Theme: Forward Think

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).

RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg
375 York Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3C 3J3
Canada

Ali Saeed

Ali Saeed crossed the Wuchallee desert – 500 kms over 8 days and nights – to escape prison and torture in his homeland of Ethiopia and reach Somalia. There, he was imprisoned and tortured again for promoting free speech and women’s emancipation. The intervention of Amnesty International and the United Nations secured his release in 1984, and with help from the Canadian Embassy he arrived in Canada as a refugee, barefoot. Since then, Ali has become a successful businessman in Winnipeg, sponsored more than 100 refugees, founded the Ethiopian Society of Winnipeg and co-founded the Winnipeg Multi-Cultural Human Rights Forum. He has received multiple awards for his support of refugees and human rights.

Alyson Shane

Alyson Shane is a Winnipeg writer who has been publishing content online for 15 years. Growing up, she spent her free time in online forums and communities, which developed into a passion for social media and digital communication. In 2014, she started her digital marketing agency, Starling Social. Alyson has been recognized as one of Manitoba’s Top Social Media Influencers by CBC Manitoba and featured as one of Winnipeg’s Hottest Bloggers on Shaw TV. She is the lead contributor to the MTS Business Hub and manages the National Film Board’s What Brings Us Here Instagram narrative about indigenous-led activism in Winnipeg.

Andrea Kraj

Dr. Andrea Kraj is a practicing professional engineer with 16 years of experience in multi-renewable energy systems and smart grid technology for smart cities and island energy networks. Her work helps island nations bring electricity to rural areas and reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. Andrea is passionate about community renewable energy, smart cities, smart grid, remote power systems, energy policy and sustainability. She is a pioneer in developing sophisticated computer modeling and simulation of advanced energy systems, to support the design, operation and optimization of multi-renewable energy systems with storage for micro-grid networks.

Dené Sinclair

Dené Sinclair is a tourism marketing consultant and graduate student of communications, tourism and Indigenous studies. She explores the connections between tourism, an industry with extractive and exploitive practices towards Indigenous people, and the ongoing reclamation of story, language, land and place by Indigenous peoples in Canada. Dené was one of Manitoba’s Top 40 Under 40 (2016) as well as a 2016 Finalist of the YMYWCA’s Manitoba Women of Distinction. She lives in Winnipeg on Treaty 1 Territory and within the Homeland of the Métis Nation. Dené acknowledges her traditional homeland around Selkirk, Manitoba (St. Peter’s Band) as a member of Peguis First Nation and a proud Anishinaabekwe.

Joel Carter

Dr. Joel Carter is an accomplished palliative care and pain specialist, author, speaker, storyteller and artist. Born in Winnipeg, he received his medical degree from the University of Manitoba, completed a fellowship at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (Harvard University) and trained at the Physician Leadership College (University of St. Thomas). Joel’s clinical interests include management of complex pain syndromes and the use of storytelling and narrative as they pertain to the psychosocial aspects of dying patients and their families. He has won awards as a clinician, mixed media-multi-dimensional artist and author. He practices medicine and lives with his wife and two children in Minneapolis.

Johanna Hurme

Johanna Hurme is an architect and founding partner of Winnipeg-based 5468796 Architecture. The firm has achieved national and international recognition – in 2012 5468796 represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in Architecture and in 2013 they received the Prix de Rome Award in Architecture for Canada. Johanna is an activist, advocate and shoe-lover. She spearheads Table for 12 + 1200, Chair Your Idea and Design Quarter Winnipeg. Johanna is the incoming Chair of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce and Chair of the WCC’s Creative Council.

Jon Waldman

Jon Waldman is a Winnipeg-based marketing and communications expert. For six years, he and his wife Elana battled infertility. Then in 2015, they packed up their life and dog to move to Victoria, BC and came home a month later with their beautiful girl, Kaia. Today, Jon is a spokesperson for Fertility Matters Canada’s Manitoba chapter. Jon and Elana also speak privately with couples battling infertility. A four-time author, Jon was shortlisted for the 2016 Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award and was a 2017 Winnipeg Police Service Citizen’s Award recipient.

