TEDxSFU 2013: Make It Yours

The following was sourced via a TedxSFU press release, dated June 2013.

The TEDxSFU organizing committee is happy to announce that this year’s conference will take place on Saturday, September 21st, 2013. Held at the newly renovated SFU Theatre near Convocation Mall at Simon Fraser University Burnaby Campus, the event will be inspired by the theme Make It Yours

Last year’s conference themed Going Against the Grain was a tremendous success, bringing together 12 outstanding speakers – including Mark Brand, entrepreneur and owner of Save on Meats; Riaz Meghji, co-host of Breakfast Television on CityTV Vancouver, and Alexandra Samuel, Director of the Social and Interactive Media Centre at Emily Carr University – with a highly interactive audience. The conference was a Twitter trending topic in Canada by noon.

With Make It Yours, we are exploring opportunities for designing one’s own path through innovations in technology, entertainment, and design. Speakers will tell their stories of bringing abstract ideas to life and taking action.

No longer than 18 minutes in length, presentations will empower listeners to actively cultivate their passion and succeed in tangible strides.

As we embrace the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDxSFU is increasing the conference capacity to 400. Attendees will be a veritable collection of individuals including students, alumni, and faculty from SFU, as well as artists, activists, and business professionals from the wider community. The attendee application process will begin in late July. Speakers are currently being vetted and will appear on TEDxTuesdays, a weekly speaker interview series on the TEDxSFU blog starting June 25th

To stay informed, please follow TEDxSFU on Twitter (@TEDxSFU) and Facebook.

About TEDX 

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.

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a conference in California 26 years ago, TED has grown to support those world- changing ideas with many initiatives.

At a TED conference, the world's leading thinkers and doers are asked to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes or less. TED speakers have included Roger Ebert, Sheryl Sandberg, Bill Gates, Elizabeth Gilbert, Benoit Mandelbrot, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Brian Greene, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

On TED.com, talks from TED conferences are shared with the world for free as TED Talks videos. A new TED Talk is posted every weekday. Through the Open Translation Project, TED Talks are subtitled by volunteers worldwide into more than 90 languages. Through our distribution networks, TED Talks are shared on TV, radio, Netflix and many websites.

Beyond the Article

• Find out more about TedxSFU and how you can attend or get involved.
• Watch a talk from the 2011 event, with SFU alumnus, Richard Loat.
• Check out TedxSFU on Tumblr.