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TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

2018 TEDxSalem

Make the most of your TEDxSalem experience

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We’re less than two weeks away from TEDxSalem V “Through the Look­ing Glass.” Don’t have tick­ets yet? Don’t wor­ry, you can still get them here.

Do we all have our tick­ets now? Good! Now read these ten tips on how to get the most out of your TED expe­ri­ence Jan. 6 at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter.

10. Take notes! Bring a small note­book or down­load a notes app for your smart­phone. You def­i­nitely want to remem­ber those moments that made you smile, made you think or just jumped out at you. Take a moment dur­ing the event and at the end of the day to jot down the insights you gained.

9. Be present in the moment. We love that you want to Tweet and Insta­gram about your amaz­ing TEDxSalem expe­ri­ence. But don’t get so wrapped up in your phone that you miss a poignant moment dur­ing a con­ver­sa­tion or a TED talk!

8. Be open-mind­ed. Some of the ideas worth shar­ing may be shock­ing. Some might be a lit­tle con­tro­ver­sial or entire­ly new to you. Don’t write off a TED talk even if you find your­self bristling at it. Be open to new ideas!

7. First in the door, last out the build­ing. Get there ear­ly. You can find your seat, chat up the per­son next to you, get com­fort­able and see what oth­er good­ies await through­out the day. Last year, par­tic­i­pants had the oppor­tu­nity to pur­chase books writ­ten by our speak­ers or get some awe­some TEDxSalem swag. Stay the whole day and leave late. Lis­ten to every sin­gle talk. Do the break­out ses­sions. Ask a mil­lion ques­tions. By the end of the day, you won’t want to leave!

6. Bring some­thing to share. It can be some­thing tan­gi­ble like your busi­ness card or some­thing that’s not like a thought-pro­vok­ing ques­tion or a great book you’ve read recent­ly.

5. Do your research! We love a good sur­prise, and we hope some of the top­ics and thoughts will be delight­fully sur­pris­ing. But there’s some­thing to be said for get­ting excit­ed about your favorite speak­er ahead of time! Take a moment to read the TEDXSalem blog for more infor­ma­tion about each speak­er. Revis­it last year’s speak­ers to get in the spir­it of TED! Or vis­it the offi­cial TED blog for more engag­ing TED talks and choose a few favorites.

4. Net­work, net­work, net­work! TEDxSalem is not a pas­sive or iso­lated expe­ri­ence. You are at the beau­ti­ful Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter with hun­dreds of peo­ple just as excit­ed about new ideas as you are! Talk to every­one. Intro­duce your­self. Don’t ask what they do for a liv­ing — ask what they’re pas­sion­ate about. Make friends, get con­tacts, dis­cuss the TED talks with them. Force your­self a lit­tle out of your com­fort zone and chat up a stranger. (Did the intro­vert in you just cringe? It’s ok. TEDxSalem is for intro­verts, too.)

3. Our vol­un­teers are a resource! They are the heart, soul and back­bone of TEDxSalem, and they are there to make your expe­ri­ence extra­or­di­nary. If you need any­thing at all, don’t hes­i­tate to ask them!

2. Be sure to par­tic­i­pate in the break­out ses­sions. One high­light of TEDxSalem is our speak­ers, but there’s so much more that goes on through­out the day. If you real­ly want to make the most of your time, don’t shy away from sit­ting in on the break­out ses­sions and shar­ing your own ideas. It’s all about mak­ing you think.

1. Immerse your­self in the spir­it of TED! TED is a non­profit orga­ni­za­tion devot­ed to spread­ing ideas, usu­ally in the form of short, pow­er­ful talks. It began in 1984 as a con­fer­ence where tech­nol­ogy, enter­tain­ment and design con­verged (hence the name) and now cov­ers almost all top­ics, includ­ing sci­ence, busi­ness and glob­al issues. Keep all of this in mind as you approach Jan. 6. The day is devot­ed to shar­ing ideas!

Get your tick­ets for TEDxSalem V

TEDxSalem V is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag that takes place Sat­ur­day, Jan. 6, 2018, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Pur­chase tick­ets here. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com.

Mind-altering reads from TEDxSalem

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Fol­low TEDxSalem down the rab­bit hole with one of these six mind-alter­ing books rec­om­mend­ed by our speak­ers, sto­ry­tellers and cura­tors.

