TEDx Victoria 2012:Momentum - November 17th

This is another cool local event that I 99% certain I will have to miss - weekends in the fall tend to filled up very quickly.

The Speakers and Artists of TEDxVictoria 2012

VICTORIA, BC—October 15, 2012 After an exhaustive and thorough review process, TEDxVictoria is excited to announce the full list of speakers, artists, and performers set to transform the Victoria Conference Centre and share ideas as part of Victoria’s premier independently-organized TED event: TEDxVictoria 2012: Momentum.

Host

Dave Morris
Dave Morris is a storyteller and poet but mostly an improviser. He’s performed at Improv Festivals around Canada and the world, and was the artistic director of the Victoria Improv Festival this past year. He spends his days teaching public improv classes, performing as a one–man improvised storyteller, and producing shows at the Victoria Event Centre.

Speakers

Alan Cassels (Alan is a truly decent guy that has been working hard on the issue of drugs and the medical system, he alone makes TEDx worth going to)
A drug policy researcher for the University of Victoria, Alan Cassels is a known for having a knack for finding and describing the chasm between what the market says and what science does in modern healthcare. Over the past two decades Cassels has spent much of his research energy studying clinical research and the marketing tactics of the pharmaceutical industry, turning some of that research into journalism and books, including an international best-seller.

Calvin Sandborn
Calvin Sandborn is a journalist, author, and environmental lawyer currently supervising the University of Victoria Environmental Law Clinic. In 2011 Sandborn received the top British Columbia award for environmental advocacy and was also named an Honorary Citizen by the City of Victoria. His book Becoming a Kind Father: A Son’s Journey was a best-seller in BC, and he now travels throughout Canada and the United States speaking on the topic of men and anger.

Carolyn Herriot
Carolyn Herriot is a food security consultant and regular columnist for the BC Home & Garden and CommonGround magazines, as well as the best-selling author of A Year on the Garden Path: A 52-Week Organic Gardening Guide, The Zero Mile Diet, and The Zero-Mile Diet Cookbook. Herriot grows certified organic seeds for “Seeds of Victoria” at The Garden Path Centre in Victoria.

Christopher Bowers
Christopher Bowers is an educator, a story-catcher, a videographer, and an entrepreneur. He won a Marshall McLuhan Award for Innovation in Education by helping implement computer technology across the curriculum. Bowers currently works with classes on Vancouver Island to help students understand the power of personal inquiry through ConversationWorks, where he also creates new tools and models of communication and collaboration.

Darcy Turenne
Darcy Turenne is known internationally for her athletics but also more recently as a filmmaker as well. She started working in television as a presenter for the globally syndicated travel/adventure show Ride Guide, and has been featured in hundreds of publications worldwide, including Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal. Darcy’s thesis film at Royal Roads Univeristy, The Eighth Parallel, brought her to Indonesia, where she documented the lives of five female action-sport athletes, and the impact sport had on their lives.

David Eaves
An expert in public policy, strategy, open government, open source, negotiation, and collaboration, David Eaves’ primary expertise lies in the realm of technology and transparency, making him an ideal speaker for governments and organizations interested in open data and social media. As a negotiation expert, Eaves advised on critical negotiations like the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. He is also a prolific writer, contributing to The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star and publishing chapters in books like O’Reilly Media’s Open Government and EMP’s textbook The New Journalist.

Donna Morton
Donna Morton is an Ashoka, Ogunte, Unreasonable fellow, and a BC Ideas Thoughtleader. Morton began her career in Greenpeace, where she was frequently arrested in defence of our planet and future generations. She’s now the CEO of First Power, a company focused on blending business innovation and social purpose to put green energy technology (and the related jobs and economic benefits) into the hands of communities.

Genevieve Von Petzinger
A PhD student in Anthropology at the University of Victoria, Genevieve Von Petzinger’s main area of interest is understanding the geometric imagery of European Ice Age rock art and how we can use this type of behavior to identify cognitive and symbolic evolution in modern humans. Her work was featured on the cover of New Scientist in 2010 and Science Illustrated in 2011, and she has also appeared on the Discovery Channel’s popular program Daily Planet.

Jaigris Hodson
Jaigris Hodson teaches communication studies at Royal Roads University. Hodson also develops and teaches digital literacy courses at Ryerson University—but that isn’t the most interesting thing about her: she’s also a former burlesque dancer who started her own burlesque troupe in Toronto called “The Cinnamon Hearts” after getting her start with Victoria’s own “Cheesecake Burlesque.”

