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).
Speakers
Speakers may not be confirmed. Check event website for more information.
Agnes Holm
Agnes Holm was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1998. She had a traditional Swedish childhood and spent most of her time in school or figure skating. In August 2014, she moved to a small town in South Carolina to spend a year as an exchange student. The change in culture and environment has been an eye-opening experience she will remember forever.Alexi Alario
Alexi Alario is fifteen years old and a sophomore at Spring Hill High School. She was born in Trinidad and Tobago, and she moved to Columbia in 2006. Alexi has been an art student since age three and aspires to be a museum curator or art historian. She enjoys visual journaling and blogging about her favorite things, including fashion, music, film, and travel. Alexi is passionate about many social justice issues and is an avid intersectional feminist. She loves sharing her love of social activism and aspires to make a change by educating and empowering her peers to celebrate their differences and be more socially aware. She is an officer of her school's Gay-Straight Alliance and a member of the Mock Trial team. Alexi is attending the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities for her next two years of high school.Bill Vartorella
Bill Vartorella is a futurist focused on the intersection of next-generation “green” automobiles and aerospace into everyday life. Recent articles are:“Leaner, Lighter, Longer: e-Motorsports and the race to bring green automotive solutions into a mainstream, global market,” “A New Disruptive Formula: Electric Motorsport, Carbon Offsets and Next-Gen Sponsorships,” and “VRRR-Zoom! The Sound and the Fury of Next-Gen Cars in Hollywood Film.” In 2012, Vartorella co-paneled “Success Factors of being an EV start-up” before the IEEE International Electric Vehicle Conference, where he unveiled METRICS©--a paradigm shift to funding e-motorsports with specific application to electric vehicle company launches. He also is a Fellow of both The Royal Geographical Society and The Explorers Club. For the past 30 years he has served as Executive VP of Craig and Vartorella, Inc., a Camden, SC-based global consulting firm and Think Tank specializing in exotic projects and technologies.Bill Vartorella
Bill Vartorella is a futurist focused on the intersection of next-generation “green” automobiles and aerospace into everyday life. Recent articles are:“Leaner, Lighter, Longer: e-Motorsports and the race to bring green automotive solutions into a mainstream, global market,” “A New Disruptive Formula: Electric Motorsport, Carbon Offsets and Next-Gen Sponsorships,” and “VRRR-Zoom! The Sound and the Fury of Next-Gen Cars in Hollywood Film.” In 2012, Vartorella co-paneled “Success Factors of being an EV start-up” before the IEEE International Electric Vehicle Conference, where he unveiled METRICS©--a paradigm shift to funding e-motorsports with specific application to electric vehicle company launches. He also is a Fellow of both The Royal Geographical Society and The Explorers Club. For the past 30 years he has served as Executive VP of Craig and Vartorella, Inc., a Camden, SC-based global consulting firm and Think Tank specializing in exotic projects and technologies.Chris Gragtmans
Chris Gragtmans is one of the most respected personalities in the paddlesports industry. He is a champion kayak and standup paddleboard athlete, editorial thought leader, business owner, and professional speaker. He has presented to high schools, universities and industry retailers alike, and his passion is equally evident on the microphone and on the water.David Hodge
David Hodge is a freshman Computer Science student and Capstone Scholar at the University of South Carolina. David grew up in Columbia and graduated from Spring Valley High School, where he lettered in both varsity baseball and cross-country. Last summer, David built an iPhone app for IT-ology as part of a student internship. Currently, he is working at the local tech startup, 52Inc, developing iOS mobile apps. David has a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and he enjoys reading books about business – but he doesn’t spend all of his time indoors. He is a certified scuba diver, as well as an experienced camper and backpacker. David is an Eagle Scout, and in 2012, he completed a challenging two-week 80-mile hike in Philmont, New Mexico. His most recent adventure was going skydiving in Chester, SC. David likes to be productive and wants to make the most of each day. If you run into him around Columbia, he’ll always have something positive to say.Dottie James
Dottie is a 19 year old YouTube Creator and Actress. She graduated from Hills Road College in Cambridge in 2014 where she studied Theatre studies, Performing Arts, and English Literature. She started her YouTube channel in late 2012 which has since gathered an audience exceeding 100,000 young individuals who view her weekly videos. Come September 2014 Dottie cofounded a young person's theatre company which is currently running shows in Cambridge Theatres. Until recently, she worked as a drama teacher for young children but has left in order to travel as an au pair for the remainder of her gap year. Come September 2015, she will begin study at the Oxford School Of Drama.Dottie James
Dottie is a 19 year old YouTube Creator and actress. She graduated from Hills Road College in Cambridge in 2014 where she studied Theatre studies, Performing Arts, and English Literature. She started her YouTube channel in late 2012, and it has since gathered an audience exceeding 100,000 young individuals who view her weekly videos. In September 2014, Dottie cofounded a young persons’ theatre company which is currently running shows in Cambridge Theatres. Until recently, she worked as a drama teacher for young children but has left in order to travel as an au pair for the remainder of her gap year. Come September 2015, she will begin study at the Oxford School Of Drama.Harriet Manaker
