The past few weeks have seen some extraordinary TED-relevant news items, both happy and sad. Below are some highlights. This year’s TEDGlobal included a new simulcast event, TEDxVilniusLive, which featured a livestream of the conference, a TEDxYouShare audience session, and a Maker Fair that showed off plenty of innovative local work. Lithuania’s youngest quadcopter constructor, […]
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TEDxOrangeCoast Announces Third Annual Orange County Conference
Conference will highlight local TEDxChallenge and TeenChallenge winners
Costa Mesa, Calif., May 17, 2013 — TEDxOrangeCoast announced today that it will host its third annual fall conference in Costa Mesa, Calif. September 20-21, 2013. This year’s theme is Beautiful Minds.
“We are honored to bring forward-thinking speakers and innovators to Southern California,” says TEDxOrangeCoast Executive Producer Mojdeh Eskandari. “This is an extraordinary opportunity for our community to connect with highly engaged influencers, designers, educators and technologists.”
Last year’s TEDxOrangeCoast conference attracted more than 2,000 participants and featured 15-year-old Jack Andraka who introduced his scientific invention: an early detection test for pancreatic cancer.
In addition to renowned speakers, the conference will showcase the winners of the second annual TEDxChallenge, a contest to conceive and present an Idea Worth Doing, and will introduce the TEDxTeenChallenge, modeled on the TedxChallenge. TEDxOrangeCoast is currently accepting applications for both Challenges through August 30 on its website www.tedxorangecoast.com. Winners will be announced at the fall conference and will receive start-up funds for their idea, as well as professional mentorship to implement it.
“We had such great success with our TEDxChallenge last year that we wanted to expand it for this year,” says Eskandari. “We are making a special effort this session to engage local teens in this challenge.”
The challenge asks entrants to conceive an Idea Worth Doing and present a plan to implement it. Entrants may be individuals or teams. The winning project will be innovative and impactful and will be evaluated based on creativity, critical thinking and viability of the implementation plan.
Last year’s winners of the TEDxChallenge were Partners in Algebra, which provides free tutoring to economically disadvantaged students at Saddleback College, and In A Box, which supplies essential items to women and children living in domestic violence shelters.
“With the support we got from winning the TEDxChallenge, In A Box has been able to serve domestic violence shelters in both Northern and Southern California,” says Javier Espinoza, founder of In A Box. “In addition to the funding, we got an unprecedented amount of exposure, which helped us increase outreach and uplift even more moms and kids living through domestic violence.”
To encourage teen participation, TEDxOrangeCoast will give free admission to the fall conference to the first 10 teens who submit Challenge applications.
About TEDxOrangeCoast
TEDxOrangeCoast is a non-profit, independently organized TED event devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading through annual conferences featuring fascinating doers and thinkers who present in 18 minutes or less. Its scope has broadened to include the TEDxChallenge and TEDxTeenChallenge, which promote Ideas Worth Doing. TEDxOrangeCoast brings together a like-minded community of curious, highly engaged learners committed to inspiring change through positive actions. Learn more at www.TEDxOrangeCoast.com.
About TED
TED, originally an acronym for Technology, Entertainment, Design, is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It hosts two annual conferences — the TED Conference on the West Coast each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer — and launched the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize. Learn more at www.TED.com.