Theme: The Metaverse Noir

This Black History Month event will feature Speakers delivering TEDx talks on all things associated with The Metaverse from the world famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem, NY.

Tedx Harlem invites our community and the world watching to learn more about the technologies that are evolving and how these technologies will impact our future.

The Metaverse and various related technologies that make up the Metaverse are rapidly evolving and will have a major impact on our futures. It is critically important that we try to have a basic understanding of how these technologies can be used and how they will impact our lives and what opportunities are available to learn, enjoy and or do business in the Metaverse.

*Due to Covid concerns this event will be virtual.

Virtual
Virtual
New York, New York, 10019
United States

Derek Jones

Founder of UnitedCoin

Derek Jones is the founder and CEO of UnitedCoin Inc., a cryptocurrency bank and exchange. He is also the CEO of My Tax Solutions, an online tax preparation and accounting firm for individuals and corporations. Philanthropically, he maintains the position of Treasurer, Program Director, Presenter and Grant writer for My Perfect Image, Inc. a 501(c)(3) organization assisting students in business and social etiquette, life skills, and empowering businesses and community organizations to fulfill their financial goals and objectives. As an active community member and businessman, Mr. Jones has been instrumental in sharing his knowledge of finances, technology and life skills with students and individuals throughout the world. He has spoken at events in New York, Guadalajara, Los Angeles, Casablanca, and Athens. On September 14th, 2019, Derek was recognized by Legacy Magazine as one of South Florida’s 40 Under 40 Leaders of Today and Tomorrow.

Imari Oliver

Founder and CEO of Bond & Play

Imari Oliver is the Founder and CEO, of Bond & Play, a holding company for a portfolio of innovative business platforms and models, designed to capitalize on opportunities in the evolving digital economy across several industries. With 20+ years of experience in strategy, planning, production and sales in both business and consumer-focused roles, Imari is an internationally recognized thought leader and strategist. He has spent his career unlocking market-shifting trends and creating high-value growth opportunities through his deep understanding of culture, technology, innovation and human behavior. Imari’s domain expertise is in the FinTech, Esports & Gaming and Media industries. He operates with a bias towards action and understands the importance of innovating at the edges of culture. He launched FinTech BLK https://fintechblk.com, a conference and festival designed to ensure historically excluded communities of color are not left out of this industry.

Iris Nevins

Co-Founder and CEO of Umba Daima

Iris Nevins is the Co-Founder and CEO of Umba Daima, a creative NFT Studio that is building a multi-cultural collaborative web3 community. Umba Daima builds out brands and programs to support its mission with Black NFT Art being its most popular project. Iris sees NFTs as a revolutionary tool for empowering under-resourced communities to generate wealth through ownership of IP and digital assets. Iris is a former teacher and community activist who eventually became a software engineer. She left her engineering management role at Vox Media to become the full time CEO of her own company. For more info on Iris visit her LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.com/in/iris-nevins

Jamiel Sheikh

Founder & CEO, author, professor, global speaker

Jamiel is a founder & CEO, author, professor, global speaker and educator, community builder, crypto trader and investor. He is Founder of Instamint, an NFT-as-a-service startup, Chainhaus a blockchain advisory and the CBDC Think Tank which advises central banks on their digital currency strategy. Jamiel runs Blockchain101.com a digital education portal on blockchain, DeFi, NFTs and Metaverse and runs Blockchain NYC, the largest Meetup blockchain community in NYC with over 30k local members, doing over and 150+ events in the past 4 years including major conferences like DEFICON. Jamiel wrote a bestselling book called Mastering Corda and is currently writing a business reader for Columbia Press entitled The DeFi Phenomenon. He has over 25 years of experience in the fintech and banking space working for companies like Bank of America, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch. He is Innovation Fellow at Columbia Business School's Lang Center for Entrepreneurship.

Krista Kim

Contemporary Artist and Founder of the Techism Movement

Krista Kim is a contemporary artist and founder of the Techism movement (2014), whose work explores the concept of the digital consciousness. Her interest in digital technology and its revolutionary effects on human perception, media, social structures, and communication had led her to work in both digital and physical realms. Having developed her signature language of shifting gradients using digital software since 2012, her works on glass and plexi hypnotize its viewers into a trance of tranquility while her video works provide meditative experiences of color and light. Krista Kim’s “Continuum” will be featured during the month of February 2022 in Times Square. Every night at midnight for 3 minutes, her meditative gradients will wash Times Square. In 2020, Kim continued to explore the creative potential to utilize screens as digital instruments of well-being by creating 'Mars House': a completely virtual environment using her digital zen philosophy.

Stephanie Humphrey

ABC News Tech Contributor

Stephanie is a former engineer who is now technology contributor for ABC News on the nationally syndicated daytime talk shows Good Morning America and GMA3: What You Need to Know. Before that she spent two years as the tech contributor to daytime talk show The Harry Show, hosted by Harry Connick, Jr. Stephanie is a regular tech contributor to Fox 29’s Good Day Philadelphia, and she is a tech journalist who’s been published on a variety of platforms including EBONY.com. She is a content creator who helps thousands of people understand tech basics with her weekly 60-Second Tech Break. Stephanie is also a professional speaker and her seminar ‘Til Death Do You Tweet, helps people understand potential negative consequences of online behavior through social media and gives helpful advice on how they can have a positive reputation in cyberspace. Her book, “Don’t Let Your Digital Footprint Kick You in the Butt!” extends these concepts and helps the reader build their personal brand online.

Teddy Pahagbia

Mr. Metaverse, Founder & Chief Executive Druid @ BLVCK PIXEL

Teddy is a visionary thinker, a bold entrepreneur and a tech geek. Formerly a Management Consultant having worked for mid to large size companies across various industries and government agencies in Western Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, Teddy has been recognized in 2021 as one of the top 30 most influential people in the Metaverse. https://readwrite.com/2021/08/23/the-top-30-most-influential-people-in-the-metaverse As the Metaverse Industry continues to evolve, he is a leading voice, daringly paving the way through his efforts to evangelize, educate, advise, develop and create the successor to today’s mobile internet.

Yvette Schmitter

Strategist, technology leader and futurist

A tech evangelist, Yvette Schmitter helps enterprises harness next generation technologies to extend innovation from micro scale to building scale. An expert in people, culture and enterprise transformations, and sought after strategic partner, she leads enterprises through complex transformations to accelerate innovation and build business agility on cloud platforms through digitalization.