Theme: Fast Forward Education

The UBC TEDx event is focusing on the challenges for both academia and industry to match skills needed in the fast-changing workplace with skills that are being taught. Difficult questions given that some of the jobs people are doing now are ones that didn't exist even a few years ago.

Theme: "What ideas should be spread on the future of business and technology education."

“How do you educate students for jobs that don’t yet exist? What skills will you need to be successful in the 21st century? TEDxUBC was created to help answer these questions,” said organizer Bret Conkin.

“It’s a grassroots forum on key education issues that will shape secondary and post-secondary education in the 21st century,” he continued. “We’re bringing together 100 key leaders and innovators in business and education, who together can help spread ideas about the skills needed in the work force vs. those currently being taught, all in the unique spirit of TED.”

Alongside presentations and videos from experts, the winners of a student multimedia competition called “Evolution of Learning” showed their work.

UBC Robson Square
800 Robson St.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada

Basil Peters

Basil Peters is passionate about entrepreneurship and believes the world would be a better place if we encouraged more young people to be entrepreneurs. For the first half of his career he was an entrepreneurial CEO. More recently, he has been a hedge fund manager, venture capitalist and angel investor. Basil’s first book hones in not on the start-up but the pay-off – Early Exits – Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors (But Maybe Not Venture Capitalists).

Elysa Hogg

Elysa experiences education first hand as an undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia in the Political Science department. She believes that the most important part of any educational experience is the way in which you apply your academic knowledge outside of the classroom. Most recently, Elysa did this by participating in the Wilton Park Atlantic Youth Forum in London, England as part of the Canadian Delegation. She is currently working for the Terry Project, an initiative that encourages interdisciplinary learning and advocacy of global issues. Through Terry she has worked to bring both K’Naan and Dambisa Moyo to the Chan Centre at UBC.

Barry MacDonald

Barry is a Registered Clinical Counsellor, educator, and international advocate for learners—especially boys—who struggle with traditional classroom learning. As the founder of MentoringBoys.com and best-selling author of Boy Smarts, he helps parents, schools, and community leaders respond in empathic, imaginative ways. Barry was identified as one of 25 Influential People to Watch by the Vancouver Sun for his innovative approaches to mentoring boys for success.

Matt Giammarino

Matt is a man of many hats. One part educational researcher, one part entrepreneur, one part teacher, Matt spends his days as co-owner and teacher at BrainBoost Education -- a broad based education and technology company based out of Vancouver - and his (other) days as a researcher who studies how environments and personal psychological factors interact during educational experiences. He recently completed his masters thesis on 'Mathematical Flexibility" with honors, and he generally loves to get his nerd on.

Chris Kennedy

Chris Kennedy is the incoming Superintendent of Schools with the West Vancouver School District. He has taught secondary English and Social Studies, and been both an elementary and secondary school principal. Kennedy has been featured by Macleans Magazine as one of the 100 Young Canadians to Watch and his work has been featured in various local and national publications. Kennedy is a writer and blogger, www.cultureofyes.ca, and presenter on personalised learning and infusing technology in the classroom.

Sunddip Nahal

Dr. Sunddip Panesar Nahal is a change agent in education as a Board of Governor for Okanagan College, through her classroom/online teaching experiences, her educational consulting work, and in her newly co-founded school iLearn BC. The latter is an innovative school that embraces technology and utilizes a variety of delivery mediums to reach out to the individualized needs of students and help them learn in a fun, interactive and engaging way.

Paul Cubbon

Paul teaches Marketing at the Sauder School of Business at UBC. His interests are in the use of social media and its role in brand reputation management. Paul is passionate about helping non-marketing specialists better understand how marketing principles can help their organizations to become more customer-centric and successful. Prior to moving into education, Paul worked in industry, including advertising, innovation and international brand management. Paul is continually experimental in designing new courses and training methods to try and enhance student engagement and learning.

Jeffrey Piontek

Jeff Piontek is an author, keynote speaker and teacher (most importantly). Jeff is also the Head of School for the innovative Hawaii Technology Academy. He has worked with US school districts nationally on affecting educational change and reform. Jeff is a former Director of Instructional and Informational Technology for the NYC Department of Education and State Science Specialist for the Hawaii Department of Education. Jeff is an educational innovator and the keynote speaker for the Computer Using Educators of BC Conference (CUEBC) this fall. He has received many accolades including an award for “Innovation in the Economy by an Individual” from the Governor of the State of Hawaii for his STEM education work.

Dan Pontefract

As Senior Director / Head of Learning at TELUS, Dan is responsible for the overarching learning strategy for the company. Dan is a passionate leader in the learning and collaboration space that ensures an organization can move from traditional based learning to embrace non-traditional based learning inclusive of asynchronous modalities such as social media, video, eLearning, podcasts, virtual classroom and other social learning / social networking opportunities. His career is interwoven with both corporate and academic experience, coupled with an MBA, BA, B.Ed and multiple industry certifications and accreditations. Dan is also a renowned speaker.

Alex Jurgensen

Alex Jurgensen is a young entrepreneur who has many interests. In addition to his passion for music, running, reading, writing and arithmetic, Alex also enjoys speaking about and using technology, with a special focus on products and services designed to be used by everyone. As a student, he is a strong believer in the principles of universally designed learning.

Carla Rieger

CARLA RIEGER is an expert on how to reinvent your organization and your life. She is the director of The Artistry of Change, a consulting firm based in Vancouver since 1991 and has written four books on change, creativity and conflict resolution, and is a regular columnist for several publications. In addition, she has over 15 years experience in the performing arts, as a playwright and novelist. She has spoken to over 1000 groups internationally of up to 4000 people. As a frequent speaker, trainer, author and coach, Carla helps people reinvent themselves and their organizations, so they can lead the change they want to see in the world.

Joshua Klein

Josh has practiced and was trained, both formally and informally, in hacking - social systems, computer networks, institutions, consumer hardware, animal behavior, and, most recently, the publishing industry. When he's not taking things apart or putting them back together again he speaks, writes, and consults on new and emerging technologies that improve people's lives - and has tremendous fun doing it. Most of Josh's time is spent speaking to companies and at conferences such as World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Gadgetoff, TED and SICS and consulting to companies large and small, such as Microsoft, Oracle, Frog Design, Nokia, The United States Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and others.

Bill Jensen

Bill Jensen's credits include authoring Work 2.0, Building the Future, One Employee at a Time and the recent co-release with fellow TEDxUBC presenter Josh Klein, Hacking Work. Harvard Business Review, CNBC and Fast Company have called Bill today's foremost expert on work complexity, helping people to do less and accomplish more. Bill is a passionate simpleton and an outspoken gadfly against coporate stupidity that wastes people's time, attention and dreams. He’s an internationally acclaimed bestselling author and speaker who is known for extremely useful content, and his passion for working smarter, not harder.