Minnesota forum spotlights innovative answers to today’s big questions
MINNEAPOLIS—May 31, 2011—The Star Tribune today announced it has entered into a sponsorship agreement with TEDxTC, a locally organized event series produced through a license from the TED Conference, in support of the nonprofit organization’s mission of advancing “ideas worth spreading.”
TED began 26 years ago as a conference bringing together leading thinkers from the worlds of technology, entertainment and design (thus the name “TED”). Since then, it has grown into a worldwide organization that includes events, the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the TED Fellows program and the annual TED Prize.
TEDxTC is a locally organized event series that brings people together to share a Minnesota-focused TED-like experience. The Star Tribune will provide promotional support for TEDxTC to bring the “TED concept” to a broader audience across Minnesota.
Jeff Griffing, Star Tribune Chief Revenue Officer, said working with TEDxTC is a natural partnership of two organizations that fundamentally believe in the power of ideas to create change. “The civic mission of the Star Tribune has always been about making this community a better place by encouraging discussion, debate and new ideas,” Griffing said. “We also collaborate with our advertisers to help them solve business challenges in novel ways. That dual mission fits perfectly with what TEDxTC is doing to showcase the best ideas of creative and influential Minnesotans.”
TEDxTC is curated by Chadburn Blomquist, a manager at Cisco Systems and partner at Social Venture Partners Minnesota.
“TEDxTC is about giving leading thinkers and doers from our own backyard a stage and recognized international platform to spread their ideas,” Blomquist said. “Our audience is open-minded, curious, intelligent and hungry to learn about the world—locally and abroad. We believe the Star Tribune wants to serve the same audience.”
TEDxTC hosts events at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Recent speakers include:
Art Rolnick, senior vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Nate Garvis, former vice president of government affairs for Target Corporation and founder of Naked Civics, LLC
Internationally recognized explorer and author Dan Buettner
Ed Driscoll, veteran entrepreneur and CEO of Rational Energies
Peter L. Benson, a leading authority on human development and author of Sparks: How Parents Can Help Ignite the Hidden Strengths of Teenagers
Princeton, Minn., violin prodigy Sedra Bistodeau
The next TEDxTC event is scheduled for June 7 and asks the question, “What are your thoughts on the future of food?” Speakers include LaDonna Redmond, a long-time community activist who successfully worked to get Chicago Public Schools to re-evaluate junk food; Kevin Ryan, who tries to predict the future of food as a manager in the Strategy and Innovation group at General Mills; and Winona LaDuke, Program Director of Honor the Earth and an internationally renowned activist working on issues of sustainable development and food systems.
Tickets for the next TEDxTC event are available at www.tedxtc.com.
About Star Tribune Media Company
Star Tribune Media Company is a locally owned and operated media company serving Minnesota and the upper Midwest. Minnesota is the only U.S. market in the top 10 in household income, home ownership, health and fitness, literacy, spending on the arts, credit scores and online activity. With the 14th largest daily circulation newspaper in the U.S., the most-visited local website, and Twin Cities Values, Star Tribune reaches more consumers than any other Minnesota media brand. For more information visit startribune.com or startribunecompany.com.
About TEDx, x = independently organized event
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.) Visit TEDxTC at tedxtc.com or follow it on Twitter @TEDxTC.
About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 26 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. At TED, the world’s leading thinkers and doers are asked to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth
Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Benoit Mandelbrot, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Two major TED events are held each year: The TED Conference takes place every spring in Long Beach, California (along with a parallel conference, TEDActive, in Palm Springs), and TEDGlobal is held each summer in Edinburgh, Scotland.
TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily; the new TED Conversations, enabling broad conversations among TED fans; and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide.
TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action; TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self-organized events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.
For information about TED’s upcoming conferences, visit http://www.ted.com/registration
Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED