A burst of positivity: Sean Swearingen, TEDxSalem host

Sean Swearin­gen is part cheer­leader, part joke­ster.

Whether it’s super­vis­ing a team of cus­tomer ser­vice rep­re­sen­ta­tives at a Wells Far­go call cen­ter or call­ing a roller der­by bout, he’s all about lift­ing peo­ple up.

“I real­ly like help­ing peo­ple feel good about them­selves,” he says.

Well it appears that not only will you get an intel­lec­tu­al boost in Novem­ber, you might be leav­ing our event with a boost­ed sense of pos­i­tiv­i­ty, as well. We are proud to announce that Sean Swearin­gen will be the first TEDxSalem host.

Out in a Madi­son Street NE ware­house, where the women are feisty and fish­net stock­ings nev­er go out of style, Sean is known as H.P. Shove­craft.

Sean is the one behind the mic at the Cher­ry City Der­by Girls bouts, drop­ping puns, pop cul­ture ref­er­ences and prais­ing skaters’ stand-out plays.

His wife, whose der­by name is Tox­ic Assets, was among the first skaters to join the league when it start­ed in 2009, jolt­ing the sleepy gov­ern­ment town of Salem.

Sean describes his first bout expe­ri­ence as “elec­tric.”

“You could feel every­one was excit­ed about some­thing new and counter cul­ture,” he said. “It’s for women by women.”

So many peo­ple want­ed to take part in this new and excit­ing event that peo­ple were being turned away at the door. And, as he says, that sim­ply doesn’t hap­pen in Salem.

Sean has found TED talks stim­u­lat­ing and uplift­ing — both words I would use to describe him, too.

TED talks force us to dig deep­er than we’re used to and what results is a trans­for­ma­tive expe­ri­ence. They’re not “neat­ly pack­aged or digestible,” and that’s a good thing.

As the host for TEDxSalem, Sean will set the tone for the day with his enthu­si­as­tic and encour­ag­ing spir­it. But he promised to lim­it the cheesi­ness that Salem’s der­by fans have got­ten used to.

Bio

Name: Sean “H.P. Shove­craft” Swearin­gen

Occu­pa­tion: Cus­tomer ser­vice super­vi­sor at Wells Far­go

Edu­ca­tion: Hof­s­tra Uni­ver­si­ty, Willamette Uni­ver­si­ty MBA

Born in: Cor­val­lis

Vol­un­teers as: Announc­er for Cher­ry City Der­by Girls

Essence: Lift­ing peo­ple up and keep­ing things pos­i­tive, sprin­kled with a few cheesy puns here and there.

Ask him about: How Sean lived in Sau­di Ara­bia from age 7–12; has always worked for the same com­pa­ny as his wife, includ­ing when they met; what it was like to be in Jer­sey City dur­ing the 9/11 attacks.

Favorite TED talks:

• Jill Bolte Taylor’s stroke of insight
• Bill Gates: Teach­ers need real feed­back
• Brene Brown: The pow­er of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty

– Saerom Yoo, TEDxSalem sto­ry­teller