Theme: The Age of Magic

Magic can be defined in a number of ways, from medieval sorcery to a magician’s slight of hand illusions, but at this year's TEDxSanDiego we’ll be exploring the sense of awe, wonder, and enchantment that we feel when experiencing something; a person, object, technology, event or scene that exceeds expectations and evokes a sense of magic.

Copley Symphony Hall
750 B Street
San Diego, California, 92101
United States

Culture Shock San Diego

Culture Shock San Diego is a hip-hop dance organization dedicated to innovative performance, artist development, and community enrichment, revealing the power and beauty of hip-hop to diverse communities. Our troupes regularly work with schools, libraries and charitable groups to provide entertaining and educational dance programs. They also collaborate with local artists and arts organizations.

Coastal Cities Jazz Band

Jazz Band

Since 1997, the San Diego-based Coastal Cities Jazz Band has been performing across Southern California and Arizona. The band, consisting of 17 of the finest musicians in San Diego, enjoys playing a variety of big band styles that span from the 1930's to the present. Many of the members are professional musicians and have performed with famous big bands of the 40’s and 50’s. This performance features Ruby Presnell on vocals.

Dawn Barry

As Vice President, Applied Genomics at Illumina, Dawn has spent the last eleven years developing markets and products to unlock the power of the genome to improve human health and well-being. Dawn sees the promise of personalized medicine as enabling the ability to manage our health from a position of wellness vs illness.

Ellen Goodwin

As CEO Ellen Goodwin utilizes brain-based solutions to help individuals overcome self-sabotage, build better habits, and be more focused so they can be more productive in their lives. But as co-founder of the Dive Bar of the Month Club, Ellen indulges her passion while bringing people together from all walks of life. Every dive bar is rich in its culture and customs, and Ellen shares her insights into the human experience as viewed from a dive bar perspective.

Gill Sotu

Poet, writer, DJ, musician Gill Sotu is a two-time Grand Slam Poetry Champion, effortlessly weaving poetry into musical and theatre performance. Currently the Artist In Residence at the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, Gill wrote and performed the poetic segments to Melissa Adao’s dance theatre showcase, “Hip-Hop CabHooray!” His efforts won him Outstanding Production at the 2015 Fringe Fest.

Janelle Ayres

Dr. Ayres’ research program is focused on developing new strategies for treating both infectious and non-infectious disease. She is especially interested in leveraging our interactions with the microbiome–the trillions of good bacteria living on our bodies–to end the arms race with infectious diseases and antibiotic resistance. Dr. Ayres earned her PhD from Stanford University School of Medicine in Microbiology and Immunology.

Justin Brooks

Justin Brooks is the Director and Co-Founder of the California Innocence Project and a tenured professor at California Western School of Law. Over the course of his career he has served as counsel on several high profile criminal cases. He has also worked extensively in Latin America training lawyers for the past 20 years and co-founded Red Inocente, an organization devoted to founding and supporting innocence organizations in Latin America.

Kelly Mellos

Kelly Mellos is an award-winning fine artist, with a mission of using art to break down barriers, build trust and compassion, encourage risk-taking and celebrate our interconnectedness. Her work aims to reveal the life force of her subjects to viewers, aspiring to bring humanity closer together and to the planet; her teaching encourages students to strive for this in their own lives and work.

Kinnie Dye

An Oklahoma native, Kinnie is a country girl at heart who moved east to the Big Apple after graduating from Oklahoma City University with a degree in musical theater. After touring the country with several Broadway shows, Kinnie started singing with a band. She and her friends piled in a van and played their way across country to find themselves in San Diego. In 2016 she decided to venture out on her own, releasing her first album, LIVE, in July.

Lex Gillette

Navigating through life without the use of eyesight has allowed Lex Gillette to ascend to new heights and push the limits of courage, faith and self determination. The inability to see was not the determining factor in whether Lex would succeed or not. It was having a vision, seeing something before it is in existence, and working tirelessly to bring it to life. It is that very power that has propelled Lex Gillette into being the best totally blind long jumper in the world. The ability to see things before they exist is a power available to all of us. Lex believes that the dream of flight can become a reality limited only by the power of your imagination. When you have a vision of soaring to new heights...wings are just a detail.

Natalie Kaczorowski

Natalie Kaczorowski is a producer, vlogger, pop-culture enthusiast, and the Mother of Dachshunds. She is better known for her online persona, Comic Connie. In her vlog episodes, “Nerdy Notes,” she analyzes and explains pop-culture topics for a mainstream audience. Natalie’s offline persona is spent as a mild-mannered executive producer of “Tonight in San Diego,” an independently run, late-night talk show.

Navrina Singh

As a leader in the field of mobile technologies for 14 years, and a key architect of their global innovation vision, Navrina Singh spearheaded Qualcomm ImpaQt to discover, develop and commercialize technology breakthroughs. Navrina created a culture of innovation by focusing on future technology and leadership development, building & driving innovation and investment strategy by collaborating with startups & incubators worldwide, and improving diversity appreciation and inclusion in corporations.

Regina Bernal

Regina Bernal is focused on empowering entrepreneurs to turn their venture ideas into a reality. As the Entrepreneurship Manager for the School of Business Administration, she leads and enhances major entrepreneurship opportunities at USD including the V2 Pitch Competition, the Legacy Entrepreneurship Conference and the year-long coaching and mentoring program for student entrepreneurs.

Scott Klemmer

Scott is the co-founder and co-director of the Design Lab at UCSD where he is an Associate Professor of Cognitive Science and Computer Science & Engineering. His group’s research tools harvest and synthesize examples to empower more people to design, program, learn, and create. Recent work - inspired by the design studio - is enabling peer learning online. He previously served as Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford and was a founding participant in the d.school.

Thomas Albright

Thomas Albright is a Professor and Conrad T. Prebys Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. As an authority on the brain bases of visual perception, visual memory and visually guided behavior, he is known for his pioneering research on the role of context in visual information processing. His work is characterized by an effort to understand how the visual system operates under sensory conditions and behavioral demands that approximate the richness of normal perceptual experience.