Jamie Kemp
Jamie Kemp is an Educator in Residence at MediaCore Technologies (an education software company) and a Ph.D. candidate and lecturer at the University of Victoria. Kemp is tackling some of the oldest problems in education: her mission is to help the world learn more, do more, think more clearly, and manage knowledge in better ways by thinking about what tools, technologies, and situations make this possible—and sharing that knowledge with those who are transforming the educational landscape through technology.

Reid Gower
Reid Gower is a 26-year-old philosophy major who dropped out of university to promote science and space exploration using social media. His film project The Sagan Series combined stunning cinematography and a mesmerizing soundtrack with Carl Sagan’s narration from his hit television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Gower spoke about The Sagan Series at TEDxVancouver 2011 with a speech entitled “The Frontier.”

Wes Borg (I first heard about him when my brother Nik introduced me to his stuff when he was a member of the Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie - he is the artist that wrote the War of 1812)
Wes Borg has been told he is smart at least twice. He has no documentation to prove this, but he is pretty darned good at puzzles. He has written and performed for the stage, screen, radio and internet.  In fact, he remembers the internet before Mosaic came along and wrecked it. Wes has also been given awards for things, most recently it was decided by the people of Victoria that he is funny—in fact, “the funniest” two years in a row. Never been done before (unless it has... I’m not looking it up, you look it up.)
Artists & Performers

Charles Campbell
Charles Campbell has exhibited widely in North America, the Caribbean, and Europe, representing Jamaica and Canada in events such as the HavanaBiennial and the Brooklyn Museum’s Infinite Islands exhibition. Campbell is an active participant in the growing Caribbean contemporary arts scene as both an artist and a writer and is a regular contributor to ARC Magazine, a Caribbean arts journal.

DJ Murge
An industry veteran of more than 10 years, DJ Murge is a part of Victoria’s longest-running club night C1RCA Presents: STIRFRY, he has played at numerous festivals, was the lead DJ for the 2010 Winter Olympic Torch Ceremony, and founded Victoria’s first-ever D.J. School.

Gautham Krisnarj
Gautham Krisnarj is a second year student at the Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific. His passion for public speaking started with him competing in the Ontario Concours d’Art Oratoire, a French public speaking competition, where he spoke at Nationals. In 2010 Krisnarj became a youth slam poet, leading him to speaking at Rogers Arena in front of 18,000 people as part of Vancouver’s We Day.

Impulse Theatre
Founded on a rock in James Bay in Summer 2010, Impulse Theatre focuses on creating new and highly physical work that explores the human environment, hoping to take a look into the dark places of the human condition, break them open, and shine in some light.

Limbic Media
Limbic Media is a Victoria, BC based company that specializes in real-time interactive multimedia control technologies for use in entertainment markets, education, research, and the fine arts.

Monkey C Interactive
Monkey C Interactive is the collaborative work of David Parfit and Scott Amos, who develop and create interactive audio/visual art installations. They’ll be bringing their Synaesthesiatron to TEDxVictoria, a gesture-controlled LED wall and audio remixer.

Wil
Known as simply “Wil” to his fans, Wil Mimnaugh is a roots/rock guitarist known for powerful live performances where he frequently breaks guitar strings. Wil’s recent hit song “Ride” was composed for and performed nightly at The Calgary Stampede’s 100th anniversary this year. His music was also heavily featured in Travel Alberta’s 2011/2012 “Remember to Breathe” campaign.


TEDxVictoria 2012: Momentum
Where: Victoria Conference Centre (720 Douglas)
When: 10AM–6PM on Saturday, November 17, 2012 (Doors & registration begin at 9:15 AM)
Tickets: $75–$100, available at tedxvictoria.ticketleap.com/ and Russell Books at a future date TBA (734 Fort St)
Website: www.tedxvictoria.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/tedxvictoria
Twitter: @TEDxVictoria


About TEDx, x = independently organized event
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)

About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place each spring in Long Beach, California, along with the TEDActive simulcast in Palm Springs; the annual TEDGlobal conference is held each summer in Edinburgh, Scotland.

TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily, the recently launched TED-Ed platform for students and educators, the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide, and TEDBooks, short e-books by speakers that elaborate on a single idea originally presented on TED’s stage. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action; TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self-organized events around the world, and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities. Follow TED on Twitter or on Facebook.