Contact:

Sabaina Saif, TEDxSFU, 778.868.8977, sabaina@tedxsfu.com
Katherine Quan, TEDxSFU, katherine@tedxsfu.com
Scott McLean, SFU Vancouver, 778.782.5151, srmclean@sfu.ca 


Building on the success of its 2011 inaugural conference, an event that featured such notable presenters as former VANOC CEO John Furlong, VPD Chief Jim Chu and Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes, TEDxSFU is “Going Against the Grain” on September 22.

TEDxSFU, which is a licensed, independently organized spinoff of the international Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference, is meant to give imaginative minds a receptive setting in which to spread their great ideas.

Inspired by the TED phenomenon, speakers at Going Against the Grain will share their stories of standing up and standing out against the crowd.

Held at SFU Vancouver’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, TEDxSFU’s 2012 event features 11 speakers, an extensive list of thought leaders who have challenged convention. Among them (see website for a complete list):

• Mark Brand, owner of Save on Meats
• Riaz Meghji, host CityTV’s Breakfast Television
• Loretta Cella, executive director and founder of Passion Foundation
• Jill Earthy, CEO of Forum for Women Entrepreneurs
• Roman Onufrijchuk, senior fellow at CPROST, SFU professor
  

The event will be live streamed, while an after-party for attendees and other interested individuals will be held at the Blarney Stone.

Simon Fraser University is Canada's top-ranked comprehensive university and one of the top 50 universities in the world under 50 years old. With campuses in Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey, B.C., SFU engages actively with the community in its research and teaching, delivers almost 150 programs to more than 30,000 students, and has more than 120,000 alumni in 130 countries.

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Simon Fraser University: Engaging Students. Engaging Research. Engaging Communities.