TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

tedxsalem VI

It’s not too late to join the TEDxSalem party today

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You for­got to buy tick­ets, you thought you would­n’t be in town or you just put it off to the last minute?

That’s OK. We have tick­ets at the door so it’s not too late to join this par­ty. It’s going to be epic. Eleven bril­liant speak­ers, med­i­ta­tion, dance and per­for­mances from Sleep Mil­len­ni­um and Rian Gayle.

But wait, there’s more: thought­ful break­out ses­sions, snacks, a fab­u­lous lunch and an after par­ty. Join us at Tap­root in down­town Salem to cel­e­brate the day and hang out some more.

Tick­ets will be avail­able for pur­chase at the door for $60 cash or card only. No checks.

We hope to see you at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter, 200 Com­mer­cial St. SE. Doors open at 7:45 a.m., and event starts at 9 a.m.

Make the most of your TEDxSalem experience with these 10 tips

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We’re less than 24 hours away from TEDxSalem VI. Don’t have tick­ets yet? Don’t wor­ry, you can still get them here.

Do we all have our tick­ets now? Good! Now read these ten tips on how to get the most out of your TED expe­ri­ence Sat­ur­day, Jan. 5 at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter.

10. Take notes! Bring a small note­book or down­load a notes app for your smart­phone. You def­i­nitely want to remem­ber those moments that made you smile, made you think or just jumped out at you. Take a moment dur­ing the event and at the end of the day to jot down the insights you gained.

9. Be present in the moment. We love that you want to Tweet and Insta­gram about your amaz­ing TEDxSalem expe­ri­ence. But don’t get so wrapped up in your phone that you miss a poignant moment dur­ing a con­ver­sa­tion or a TED talk!

8. Be open-mind­ed. Some of the ideas worth shar­ing may be shock­ing. Some might be a lit­tle con­tro­ver­sial or entire­ly new to you. Don’t write off a TED talk even if you find your­self bristling at it. Be open to 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 and see what oth­er good­ies await 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 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 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 read the TEDXSalem blog for more infor­ma­tion about each speak­er. 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 at the beau­ti­ful Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter 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. (Did the intro­vert in you just cringe? It’s ok. TEDxSalem is for intro­verts, too.)

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. One 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 Jan. 6. The day is devot­ed to shar­ing ideas!

Get your tick­ets for TEDxSalem V

TEDxSalem VI is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag that takes place Sat­ur­day, Jan. 5, 2019, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Pur­chase tick­ets here. 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.

Workplace guru Moe Carrick finds inspiration at home for her TEDx talk

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Author and entre­pre­neur Moe Car­rick makes work­places fit for human life.

“Work at its best builds us up, lifts our hearts, chal­lenges our minds, solves big prob­lems, and con­nects us to oth­ers,” she said.

At its worst, work can make us sick, angry, sad and mis­er­able. A bad boss, for exam­ple, who doesn’t lis­ten, man­age or tell the truth or a bad job fit, can affect every­thing from our moti­va­tion and morale to our health and rela­tion­ships.

Car­rick runs a con­sult­ing firm and pub­lished her first book “Fit Mat­ters: How to Love Your Job” in 2017. Her next book, “Brave­space” is due out in 2019. She also deliv­ered two TEDx talks on the impor­tance of a healthy work life.

The three things that mat­ter most at work, she said, are feel­ing seen (pos­i­tive rela­tion­ships with your boss and col­leagues), feel­ing pur­pose (being able to feel that your work mat­ters) and cul­ture (the way things are done is con­sis­tent with your val­ues.)

But that’s not what she’s talk­ing about Jan. 5.

Car­rick is going deep­er and pick­ing a top­ic clos­er to home. She will explore the idea of women advo­cat­ing for men in a world that is redefin­ing mas­culin­i­ty.

“It’s a bit clos­er to my heart, my per­son­al sto­ry, not just my work sto­ry,” she said.

The moth­er of three was inspired by her most impor­tant job: rais­ing two sons, ages 23 and 26, and a daugh­ter, 17.

“What I’ve seen in rais­ing my sons in par­tic­u­lar is the notion of what it means to be a man today is a bit wonky,” she said.

Her sons and her children’s friends have strug­gled with expec­ta­tions, roles and iden­ti­ty, and she wants to explore ways that women can sup­port men in nav­i­gat­ing the chang­ing land­scape.

Car­rick, who is also an orga­niz­er for TEDxBend, is look­ing for­ward to her third time as a speak­er on a TEDx stage and learn­ing from the oth­er pre­sen­ters.

“For me it’s a fun way to offer con­tent and to think about ideas that make our world bet­ter,” she said.

“I always learn some­thing.”

Moe Carrick

Age: 56

Edu­ca­tion: BA from Uni­ver­si­ty of New Hamp­shire, MS from Anti­och Uni­ver­si­ty New Eng­land and Dare to Lead cer­ti­fied facil­i­ta­tor

Hob­bies: Run­ning, cof­fee and rid­ing her horse Gra­cie

Sur­pris­ing job: She worked for Out­ward Bound where she led adven­tures for chem­i­cal­ly depen­dent kids, tak­ing them back­pack­ing, sail­ing and canoe­ing.