Harriet Manaker is a 17 years old junior in high school. She has battled anorexia nervosa for approximately three years, and was recently hospitalized for about 3 ½ months. Like her peers, Harriet has struggled to discover her true identity. Unlike her peers, She feels that her life has been dominated by her disease. Before she turned 13, Harriet was an athlete, musician, and scholar; during high school, her health began to deteriorate. She remained Valedictorian for 2 years, joined the canoe and ski teams, danced, played the guitar, and participated in many other extracurriculars. This year, anorexia prevented her from enjoying her life, and eventually sent her to the hospital. Surprisingly, being hospitalized has had a positive impact on her life. She has realized her own will to live a happy life. She wants to help and make a difference. Mostly, Harriet has come to believe that she truly matters. Many will affirm her new mantra: "I can do anything I set my mind to. I am enough."Hazel Bridges
Hazel A. Bridges is a senior, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Business Administration in the University of South Carolina Honors College. She has been involved in multiple facets of the University and the Columbia community. She has served on the University Senior Awards Commission, Faculty Honorary Degree Board, Student Government, and USC Connect Executive Board. She has made presentations to the Mayor of Columbia, local business leaders and the President of University of South Carolina on how to increase student civic engagement. In addition she served as a reception speaker for the University of South Carolina Career Center in December 2013. She is a 2015 Who’s Who among American Colleges and Universities and the USC 2015 I. Dequincy Newman Outstanding Student Leader. Following graduation, Hazel will spend the summer as a Servant Leader Intern with Freedom School Partners, Inc. of Charlotte, NC.Justin Richards
Justin Richards is the Founder/CEO of Youth Digital that has taught over 40,000 students how to create with technology. Justin leads a team of 40 passionate people in delivering amazing technology courses for students in over 100 countries. Students as young as age 8 learn how to create everything from apps to mods to fashion collections. Prior to starting Youth Digital at age 22, he taught technology courses to students in downtown St. Louis. Justin grew up helping his family start computer schools in Romanian orphanages and taught himself to develop and design as a hobby, before turning that passion into Youth Digital. In the end, Youth Digital is a place that Justin would have loved as a child.Karli Wells
Lauren Ferebee
Lauren is a playwright and theatre artist who came to South Carolina as the 2014 HUB-BUB/Spartanburg Little Theatre theatre artist-in-residence . While in SC, she started a youth playwriting festival, a reading series of new works, and created a one-night Shakespeare series called Drive-By Shakespeare. Before coming to SC, she lived in New York City for ten years, where she worked as an actor, musician, and playwright and earned her BFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Most recently, she was a semifinalist for the first-ever Shakespeare's Sister fellowship, whose jurors described her work as "funny, strange and kinda heartbreaking." Her work has been developed and workshopped with HUB-BUB, Ground Up Productions, Boomerang Theatre Co., FringeNYC 2013, and many others. Some of her work is published online at indietheaternow.com. She currently runs a weekly play reading series with local writers, and works at the Spartanburg Little Theatre and teaches.Mark Rober
Inventor
Mark Rober is a YouTuber and former NASA Engineer turned Inventor/Entrepreneur. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from BYU and Masters from USC. He worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 9 years, 7 of which were spent working on the Curiosity Rover which is now on Mars. In 2011, he uploaded his Halloween costume to YouTube that featured 2 iPads using a FaceTime chat so it looked like he had a hole in his body. The video went viral overnight with 3M views and he decided to start posting monthly videos about creativity, science and design and now has over 77M total views and 350k subscribers. He started a wearable technology company called Digital Dudz that combined smartphones playing a video with clothing. Mark left NASA to grow the business for 2 years and after selling Digital Dudz to a company in the UK, he has recently decided to return to his Engineering roots.Martin Aveldanes
Martin Aveldanes is 19 years old, Mexican, gay, and the son of immigrant parents. He has two siblings and is the eldest. He is a first-generation student currently studying sociology and plans on double-majoring in Sociology and Anthropology with a minor in German. After being born in Atlanta, Georgia, he lived with his mother and aunt until the age of seven. He had a history of moving around; his mother met his step-father and they moved to a town called Gainesville, Georgia. After that, they moved to Myrtle Beach, to where his father came with hopes of finding more work. He graduated from Socastee High School, in the International Baccalaureate program, and plans on going to graduate school to get a PhD in Sociology. He would like to ultimately teach sociology at university.Matthew Lesko
