On Friday Oct. 20, 2017 Dayton’s Victoria Theatre held an independent TED event, called TEDxDayton.
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to spreading ideas. The intention is to spread these ideas in short, powerful talks that usually consist of 18 minutes or less. TED was founded in 1984 as a conference where technology, entertainment and design could be converged.
Today in 2017, TED talks cover almost every topic from science, business and other issues around the globe. Talks are being presented in more than 100 languages across the world.
The Ted mission statement as seen on their website is “Ted is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world. We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world.”
There are also independently run TEDx (hence, TedxDayton) events to help share ideas in communities all over the world.
This was the fifth year the community has hosted TedxDayton and it has become one of the region’s signature annual events. For this independently organized TED event, the theme was “Current.”
Every guest was given a notebook, and inside this notebook was a plan for the day. A lanyard and name tag were also given, and people were asked to not only write their name in the name tag, but to also write their current inspirations.
There was a total of 25 speakers from around the community including representatives from companies such as CareSource, P&C Pharma and Druffner Professional Organizing.
Some speakers included Brennan Harlow, a junior at Chaminade Julienne High School who talked about the ripple effects of addiction, and shared his personal story about his interactions with addiction.
Daniel Badger, the director of the America’s Packard Museum in Dayton hosted a talk as well as Neil Gittleman, the conductor of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra.
Bridget Shingleton is a graduate of the University of Dayton, and the manager of marketing and communications for the Brunner Literacy Center. She spoke about the power of literacy to improve lives and told her own story of getting married in Dayton’s new main branch of the Metro library.
There were also musical performances throughout the day including David Baugham, who is the student body president at Wright State University. He is a finger-style acoustic slap-guitarist and a Dayton native. There was also a performance from the Dayton Gay Men’s Chorus and Jonathan Luo, a 12-year old pianist and seventh grader at Mason Middle School.
Lunch was provided for every guest; students ate at Uno’s and other guests were provided lunch across the street at the Schuster Center. At the end of the day there was a happy hour in the lobby of Victoria Theatre for guests to mingle and meet the speakers of TedxDayton.
The event was held from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Guests were encouraged to keep an open mind, meet someone new and spread the ideas that were shared over the course of the day. The hashtag #TEDxDayton was used to “keep the conversation going.”
Kali Macklin
Reporter