We hope they get you excit­ed for TEDxSalem V “Through the Look­ing Glass.”

1. The Center Can­not Hold: My Jour­ney Through Mad­ness by Elyn R. Saks

Saks shares her jour­ney from a ‘nor­mal’ kid, to her diag­noses, to get­ting treat­ment, com­ing off med­ica­tion and relaps­ing and then becom­ing an esteemed pro­fes­sor, lawyer and psy­chi­a­trist.

“I read this book a few years ago, and it com­plete­ly blew me away. See­ing life through the eyes of some­one with schiz­o­phre­nia was intense, amaz­ing and heart­break­ing.”

Recommended by Bri­an Hart, TEDxSalem co-cura­tor and half of the dynam­ic duo that brought TEDx to Salem

 

2.Essentialism: The Dis­ci­plined Pur­suit of Less by Greg McK­e­own

“I’ve read the book Essen­tial­ism more times than any oth­er book on my shelf. When I find myself drown­ing in busy work and los­ing sight of my pri­or­i­ties, I dive into the book again to remind myself to focus on the work I was born to do.

It helps me decide what goes and what stays in my sched­ule, my busi­ness and my per­son­al life. (The audio­book is great, too!)”

Rec­om­mend­ed by Marie Greene, TEDxSalem speak­er, knitwear design­er, writer, knit­ting instruc­tor and inter­na­tion­al speak­er

 

3. “Dar­ing to Dri­ve: A Sau­di Woman’s Awak­en­ing” by Man­al Al-Sharif

“The secret police came for me at two in the morn­ing” Man­al Al-Sharif writes in her true account of liv­ing in Sau­di Ara­bia. Her crime? Dri­ving.

It’s easy to take cer­tain free­doms for grant­ed, but Al-Sharif trans­ports you to her world where women can­not even seek med­ical treat­ment with­out their male guardian, which in some cas­es proves fatal. Al-Sharif’s book is often a tough read but an impor­tant one.

Rec­om­mend­ed by Ste­fanie Knowl­ton, TEDxSalem sto­ry­teller, award-win­ning jour­nal­ist and bel­ly­dancer

 

4. What Should I Do With My Life?: The True Sto­ry of Peo­ple Who Answered the Ulti­mate Ques­tion by Po Bron­son

Po cap­tures the jour­neys of 56 indi­vid­u­als as they strug­gle to define their iden­ti­ty and val­ues to live inten­tion­al­ly.

“This pow­er­ful book helped me clar­i­fy my own val­ues and ques­tion my inter­ests, pas­sions and goals as I read through the inter­nal dia­logues of oth­ers. I encour­age col­lege-age read­ers, those inter­est­ed in refin­ing their path and seek­ers to read this love­ly col­lec­tion of short sto­ries.”

Rec­om­mend­ed by Rose Bark­er, a Cer­ti­fied Risk Man­age­ment Con­sul­tant and expert on iden­ti­ty theft

 

5. Get Momen­tum: How to start when you’re stuck by Jason W. Wom­ack & Jodi Wom­ack

 “I have found myself in a funk a few too many times… this book has helped me focus and make changes through tan­gi­ble advice and activ­i­ties to help rein­force new habits.”

Rec­om­mend­ed by Car­lee Wright, TEDxSalem co-cura­tor and half of the dynam­ic duo that brought TEDx to Salem

 

6. The Psy­che­del­ic Explor­er’s Guide: Safe, Ther­a­peu­tic, and Sacred Jour­neys by James Fadi­man

Fadi­man out­lines best prac­tices in psy­che­del­ic use for safe, sacred voy­ages learned through his more than 40 years of expe­ri­ence.

“This book changed my belief sys­tem and was one of the main cat­a­lysts for me to con­tin­ue my spir­i­tu­al jour­ney to find my true self. It chal­lenged many things I believed and has changed me for the bet­ter.”

Rec­om­mend­ed by Bri­an Hart, TEDxSalem co-cura­tor and half of the dynam­ic duo that brought TEDx to Salem

Save the Date: TEDxSalem V is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag that takes place Sat­ur­day, Jan. 6, 2018, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Ear­ly bird tick­ets go on sale Sept. 1. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.us.

What is TEDx

About TEDx, x = inde­pen­dent­ly orga­nized event

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. (Sub­ject to cer­tain rules and reg­u­la­tions.)