TEDx Ashland

On May 20, 2019 I took the stage with 13 other brave individuals at the Camelot Theatre in Talent, Oregon and presented 15 to 18 minute stories as a part of the first TEDx Ashland. 

After months of practice and coaching we took turns presenting memorized talks about topics that covered everything from humanity to technology. 

TEDx talks are local versions of the world renowned TED talk and follow a fixed format. Each speaker is asked to submit a topic and if selected, the speaker is asked to create a 15-19 minute talk that tells a story in the TEDx way. 

The event is limited to only 100 people in attendance (not including the speakers and committee) and videos are recorded and edited and then submitted to TED for review and hopefully posting on the TEDx youtube channel. Not every talk is picked up by TED for rebroadcasting via youtube. If you go to YouTube.com and search for “tedxashland” you will see all of the talks that they did post.

The speakers and their talks are as follows:

Sudhir Gautam – “The Lives and Deaths of our Identities” 

Jennifer Mathews – “Death is Inevitable – Grief is Not” 

James Adam – “Sex and Love in a World of Robots” 

Betsy Massie – “Use Or Lose It…The Constitution Belongs To The Citizens” 

Linda Hugle – “The Gift of Mortality”

Jim Teece and Trever Yarrish – “Learn to Live”

Davis Wilkins, MD – “Don’t Look Away From Dying”

Merv George and Chris Chambers – “Fire And Smoke…We Are in This Together”

Daniel Sherrill – “Song in the Key of Death”

Dr. Neil Neimark – “The Promise and Proof of Stem Cell Therapy”

Jessica Gomez – “The Death of the Middle Class”

Scott Dewing – “Our Faustian Bargain with Technology” 

The overall theme of the event was life and death and the speakers covered the full range. Each are worth the time to find and watch online. 

The committee that put this on worked just as hard as the speakers and it showed. The event was well done and the house was filled with people that laughed, cried and left with their minds blown. 

Hosting a TEDx is not easy, but it’s a great way to get people in your community to come together to share their unique collection of wisdom for the rest of the world.