Save the Date! TED Talks are scheduled for April 10-14 in Vancouver. This year’s theme is the Age of Amazement. Libraries throughout the lower mainland will offer live-streaming of the events. In the past, the West Vancouver Memorial Library, and the Vancouver Public Library have both live streamed these events. Check the library websites closer to the event date to find out who will be offering this service this year.
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a media organization that was founded in 1984 as a conference with an emphasis on topics within the research and practice of science and culture, through storytelling. Speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present an ‘idea worth spreading’ in the most innovating and engaging way they can.
This year’s line-up of speakers is sure to inspire and motivate. Speakers range in topic and ideas, including:
- Chetna Gala Sinha, founder and chair of the Mann Deshi Bank, aimed at the needs of rural women micro-entrepreneurs in India. A passionate listener who respects risk-takers – which makes her a powerful force in the banking world. A longtime activist and farmer, in 1997 she set up the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank, India’s first bank for and by rural women with 90,000 account holders, managing business of more than 150 crores (about $1.5 billion) creating new financial products to support the needs of female micro-entrepreneurs.
- Health activist Morgan Dixon is the co-founder and CEO of GirlTrek, the largest public health non-profit for African American women and girls in the United States. GirlTrek encourages women to use walking as a practical first step to inspire healthy living, families and communities. The organization knits local advocacy together to lead a civil rights-inspired health movement to eliminate barriers to physical activity, improve access to safe places, protect and reclaim green spaces, and improve the walkability and built environments of 50 high-need communities across the United States.
- Rebeca Hwang is co-founder and managing director of Rivet Ventures, which invests in companies in women-led markets where female usage, decision-making and purchasing are crucial to company growth. Hwang is also co-founder of the San Francisco-based startup YouNoodle, which connects top start-ups with opportunities for growth. She also co-founded Kalei Ventures, a venture fund focused in Latin American start-ups. Hwang serves in the Board of the Global Entrepreneurship Network. As the co-founder of Cleantech Open (CTO), she has helped more than 1,000 cleantech start-ups raise in excess of $1 billion in external funding. In addition, Hwang is a lecturer at Stanford University and teaches technology entrepreneurship.
- Think of Surya Mattu as a data detective. As he writes: “I am interested in figuring out the ways in which algorithmic systems harm people.” Surya Mattu is a data reporter on Gizmodo’s Special Projects Desk and an R&D Journalism Resident at Eyebeam NYC. As he writes: “My practice combines art, investigative journalism, engineering and creative technology. The aim is to reverse-engineer the specific ways in which the tools or technology we create are imbued with the ethics of the culture in which they’re created. Previously, he was a contributing researcher at ProPublica, where he worked on “Machine Bias,” a series that aims to highlight how algorithmic systems can be biased and discriminate against people.”
There’s so many more speakers. Check in with your local library to be inspired and amazed. It’s talks like this that keep us motivated to strive harder to be the best we can be.