TEDxSiliconAlley Logo
What is TEDx?

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxSiliconAlley, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxSiliconAlley event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.



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.)



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

UNSCRIPTED Arik Hesseldahl of AllThingsD moderates a fire side chat between Ray Kurzweil and Juan Enriquez. Audience members tweet questions to the hashtag TEDSA and Arik then uses these points of interest to steer the conversation between Ray and Juan. The sequence is one hour in duration, and cover topics from genetic engineering, to artificial intelligence, to immortality.
HOW TO CREATE A MIND For almost half a century, Ray Kurzweil has been one of, if not the most prolific inventor of our modern era. He is the recipient of 19 honorary doctorates, and has been honored by three U.S. Presidents. Bill Gates has called Ray, the best person I know at predicting the future. In December of 2012, just days after his appearance at TEDSiliconAlley, Ray Kurweil joined Google as Director of Engineering.
BIG DATA, TATTOOS & IMMORTALITY Juan Enriquez, bestselling author, businessman, and academic, is recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on the economic and political impacts of life sciences. He is currently Chairman and CEO of Biotechonomy LLC, a life sciences research and investment firm and Founding Director of the Harvard Business School Life Sciences Project.
IF YOU DON'T TRY, YOU NEVER KNOW Ding is a mobile tech entrepreneur with a background in finance, and a mathematics degree from Columbia. Her company, TunTunTuTu (translates as hesitant to speak), makes cultural immersion accessible through peer-to-peer language learning. She is also an avid violinist, and competitive ballroom dancer.
IT IS NOT INEVITABLE... IT IS HERE Jason is the CEO and Founder of Immersive Labs. A computer vision company that focuses on face detection software. Immersive Labs is a Techstars NY company and was selected as one of the 25 hot start ups to watch in New York City by Business Insider. Jason is also a research fellow at the Hybrid Reality Institute and a Business Board Member at Lifeboat Foundation.
JOIN ME IN THE 3D REVOLUTION Bre Pettis, Cofounder and CEO of MakerBot, is known worldwide as a leading evangelist for personal manufacturing. In 2012 he was honored with the Disruptive Innovation Award from Tribeca Film Festival. He is a frequent speaker and interview subject including The Colbert Report, and has been featured in many magazine periodicals, including a recent cover story in WIRED. In his previous career, Bre was an art teacher in the Seattle Public Schools system.
TRIANGULATION OF ATTENTION Jim is the Chief Operating Officer of CrowdOptic, a Silicon Valley based geo-fencing mobile communications company, with patent-pending technology that brings focus based services to live events. A former NFL linebacker with the New Orleans Saints and the San Francisco 49ers, Jim has a medical degree from the University of Kentucky Medical School and a Law degree from Stanford University.
GEO-FENCED HOT ZONES Vivian Rosenthal is the founder and CEO of GoldRun. GoldRun is a photo driven user generated content engagement platform for the social ecosystem. Vivian was named one of Creativity Magazine's top 50 global creatives of 2010, and was selected as one of the five women CEOs for the L'Oreal Next Awards, honoring women in technology.
POSTHUMANISM Bre Pettis, Cofounder and CEO of MakerBot, is known worldwide as a leading evangelist for personal manufacturing. In 2012 he was honored with the Disruptive Innovation Award from Tribeca Film Festival. He is a frequent speaker and interview subject including The Colbert Report, and has been featured in many magazine periodicals, including a recent cover story in WIRED. In his previous career, Bre was an art teacher in the Seattle Public Schools system.
ARE ROBOTS THE FUTURE OF SEX? Often called the Lesbian Hugh Hefner, Jincey Lumpkin, Esq. is a sex-positive feminist, a newlywed and a lover of breasts. She is the Founder, CEO and Chief Sexy Officer of Juicy Pink Box - a lesbian ifestyle brand that entices all women to explore their female fantasies. Jincey is a former lawyer from the fashion industry. Out Magazine has named her one of the world's 100 most influential gay people. Jincey writes a weekly sex column for the Huffington Post.
FLYING ROBOTS Sameer is the founder of Falkor Systems, a flying robot startup based in New York. Sameer is a privacy advocate whose past venture, C2Net, pioneered the offshore development of cryptography by U.S. companies to avoid U.S. regulation. In 2000 he sold C2Net to Red Hat. Sameer has been featured in national publications including WIRED Magazine, Newsweek, and Forbes.
PLAY IN THE NOW Ori is a champion of the augmented reality industry including cofounder of Augmented Reality Event, the largest business convention for the AR industry. At Top Tier Software he launched one of the world's leading enterprise portals, acquired by SAP for $400M, then joined SAP where he grew NetWeaver from concept to a +$1B business. Ori graduated from Tel Aviv University with a double major in Computer Science and Cinema.
THE SIMPLICITY PRINCIPLE Ken Segall worked closely with Steve Jobs as his ad agency Creative Director for over 12 years, first at NeXT Systems, and then at Apple, when Jobs returned in the 90s. Ken led the advertising team behind the Think different campaign, and coined the name iMac, starting the whole i thing. Ken is a New York Times bestselling author, and does creative work, branding and product naming for major brands. He blogs at KenSegall dot com; and he has fun with it all at his Apple satire site, Scoopertino.
EMOTIVE SPEECH SYNTHESIS Natural polyglot and life-long programmer, Foy got started in next-gen speech synthesis while serving as principal investigator for Assembly Creations. He founded Loudly to bring emotive speech synthesis to the gaming industry. Foy is a published writer, authoring The Merb Way, and architected web scale services for the Department of Homeland Security. He studied applied and pure mathematics at BU and Tufts.
USER CENTRIC MOBILE MARKETING Vanessa is the Founding Partner and CEO of Evry, a social planning and group payment platform for trips and events. Prior to launching her current venture Vanessa was an Account Executive at a Digital development firm where she formulated strategy and product guidance for startups and brands in the mobile, web, and social space.