Ideas were truly worth spreading at the inaugural Prince Rupert TEDx event held at the Lester Centre of the Arts on Friday, Apr. 19.
The non-profit TED organization (an acronym for Technology, Entertainment and Design) hosts conferences that bring together some of the world’s best thinkers.
TED Talks take a global approach while TEDx events are independently organized community-wide talks focusing on local topics told through resident’s voices.
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For those of you who missed the event, here are some of the most memorable quotes from the guest speakers:
Michael Uehera, the CEO from Coastal Shellfish Corporation, opened the night with the genesis of forming a sustainable seafood industry on the North Coast.
“Home is where you can hold out your true heart and you are welcomed” – Nancy Griffith-Zahner presented her talk titled Finding My Home On Indigenous Land, which focused on her journey through ignorance and denial to eventually finding her home on Indigenous land.
Then Maynard Angus spoke on the historic Indigenous passage from equality, to inequality and back toward equality, and finding a Third Space where all parties can meet for consultation.
“I want you to imagine a wedding and sitting at the kids’ table is local government” – Blair Mirau discussed how local government is often treated like a child by government in his talk How Local Government Can Solve Global Problems.
“Hi my name is Andrea, and I am a weirdo and I’m here to tell you that’s okay” – Andrea Pollock described her trials and tribulations in her entrepreneurial ventures in her talk Only Weirdos Operate Bed and Breakfasts.
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Lester Centre manager Michael Gurney was instrumental in bringing TEDx to Prince Rupert and hopes that this will be the first of an annual event in the city.
“The inaugural TEDx Prince Rupert event proved that our city has invigorating perspectives to share with the world,” Gurney said after the event. “The response was excellent and seven speakers brought diverse topics to the stage.”
Gurney went on to say that to encourage participants to add their own experience to the amalgam as well as a robust exchange will provoke long-lasting conversations about the theme of ‘sustaining communities.’
“I expect that even more cohesion and creativity will be the result.”
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