TEDx Talks Return to Shelburne Falls

Taken from a press release via TEDxShelburneFalls

Building upon the success of last fall’s premier TEDx conference, Shelburne Falls resident Stacy Kontrabecki and TEDx curator has organized a second independently organized TEDx event on Saturday, October 12 from 12 to 6:30pm. The event will again take place in Memorial Hall, 51 Bridge Street, Shelburne Falls in front of a live audience with 13 area presenters speaking to the theme “A Sense of Place.” In keeping with this year’s theme, conference registration will also include fourteen “local” adventures, AM Adventures and Post-Conference Sunday Adventures. The Adventures are expeditionary visits to sites in the greater Shelburne Falls area that take place before the noon start of the 2013 TEDxShelburneFalls “A Sense of Place” conference and the day following the event.

The conference will be live streamed to the Internet beginning at 12:00 pm. Tickets to the limited seating event may be ordered by phone at 800-838-3006 or online at www.TEDxShelburneFalls.com. Tickets for the entire event are $41.

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TED - which stands for “Technology, Entertainment, and Design” - was founded in 1984. The first TED event brought together a few hundred people in a single annual conference in California. Today, TED is not just an organizer of private conferences; it’s a global phenomenon. In 2006 the non-profit decided to make all its talks available free on the internet. (They are now also translated by volunteers into more than 90 languages.) Three years later it decided to further democratize the idea-spreading process by letting licensees such at TEDShelburneFalls use its technology and brand platform. This allows anyone, anywhere, to manage and stage local, independent TEDx events. Licenses are free, but event organizers must apply for them and submit to light vetting. Since 2009 more than 7,600 TEDx events have been held around the world.

Kontrabecki, a community organizer and entrepreneur, says that one of her primary motivations for bringing TEDx to Shelburne Falls is the rich diversity and expertise of the creative community “that deserves to be seen and heard.” Living in an evermore mobile world, four questions led Kontrabecki to establishing this year’s TEDx theme: “What place are you from? What defines a place? What is the history and nature of the places you most love and most dislike? What can you do to make the places in which you live, work and play better?”

Those unable to obtain paid admission to the conference in Memorial Hall are invited to view a free live simulcast at the nearby Masonic Hall/Shelburne Falls Senior Center or Mocha Mayas. No registration is required for the simulcast and seating is first come, first serve basis.

In addition to the 13 live speakers, several videos of recorded TED Talks and from local filmmakers will be screened.  A conversation period after each of the two speaker sessions will make it possible for attendees and speakers to mingle and compare notes.