Armed with a MBA in computerized management information systems, Matthew Lesko became a professor in computer science and started a career as an entrepreneur. After a couple failures, he made it big by helping major businesses tap government programs to finance mergers and acquisitions and enter new markets. In a few short years, this business grew from just himself in a one-room apartment to 30 researchers in downtown Washington, DC. He then left the corporate world to educate the average consumer on the same subject and has written over 100 books on free money. Two became New York Times Bestsellers. He was also a columnist for the New York Times Syndicate and Good Housekeeping magazine and has appeared on hundreds of radio and TV shows and made regular appearances on Letterman, Larry King, Oprah,and many others. His crazy TV infomercials were among the most popular in the industry and he is often recognized on the street because Lesko always wears Question Mark Suits.Robert Ondere
My name is Robert Ondere, and I am a native of Kenya. I hold a Bachelor of Education Degree of Kenyatta University – Kenya and currently pursuing a Master of Education Degree at the University of South Carolina - Columbia. Under the auspices of FACES (Foreign Academic and Cultural Exchange), I was invited to teach Mathematics at Lugoff-Elgin High School in 2006. I have been honored to receive numerous awards and recognitions, among them: Teacher of the year 2009 of Lugoff-Elgin High School; Kershaw County Teacher of the year-first alternate; WLTX teacher of the week -2009; and South Carolina’s Milken Foundation National Educator – 2009. My teaching job, graduate studies and family life have all kept me busy but I still enjoy playing soccer in my spare time. I also enjoy travelling, meeting new people and learning about new cultures.Robert Petit
Robert Petit is a 17 year old high school student at Heathwood Hall. Interested in computer science, he has, along with several other students, successfully pushed for an expansion of the computer science program there. He has additionally worked summers at Heathwood improving the infrastructure for computers. Additionally, he has volunteered hundreds of hours at non-profit organizations, including IT-ology, to improve computer education in the state and taught several classes on the topic throughout his time volunteering. In addition to being having a love for computers, Robert is Lastly, he has won awards in several computer security and algorithmic programming competitions like PICOctf, HSCTF, and the USACO.Shambi Broome
Shambi Broome is the founder of Webgyrlz Code, a web development training program for girls, and the winner of the EngenuitySC’s 2014 Ignite! Ideas Contest. She is a graduate of Spartanburg Community College and is the lead web developer and social media manager at JMB Designs, LLC, a web development company. Mrs. Broome has been privileged to conduct Internet Marketing seminars for the Greenville YWCA and the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce. She has participated in Social media Q & A sessions and presentations for The Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce, and recently talked to school kids about web development as a career at Rice Creek elementary and the Sister Summit Soul Camp. Shambi has been married for 20 years and has 2 daughters.Tony Ambler
Tony is currently the Dean of the College of Engineering and Computing at The University of South Carolina. Prior to that he was Chairman of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He got his 3 degrees from the University of Manchester in the UK, and does not watch Manchester United or Manchester City play soccer. His particular research interests are in how you test silicon chips and electronic systems, and more latterly focussing on counterfeit chips and cyber security. He comes from a family of engineers – his wife, Judith, is an electronic engineer (from London), his two eldest children are engineers (Rosalind – BioMedical Engineering, James – Nuclear Engineering), both his Mother and Father and Uncle were electrical engineers, Father-in-Law and Grandfather-in-Law were also electrical engineers.Tyné Angela Freeman
Tyné Angela Freeman is a singer/songwriter currently studying at Dartmouth College. She is a two-time alum of the Grammy Foundation’s renowned GRAMMY Camp, as well as a YoungArts National Finalist. Her poetry has been published by Urban Cusp, and her achievements profiled by Seventeen Magazine. Upon graduating from high school in 2012, Tyné embarked on a gap year. Throughout the year, she recorded a charity album and completed a teaching internship at GMG Music Center in Columbia. As the recipient of Dartmouth’s Peter D. Smith Arts Initiative grant, Tyné is recording a new album. The album will support the Global Village Project, a school in Georgia for young refugees who hail from countries across the globe. Following an official album release at the college, pieces will also be debuted at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. At Dartmouth, Tyné serves as the lead vocalist for the Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble and leads worship for an intercollegiate Christian fellowship.Tyné Angela Freeman
Tyné Angela Freeman is a singer/songwriter currently studying at Dartmouth College. She is a two-time alum of the Grammy Foundation’s renowned GRAMMY Camp, as well as a YoungArts National Finalist. Her poetry has been published by Urban Cusp, and her achievements profiled by Seventeen Magazine. Upon graduating from high school in 2012, Tyné embarked on a gap year. Throughout the year, she recorded a charity album and completed a teaching internship at GMG Music Center in Columbia. As the recipient of Dartmouth’s Peter D. Smith Arts Initiative grant, Tyné is recording a new album. The album will support the Global Village Project, a school in Georgia for young refugees who hail from countries across the globe. Following an official album release at the college, pieces will also be debuted at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. At Dartmouth, Tyné serves as the lead vocalist for the Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble and leads worship for an intercollegiate Christian fellowship.Organizing team
