TEDx Carson City to rally community building theme with diverse speakers

With a theme that takes aim at the future — creating the community you want to live in — TEDx Carson City is an all-day event where speakers from a variety of disciplines share their life's work, passions and concepts through thought-provoking and entertaining talks that run between 10 to 15 minutes.

The April 8 event at the Brewery Arts Center in Carson City will combine live talks, TED Talk videos and opportunities to network. It is sponsored by Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center and Farmers Insurance.

“TEDx Carson City is a perfect opportunity for us to support our community and meet like-minded people who may be a good fit for our organization,” said Brian Andrews, district manager for Farmers Insurance. “We support educational opportunities in our communities and have dedicated ourselves to a culture of active communal engagement and volunteerism throughout Northern Nevada.”

In the second of a three part series, organizers of the conference introduce the 15 speakers to be featured. See the first part of the series here. Tickets for the event will be available 10 a.m. Monday at tedxcarsoncity.com, (775) 883-1976 or at the BAC, 449 W. King St. Tickets are $99 with only 100 seats available. Free seating will be offered for live-streaming in the Performance Hall. Participants must RSVP for seats. The program runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

How to Change Behavior to Ensure a Sustainable Future
Donna Walden will discuss leveraging community-based social marketing to help environmental programs properly select behaviors, establish a baseline and develop strategies that can successfully measure behavior change.

She will discuss some successful pollution prevention programs and case studies. Participants will learn behavior change techniques that are essential in changing the environmental future.
Walden consults environmental companies and nonprofits, helping them to build a presence in a competitive marketplace.

For the last five years, Walden worked for the University of Nevada, Reno managing the Western Sustainability & Pollution Prevention Network, a four-state network funded by the Environmental Protection Agency to provide technical resources to state and local source reduction programs.

She was also the executive director for the Sierra Green Building Association in Truckee, Calif., with the mission to educate and promote environmental design, building and living practices in the Sierra Nevada.

In 2013, Walden received national recognition as the Pollution Prevention Volunteer of the Year by the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable.

Embracing Discomfort
Corey Rich, one of the world's most recognized adventure and outdoor lifestyle visual storytellers, combines his creativity and athleticism to capture both still and motion content in some of the wildest places on the planet.

“There is an idea that before you can get creative, you have to be comfortable,” Rich said. “Yet, I’ve found the opposite is true. Discomfort can actually lead to creativity once you learn to embrace it. The best things in life are worth suffering for, and some of the best photos I’ve taken have always occurred during moments of discomfort.”
As an adventure photographer, he said, this reality becomes even more extreme.

“One photo that comes to mind is a picture I took during an ascent of Trango Tower in Pakistan with world-class climbers David Lama and Peter Ortner,” he recounted. “We built a snow cave halfway up the mountain. We’d been climbing all day. I was dehydrated and exhausted and cold. And all I wanted to do was join David and Peter in the snow cave for some tea, crawl up in my sleeping bag, and go to sleep. Yet I recognized this as an extraordinary opportunity to shoot video and a photo.”

He will share that message during the TEDx Carson City on April 8 at the Brewery Arts Center.

“Don’t shy away from the uncomfortable moments,” Rich said. “That’s actually the time to push yourself harder, because the results are always going to be more memorable, and more rewarding.”

Creating a Community and Finding Purpose
As a successful executive recruiter in the software industry, Stephen Thompson is dedicated to finding and hiring some of the most unique and smartest people in the world.
He has worked with both private companies trying to go public and Fortune 10 companies that people use every day. LinkedIn, Apple and Google are some of the most recognized names who have retain his services over the years.

But his life didn’t start out so promising. Stephen is a survivor of poverty, homelessness and abuse. He was one of the 450,000 foster children every year in the United States who have no home once they reach the age of 18.

Most of these children who “age out” of the foster care system end up homeless, mentally ill, and/or in prison.
His story is about how one person, a family, or an entire community can make a life-changing difference in a young man or woman's life.

He has cultivated a network of trusted, lifelong friends who have supported him through thick and thin. Thompson has been married for almost 15 years to a successful woman and together are raising two funny and talented boys.

The Transformative Power of Walking
Sandy James is passionate about sustainably smart walkable communities.
“I believe I know the factors to enhance walkability and change the way people relate to the place they live and work,” James said. “I can make towns and cities more productive, harmonious and prosperous and every resident healthier and happier.”

As a city planner for the City of Vancouver, James championed locally scaled neighborhood projects that virally became city policy in Vancouver and other cities. Working collaboratively with engineering staff, Sandy developed the innovative, 140-kilometer “green street” sustainable network of connected parks, streets and places where pedestrians have priority.

Known as the “pickpocket of city hall” for her ability to find financing, James was named Neighborhood Planner of the Year by the Vancouver Sun newspaper for her work with communities.

James believes that promoting walkability is socially and morally the right thing to do, and chaired the international Walk 21 Conference in Vancouver in 2011. Sandy is a director of Walk Metro Vancouver, which encourages best practices for the development of walkable places and spaces, creating communities we want to live in.

Performer
Ananda Bena-Weber is one of three artists who will perform at TEDx Carson City.

She is a versatile artist who performs throughout the world in theater, dance, film, television and commercials.
Bena-Weber is an accomplished voice-over artist and creates her own finished-product spots in her home studio. She provides workshops and training, bringing dancers and actors together to create work that is a conversation, exchange, and a synthesis of natures.

She is currently working on a Master of Fine Arts in interdisciplinary arts at Goddard College toward a PH.D with an emphasis on Linklater voice technique. Bena-Weber is also an adjunct professor of dance at Marymount Manhattan College and a teaching artist for the Dance Theater of Harlem.

Diversifying Education
Bryce O’Connor, a 16 year-old from Carson City, will talk about the need for our educational system to recognize skill beyond the standard subjects. His interests lie primarily in the arts, specifically filmmaking, performing and writing.

He has been in a variety of local theater productions, and has volunteered at Brewery Arts Center and Carson City Library, where he now works.