Mike Johnston

Mike Johnston is a national Underground Independent champion Slam Poet and internationally touring Spoken Word artist. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Mike has performed and created space on dozens of local stages as the director of three national arts festivals, Winnipeg’s Poetry Slam Master and Youth Slam coordinator. By day, Mike is an arts and science teacher in Winnipeg’s Louis Riel School Division. An experiential education expert, he works with students to build, make, collaborate, and explore to find the poetry of science in their world.

Mike Lund

Mike Lund is a peacemaker. As a chartered conflict resolution practitioner since 1999 and a married father of two young adults, Mike empowers others to solve their problems. Mike believes that everyone can work through their conflicts successfully by challenging their perceptions and choosing a perspective that works for them, not against them. Mike works with the federal Public Service and volunteers with the Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Canada (Manitoba Chapter) on their mediator accreditation committee. He is currently writing a book to help parents strengthen relationships with their teens through the fine art of texting.

Rana Bokhari

Rana Bokhari is a lawyer at Bokhari, Smith and Walker in Winnipeg. While studying law at the University of Manitoba, she served as President of the Manitoba Law Students’ Association. In 2013, shortly after being called to the Manitoba Bar, Rana was elected Leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party – the party’s first female minority leader and its youngest. No longer partisan, Rana continues to advocate for women’s rights, mental health services, the homeless, the LGBTQ community and First Nations housing issues. She also provides pro-bono legal work for missing and murdered indigenous women.

Ryan Mayberry

Ryan Mayberry is the founder of ArtMoi, the world’s first cloud based artwork registry that can track the lifespan of a single work of art. He is a software engineer and partner at Mayberry Fine Art and Consignor Auctions Limited and has served on the board of directors for both the Art Dealers Association of Canada and the Winnipeg Executive Association. Ryan contributes his time and expertise to dozens of open source software development projects around the world. Through Ryan’s two passions, art and technology, he and the company strive to fulfill ArtMoi’s mission: to empower artists and make art more accessible to everyone.

Sonya Ballantyne

Sonya Ballantyne is a Cree filmmaker originally from Misipawistik Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba. Her tale-telling father and movie-loving mother raised Sonya with a wild imagination, a bizarre taste in movies, and a love of creating stories. Her films put Aboriginal girls and women in film genres where they are not traditionally included: horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and superhero films. Sonya won the 2014 Emerging Filmmaker Pitch Competition at Gimli Film Festival for her short film Crash Site, and the 2016 Short Film Pitch competition at ImagineNative Film Festival with the forthcoming Eagle Girl. Sonya’s next film, Nosisim, focuses on her grandmother Virginia.

Steve Langston

Steve Langston has been smashing goals since he graduated high school in Brandon. At 18, he lost 100 pounds in 100 days. After graduating from Assiniboine Community College and the University of Lethbridge, Steve hopped on his bike and rode from Vancouver, BC to Tijuana, Mexico. That trip began a six-year, 35,000 kilometer cycling odyssey around the world. Along the way, he authored Canada by Bicycle, the only guide for biking across Canada. Since 2010, Steve has owned Dirty T Shirt Productions, a Manitoba company that uses video and the internet to tell stories online. He is the founder of the Riding Mountain National Park Film Festival, and produced and directed Innovation Alley, a documentary about Manitoba’s startup scene.

Tatjana Brkic

Tatjana Brkic teaches at Red River College, where she also leads applied business research initiatives and social innovation projects. Her passion is finding ways to profitably implement social innovation in business. Tatjana’s experience includes developing an Internet based entrepreneurship toolkit for the UNEP UNDP & IUCN SEED initiative, creating a global knowledge network about sustainability in business at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and industrial engineering and ergonomics work at Volkswagen. She has received numerous awards including the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Fellowship, Douglas Campbell Mackay Portfolio Management Award, and 2013 College Research Excellence Award.