Kansas City Presenters
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Mike Lundgren
TEDxKC Event Curator
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As a member of the TED community, Mike Lundgren jumped at the opportunity to secure one of the first TEDx local licenses in 2009 to stage an event in metropolitan Kansas City. The inaugural TEDxKC program featured a balance of national and local speakers and talent, featuring Majora Carter, John Gerzema, Adam Johnson and Mark Sutherland's Urban Noise Camp.
Since then, Mike and a dedicated group of event planners, volunteers and sponsors have presented a variety of major TED programming, including TEDxChange, TEDWomen, TEDxLive and the second TEDxKC program in 2010.
The third annual TEDxKC on August 18, 2011, promises to deliver another provocative evening of Ideas Worth Spreading. Special thanks to all of the dedicated TEDxKC sponsor organizations, including VML (where Mike is a partner and leads innovation strategy), the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Harvest Productions, Populous and KCPT — Kansas City public television.
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Barnaby Bright
The Longest Day Is the Shortest Night
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Biography
Brooklyn-based indie folk rock duo Barnaby Bright, have garnered high accolades for their lyrically captivating and impeccably balanced songwriting and sound. Two-time finalists in the prestigious New York Song Circle Contest, Barnaby Bright was awarded the Grand Prize Winners in November 2010 for their song, “Don’t Look Down.” The duo self-produced their first album, “Wake The Hero,” gaining recognition as an “Emerging Artist” at the legendary Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in July 2010, and have shared the stage with the likes of Norah Jones and Ingrid Michaelson. As songwriters and performers, they seek to uncover ways to connect with the listener through the power of music, guiding them to both personal and universal discoveries.
They have toured all over the US and Europe, dazzling fans with unique instrumentation, powerful harmonies, intelligent lyrics, and genuine warmth on stage. Inspired by literature, life, human behavior, and a hint of fantasy, Barnaby Bright is a classic vision of timeless indie folk rock in a beautifully surreal atmosphere.
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Marcin Jakubowski
Civilization Starter Kit
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TEDxKC talk synopsis: Marcin Jakubowski is open-sourcing a set of blueprints for 50 farming tools that can be built cheaply from scratch. Call it a "civilization starter kit." Declaring that, "We can lead self-sustaining lives without sacrificing our standard of living," Marcin Jakubowski believes that only by opening the means of production can we achieve abundance for all.
Biography
Though he has a Ph.D. in fusion physics, Marcin became dissatisfied with its remoteness, and turned back to the earth as a farmer and social innovator.
He is the founder of Open Source Ecology, which is creating the Global Village Construction Set — the blueprints for simple fabrication of everything needed to start a self-sustaining village.
At Factor e Farm in rural Missouri, he's been successfully putting those ideas to the test.
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Jenn Lim
Applied Happiness
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TEDxKC talk synopsis: Zappos.com built an enduring brand through customer service and company culture, but even more interesting is that they succeeded by using happiness as a business model. Drawn by the notion that anyone can apply the science of happiness to work, communities and our everyday lives, happiness has become the organizing principle behind a new business and now, a movement.
Biography
Jenn Lim is the CEO and Chief Happiness Officer of Delivering Happiness, a company she and Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos) co-created to inspire happiness in work, community and everyday life.
In 2005, she created the first Culture Book for Zappos – now on its 7th edition – and has produced them ever since. In 2009, Zappos was sold to Amazon.com in a deal valued at $1.2 billion on the day of closing, and in 2011, Zappos was #6 on Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. The Culture Book has become a global symbol of how companies can successfully create cultures based on happiness and be profitable at the same time.
In 2010, Jenn led the launch and management of Tony’s first book (Delivering Happiness) which sold over 220,000 copies internationally and hit #1 on numerous bestsellers list (including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today). It was voted one of the best business books in 2010 by NPR, Inc. Magazine and the Wall Street Journal, has remained on the New York Times list for 27 weeks and has been published in over 17 countries/languages because of her efforts. With the success of the Culture Book and Delivering Happiness, she’s spoken at companies, universities and organizations such as Twitter, Pixar, Stanford, UCLA, the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, NAWBO and the American Marketing Association. Prior to becoming CEO and Chief Happiness Officer, Jenn consulted in a number of industries, including the internet, branding, writing and graphic design.
Today, she’s dedicated to growing the social venture of Delivering Happiness to spread and inspire happiness, day by day
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Patrick Meier
Changing the world, one map at a time
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TEDxKC talk synopsis: Maps have always been a source of fascination and intrigue. Today's maps, however, can also help to save lives during disasters, document human rights abuses and monitor elections in countries under repressive rule. This presentation will explain how today's live maps can combine crowds and clouds to drive social change.
Biography
Patrick Meier is Director of Crisis Mapping at Ushahidi—a non-profit technology company voted by MIT’s Technology Review as one of the 50 most innovative companies in the world alongside Facebook.
Patrick is also co-founder of the International Network of Crisis Mappers and previously co-directed Harvard University’s Program on Crisis Mapping and Early Warning.
He is completing his PhD at The Fletcher School during which he was also a Doctoral Fellow at Stanford University. Patrick blog at iRevolution.net.
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Quixotic Fusion
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Quixotic is a Kansas City based, multi faceted creative ensemble that fuses together any, and every art form in order to create an experience that is completely unique. This modern day collective of leading artistic innovators eliminates the barrier between performer and audience. Quixotic is constantly re-inventing themselves to stay just ahead of the curve, and just beyond what you thought was creatively possible.
Quixotic's performance is comprised of three thrilling acts. Act I: Stimulus; Act II: Aquarium and Act III: Transmission.