Favorite book: “Angle of Repose” by Wal­lace Steg­n­er

Favorite food: Fresh bread

Favorite Ted Talk: “Brenè Brown: The pow­er of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty”

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.

Elizabeth Fournier found comfort, purpose and love in the funeral industry

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Fournier was always drawn to funer­als. They helped her make sense of los­ing sev­er­al fam­i­ly mem­bers in quick suc­ces­sion.

After earn­ing a degree in com­mu­ni­ca­tions from Lin­field Col­lege, there was only one career for her: Mor­ti­cian. She under­stood bet­ter than most what griev­ing fam­i­lies go through, and it helped her con­nect.

“If I had some­one pass­ing,” she said, “what would I want? I would want some­one to gen­tly hold my hand and be kind.”

Despite find­ing suc­cess in her field, she had not found her true love, yet. Over the course of one year, she braved 77 blind dates to find the one. She met a lot of nice guys, she said, but it was her col­league who lis­tened to her sto­ries about each date who turned out to be the best fit.

“Lit­tle did I know the guy who worked in the base­ment who I brand­ed Creep­er McCreep­er­son (the cre­ma­to­ri­um tech­ni­cian) would end up being my one true love,” she said.

“We have been hap­pi­ly mar­ried for 13 years.”

Now Fournier owns and oper­ates Cor­ner­stone Funer­al Ser­vice with her husband’s help in Bor­ing, Ore­gon. He works behind the scenes, and she is the one who answers the phone when­ev­er a fam­i­ly needs her, 24/7. They also run a res­cue farm as a way to unwind.

“We have goats and sheep that we hug and kiss, sing to, pat and take pic­tures of,” she said.

“Okay, it’s only me that hugs and kiss­es, sings and takes pic­tures of them. I would say tak­ing care of them and spend­ing time with them is def­i­nite­ly my main form of self-care.”

Fournier is known for blaz­ing a trail in envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly buri­als. She wrote two books on the top­ic: “The Green Bur­ial Guide­book,” and “The Green Reaper: Mem­oirs of an Eco-Mor­ti­cian.”

She is also known for giv­ing fam­i­lies the free­dom to say good­bye in their own way whether that is a daugh­ter dri­ving her dad in his favorite truck one last time or lay­ing a moth­er to rest on fam­i­ly-owned prop­er­ty.

In addi­tion to “Green Reaper,” she is also called the under­tak­er of Bor­ing, Ore­gon. She loves both titles equal­ly.

Hear her sto­ry and how your last act in the world can be your green­est at TEDxSalem Jan. 5.

Elizabeth Fournier

Home­town: Port­land, Ore­gon

Fam­i­ly:  Hus­band Michael and Daugh­ter Sofia.

Hob­bies: Pay­ing it for­ward. I also enjoy sneak­ing into friends’ pantries and rear­rang­ing their canned food.

Music: Any­thing that grooves my soul.

Favorite author: I like to flip through the dic­tio­nary and learn new words.

Favorite food: What’s not to like?

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.

DeafBlind, but Definitely Not Disconnected

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Here’s what Jen­ny­Lynn Diet­rich would like you to know about her:

She’s tak­en ser­vice learn­ing trips to Guatemala and Ghana. She’s a choco­late snob who wouldn’t dare touch the gener­ic stuff. She’s engaged to be mar­ried next year. She loves to paint, draw, and per­form on the the­ater stage. And she’s pas­sion­ate about help­ing oth­ers, point­ing them toward the resources that could help them change their lives.

You might learn these things if you just ask her. But Diet­rich says peo­ple are often too afraid or intim­i­dat­ed by two of her more obvi­ous traits: she is deaf and blind.

One of the main points Diet­rich hopes to make in her TEDxSalem talk, enti­tled “Deaf­Blind: Blind but Not Blind,” is that peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties val­ue auton­o­my — they want to be seen as reg­u­lar pro­duc­tive mem­bers of soci­ety, just like those with­out dis­abil­i­ties.

“We don’t want people’s pity,” she says. “We just want to be accept­ed as equals.”

Born with a rare hered­i­tary con­di­tion called Stick­ler syn­drome, Diet­rich is ful­ly blind in her left eye and has lim­it­ed vision in her right. She’s also pro­found­ly deaf in her left ear, but she can hear a bit in her right with a hear­ing aid. Her pre­ferred method to com­mu­ni­cate is Amer­i­can Sign Lan­guage. She also uses a form of com­mu­ni­ca­tion called Pro­Tac­tile — devel­oped by the Deaf­Blind com­mu­ni­ty — that involves sign­ing on someone’s hand or using parts of their body to help give visu­al or emo­tion­al cues.

