TEDx coming to Carson City Friday

TEDx is making its debut in Carson City.

The all-day event sponsored by Farmer’s Insurance and Carson Tahoe Hospital is taking place Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Brewery Arts Center.

The event sold out within hours of the $99 tickets going on sale and a free-reservation overflow room in the arts center’s Performance Hall has already been booked, but anyone can watch the event stream live online at www.tedxcarsoncity.com.

TEDx Carson City is one of more than a thousand such events held worldwide annually with the goal of promoting “ideas worth spreading.”

Carson City’s TEDx — which stands for technology, entertainment and design — will feature 16 speakers and entertainers who will be talking or performing about a single theme.

“Creating a community you want to live in,” said Gina Hill, executive director, Brewery Arts Center, who applied for the TEDx license, which goes to an individual, and not an organization. “It’s all about taking personal responsibility.”

The TEDx line-up ranges in ages from 16 to 70 years old. Eleven are locals, from either Carson City, Carson Valley, Lake Tahoe or Susanville, and the other five all have ties here, said Hill.

Bryce O’Connor, a 16 year-old from Carson City, will speak on “the need for our educational system to recognize skill beyond the standard subjects.”

Seventeen year-old Shaylin Segura is a Carson High School junior and vice president of the New Entrepreneur network, a national Lincoln Douglas Speech and Debate competitor, tennis captain and musician.

Her talk is titled “Changing Your Reality: One Thought at a Time.”

“The kids are going to give the adults a run for their money,” said Hill.

Audrey Markowitz, a 70 year-old local artist and teacher of Zentangle at the arts center, is giving a talk called “Creatively Combating Cancer” based on her own diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

“My talk is geared toward people choosing hope. That sounds good, but how do you that?” said Markowitz. “You do it by taking action.”

Carson City’s first TEDx has been about a year in the making.

Last April, Hill organized a small volunteer committee to work on bringing the event here.

She applied for the license, which was approved in June.

The committee then brainstormed on potential speakers, including those they knew in the area and some on a dream list.

“Someone said Elon Musk. I said Jerry Brown,” said Hill.

They narrowed the list down to about 20 people, asked them to apply, and once word got out Carson City had a license and a total of about 40 people submitted proposals for talks.

That list got whittled down to the 16, who have been practicing since January, with the help of a speech coaching team including Hill, her husband Ian Hill, who gives speeches for a living, and Racquel Abowd.

Thursday is a dress rehearsal, including a run-through of everyone’s talk or performance.

The stage includes a 7-foot X designed by Markowitz, which also serves as the event’s logo, and built by Jeffrey Fast, the arts center’s production manager.

A set of large lettered building blocks, created by Alan Ernstein, spell out the event on stage.

Friday’s event includes lunch from two food trucks and a barbecue, which Hill expects to be one of the day’s highlights as everyone mingles.

“Between the speakers and audience and volunteers there will be 400 like-minded, creative people here trying to make our community better,” she said.