BETHLEHEM, Pa – SEPTEMBER 1, 2016 – TEDxLehighRiver, an independently organized TED event, will return to Miller Symphony Hall in Allentown on Saturday, September 17 from noon to 5 p.m. TEDxLehighRiver, will include live presentations, pre-recorded TEDTalks, and networking/conversation about “Ideas Worth Sharing.”
The 2016 speakers include Success Performance Solutions President and Founder Ira S Wolfe.
Ira S Wolfe describes himself as a “Millennial trapped in a Baby Boomer body.” He is a prototype for the power of mindset over age. He thinks intensely about how change impacts people and organizations. A prolific blogger, business writer, author, and respected authority on talent management and job fit, Ira walked away from a very successful but unrelated career over 20 years ago and feels he stepped into the future for the first time. He shares his personal template that encourages and inspires others to embrace the future that will be, not the past that was, in a Talk entitled Make Change Work for You.
The other speakers include:
Elizabeth Dobson is a multiracial woman and the youngest of three children adopted into her all white family. She grew up in rural Pennsylvania where she thrived socially and academically despite being one of few minorities in her hometown. Liz recently created a blog to educate and empower a growing demographic of interracial and adoptive families. She understands they have important and unique challenges and perspectives within their families and communities. Her talk—How to Fix Our Subconscious Racism: a Multi-Race Perspective–is based on one of the unique perspectives of many multiethnic people, and how that perspective is critical to help all of us learn how to engage and connect with each other across stereotypical race “color lines”.
Self-taught artist Stephanie Smith has been working for the last ten years with the sacred circular art form known as mandala as a self-reflective meditative practice. She has, to date, created over 10,000 pieces of mandala art in a wide variety of expressive mediums. She is a resident artist at the Banana Factory Arts Center in South Bethlehem. On the TEDxLehighRiver stage, Stephanie will share her processes, practices and personal stories in her Talk Art as a Spiritual Practice: What I’ve Learned from Making 10,000 Mandalas.
Veronique Valliere, Psy.D., has more than 25 years of field experience as a clinical psychologist. She puts this experience to work training law enforcement personnel to see beyond bias, stereotypes, and misinformation so they are not manipulated by those who commit violent and sexual assaults. In her Talk, Sexual Assault and the V Word, Valliere provides a paradigm shift for understanding interpersonal violence and the role the observer or audience plays in the offender’s success or defeat.
Easton’s Sarah Trimmer is a two-time breast cancer survivor who spends her free time as a writer, public speaker, and mentor to newly diagnosed breast cancer patients. Sarah urges everyone to focus on their happiness to build their mental strength. Her presentation, Start and End Happy, refers to a technique she has implemented to carry her through years of tragedy and loss.
Patrick McIvor is a hairdresser who has had some very unique experiences during his 30-year career caring for people’s hair. Patrick will share his thoughts about The Beauty of Touch and the need and desire to be touched/groomed by another. His observations have been shaped by a broad range of a lifetime of experiences from being a teen volunteer in a neo-natal intensive care unit to his extensive, multi-continent travels which have allowed him to teach and share ideas, to his work in salons from New York City to his own salon in Nazareth.
Annarose Ingarra-Milch, president and founder of ROI Training & Consulting, LLC, author of Lunch with Lucille and the reigning Ms. PA Senior America, is a positive aging advocate. With an unprecedented growth of the older segment of our population in a youth-centered culture, Annarose will speak about Age as an Asset. This science-supported, uplifting presentation looks at aging from a totally different perspective.
Leonieke Scheuble, recently named “Best Up & Coming Young Artist” (HotHouse NYC Fans Decision 2015 Awards) started to play piano after being inspired by “Ray,” a movie based on the life of Ray Charles. Between the ages of 5 and 6 and without any prior musical training, she began to spend great lengths of time at the piano creating pieces that were rhythmically interesting and compositionally balanced. Now entering the 9th grade, Leonieke already has an extensive and impressive performance and recording resumé. Now a student of the highly-respected jazz pianist, Steve Ash, her love of jazz, blues, soul and gospel music motivates her to develop her expanding musical skills. Hear Leonieke’s talk about creativity, No Boundaries, and enjoy her musical performance at TEDxLehighRiver.
The full list of speakers and other details are available at: www.tedxlehighriver.com.
Early bird tickets are available in advance and are on sale for $30, a 25% discount off the regular price of $40, using discount code: EARLYBIRD. Tickets for students 25 and under are $15.00. All tickets can be purchased at: http://tinyurl.com/jtuhqy9
The popular Innovation Alley exhibition will return again this year as part of TEDxLehighRiver. Innovation Alley attracts students and startups alike who relish the opportunity to share their ideas with an attentive audience in the theater foyer. Innovation Alley will be showcased between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. and during breaks in the TEDxLehighRiver program.
Now in its fourth year, TEDxLehighRiver has already established itself in the community as a forum for innovative speakers and presentations. The process by which TEDxLehighRiver curates the roster of speakers has changed since its inception, with a high level of interest by potential speakers from within the Lehigh Valley community. This year, the coveted speaker slots in the TEDxLehighRiver program were filled after reviewing nearly 60 speaker applications that included sample video clips provided by the applicants. After a first round of personal interviews, those chosen for the next level of consideration were invited to participate in the TEDxLehighRiver School – a full day spent with TEDxLehighRiver volunteers for some preliminary coaching and to get a better understanding of the process and commitment involved in completing the journey to the TEDxLehighRiver stage.
About TEDxLehighRiver
TEDxLehighRiver is committed to bringing the TED experience to the Greater Lehigh Valley. A community-based volunteer initiative, TEDxLehighRiver is an independently organized TED event that brings together a diverse group of speakers and audience members to participate in a program of engaging and thought-provoking presentations and conversation. In addition, the TEDxLehighRiver team presented live video streaming from the annual TED Conference to the community for the first time this year.
About TED
TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science and business to global issues and personal development — in more than 100 languages. More than 2,200 TED presentations logging hundreds of millions of views are available at ted.com.