Dur­ing her ear­ly years grow­ing up in Okla­homa, Diet­rich attend­ed a main­stream school. It wasn’t until high school that she went to a state school for the deaf. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Stud­ies from Gal­laudet Uni­ver­si­ty in Wash­ing­ton, D.C.

Ulti­mate­ly she moved to Seat­tle to work as a Case Man­ag­er at the Deaf­Blind Ser­vice Cen­ter. She helped oth­er Deaf­Blind peo­ple by pro­vid­ing ser­vices to make their lives eas­i­er — includ­ing advo­ca­cy, infor­ma­tion and refer­rals, edu­ca­tion, and out­reach — and she ulti­mate­ly dis­cov­ered she had a pas­sion for help­ing oth­ers.

One of the most use­ful resources Diet­rich found in Seat­tle was Sup­port Ser­vice Providers (SSPs) — sight­ed guides who pro­vide Deaf­Blind peo­ple with visu­al infor­ma­tion about their envi­ron­ment so that they can par­tic­i­pate in reg­u­lar main­stream activ­i­ties such as gro­cery shop­ping, read­ing mail, or bank­ing.

“When I moved to Ore­gon, it was a chal­lenge because there’s not an SSP pro­gram here for peo­ple like me to access,” she says. “I’ve been work­ing hard this year to get some­thing like that estab­lished here by reach­ing out to oth­er Deaf­Blind peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty and lead­ers in pub­lic ser­vice.”

Diet­rich came to the Willamette Val­ley to pur­sue grad­u­ate stud­ies at West­ern Ore­gon Uni­ver­si­ty. She is no longer a stu­dent there, but she is focus­ing her time on attempt­ing to devel­op sup­ports for Deaf­Blind peo­ple in the state. She is cur­rent­ly a facil­i­ta­tor for a non­prof­it called the Ore­gon Deaf­Blind Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance Net­work, some­thing she hopes will become a larg­er statewide orga­ni­za­tion to help pro­vide resources to those who need it.

Advo­ca­cy would be a crit­i­cal part of their work — to help the gen­er­al pub­lic look beyond their dis­abil­i­ties and learn about their inter­ests, their per­son­al­i­ties, and their goals.

“Instead of watch­ing us in fear from afar,” she says, “be brave, and come and learn from us by engag­ing with us!”

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.

Rebecca Shapiro sets the stage for TEDxSalem

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Rebec­ca Shapiro’s art runs the gamut from post­card-sized cre­ations to 40-foot wide instal­la­tions using every­thing from glue, 24K gold foil and encaus­tic, pig­ments mixed with hot beeswax.

She is a Port­land author and artist adept in paint­ing, draw­ing, pho­tog­ra­phy and more. She is also rec­og­nized as the cre­ator of the inter­na­tion­al TEDx Artist in Res­i­dence pro­gram.

We are thrilled that she’s com­ing to TEDxSalem as our Artist in Res­i­dent Jan. 5. She and mem­bers of the Black Uni­corn Col­lec­tive cre­at­ed the stage dis­play that will set the tone and con­vey this year’s theme. 

It’s clear that her theme about trans­for­ma­tion is an under­cur­rent in all of her work, whether as a free­lancer her­self, encour­ag­ing and pro­mot­ing the work of oth­er peo­ple, or striv­ing to express what she and oth­ers feel through the many medi­ums at her fin­ger­tips.

She stud­ied graph­ic design, med­ical illus­tra­tion, pho­tog­ra­phy and print­mak­ing and received a BA in stu­dio art from Smith Col­lege. Her pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence includes col­lec­tions, domes­tic and inter­na­tion­al com­mis­sions, exhibits and involve­ment with TEDx pro­grams local­ly and in Cana­da.

She has been a pub­lic speak­er for TEDx events around the US and is a cham­pi­on of inde­pen­dent work­ers, pro­mot­ing advo­ca­cy and net­work­ing for free­lance work­ers. As an author, Rebec­ca focus­es on oppor­tu­ni­ties for inde­pen­dent work­ers and max­i­miz­ing rela­tion­ships with oth­ers for mutu­al ben­e­fit.

Much of her fine art is abstract and metaphor­i­cal, striv­ing for rela­tion­ships and con­nec­tion. Her pieces have been dis­played in Whistler, CA, Northamp­ton MA, and New Zealand as well as at the Port­land Inter­na­tion­al Air­port. 

She will share more of her inspir­ing expe­ri­ences with her own work as the back­drop on Jan. 5.

Rebec­ca Shapiro

Home­town: Port­land, OR, born at OHSU

Fam­i­ly: daugh­ter Anie, son Tobi­ahs, dog­go Bear, hedge­hog Kiko, and mouse Gre­go­ry Rod­er­ick Rem­ing­ton

Hob­bies: hunt­ing for mush­rooms, pho­tog­ra­phy, invent­ing and mak­ing stuff, trav­el, talk­ing to strangers

Music: jazz, Appalachi­an & folk music

Favorite author: JRR Tolkien & Diana Gabal­don

Favorite food: dark choco­late & whisky

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.