guide for the audi­ence, explain­ing the flow of the event, but you are also the even­t’s ambas­sador,” Bri­an says. “Being the face of the event, they have to wear many hats, they are respon­si­ble for intro­duc­tions of the speak­ers, giv­ing the audi­ence the per­fect tease of what is about to come, but at the same time nev­er telling the audi­ence how to feel. They are also in charge of time-keep­ing, trou­bleshoot­ing, announce­ments, con­nec­tions and audi­ence engage­ment.”

Phew! Good thing this year’s event theme is “fear­less.” Kei­th has ful­ly embraced this big role.

He says he hopes to be effec­tive and invis­i­ble — to help the event run smooth­ly and com­fort­ably, but then get­ting out of the way to let the speak­ers shine.

“In oth­er words, through­out the day I want to be the semi-colon; the punc­tu­a­tion that gen­tly guides peo­ple from one space to anoth­er,” Kei­th said. “And at the end of the event as peo­ple think back on their expe­ri­ence, I want them to remem­ber the speak­ers and the break­out ses­sions — and sort of for­get about me.”

Please join us in wel­com­ing Kei­th back on the TEDxSalem stage.