FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEDx Portsmouth Brings Community to the Edge
250 People Pack 3S Artspace for a Day of Talks, Technology & more
Saturday, May 7, 2015 — Portsmouth, NH // A crowd of over 200 engaged community members came together Friday to celebrate the sharing of ideas at the fourth annual TEDx event in Portsmouth, with the theme “On the Edge.” The crowd size was double the size of the previous three years, and was filled with representatives of local businesses, nonprofits, educational institutions, as well as artists, musicians and students from local high schools and colleges.
The event featured 10 speakers that ranged from scientists, authors, judges and psychometricians who brought talks that ranged from sustainable clothing, spiritual depth, football, sexual violence prevention and Dungeons & Dragons. Speakers included authors Steve Almond and Ethan Gilsdorf, Zady.com’s Maxine Bédat, explorer Zand Martin and NH Chief Justice of the Superior Court Tina Nadeau. Performances by local renowned musician Randy Armstrong and dancer Lissa Curtis with dancers from Northeastern Ballet Theatre. It was a day filled with emotion, inspiration, humor and passion. People got to experience cutting-edge technology and picture themselves on the edge of survival.
Videos of all presentations will be posted on TEDxPiscataquaRiver.com and on the TEDx Talks YouTube channel in the coming weeks.
One speaker was 16-year-old Muskan Kumari, a youth ambassador from Pakistan who arrived in the US in August of 2015. She has spent the last 9 months in Goffstown, New Hampshire as a part of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study (YES) Abroad program. Her father travelled from Pakistan to Portsmouth to see her speak at the event. “I can change the world; you can change the world,” she told a rapt audience after sharing that her misconceptions about the United States were changed after spending time here, and expressing her desire to do the same about American’s misconceptions about her home country.
“Our goal was to bring ideas to the community that brought us to the edge of our comfort zones and pushed us to think about things in a different way,” said event organizer Crystal Paradis, who travelled to Geneva in December to qualify for the license to increase capacity at the event this year. “It was such a pleasure to work with the many community organizations and businesses who made the event possible. It fit the theme of ‘On the Edge’ and also demonstrated the city’s unofficial mottos of ‘City of the Open Door’ and ‘A Tiny Bit Huge.’”
The gallery space at 3S Artspace was transformed for the day into TEDx’s Technology Playground, featuring the yet-to-be-released HTC Vive with Google’s Tilt Brush (an interactive virtual reality painting experience, as well as 3D 360 video content by local company EmotiveVR, were enjoyed by attendees during breaks and the after party. The Tech Playground was a popular exhibit and allowed attendees to paint virtual fire, flowers and ice in a virtual setting, and visit Tuscany and the Grand Canyon through Virtual Reality. The Portsmouth Public Library also hosted a station with books from local authors, a 3D printer and a pedal-powered charger. Attendees will be able to see screenshots of their Tilt Brush creations online at TEDxPiscataquaRiver.com in about a week.
The On the Edge Story & Art Exhibit was also on display in the gallery, featuring artwork by local artists including Katherine Doyle, and Anna Nuttall; and by students from Portsmouth Middle School and St. Thomas High School; and from a workshop at Chases Garage for Noble High School students, facilitated by Continuum Arts Collective and coordinated by TEDxPiscataquaRiver. The artwork was inspired by the On the Edge theme and stories of community members compiled by Elissa Margolin, who interviewed members of the community who have been assisted by local nonprofit organizations.
Also inspired by the stories was a collaborative film entitled “On the Edge,” which debuted at the event, created by Catherine Stewart and CJ Lewis, with Michael Rodriguez Torrent. Music was composed for the film by local musician Jonny Peiffer and it featured several local actors.
Ideas shared during the day included Ethan Gilsdorf, whose talk “How Dungeons & Dragons is Good for You (In Real Life)” showed that failure is never the end, only a change in the story, and that role playing games engage the imagination and teach teamwork, collaboration and empathy. “Is the troll evil,” he posed, “or was he just raised that way?”
Zand Martin, the 2011 Outside Magazine Adventurer of the Year, spoke on “Cultivating a Love of Challenge” and described being on a hill in a hurricane-level storm, looking up at the starry sky and developing personal growth by pushing the edge of his own limitations. “Exploration is a human need,” he told the crowd.
VP of Marketing for the Atlantic, Sam Rosen presented his talk “We’re at Risk of Losing Our Spiritual Depths,” advocating for an evidence-based spirituality in an increasingly secularized world.
Dr. Skylar Bayer from University of Maine’s School of Marine Science presented “Why the Sex Lives of Our Seafood Matter” about the reproductive cycles of cod, lobster and sea scallops, and how it impacts our local economy and food supply.
Zady.com’s Maxine Bédat presented “The High Cost of Our Cheap Fashion,” showing insight into the environmental cost of a dubious supply chain, and advocated learning about where our clothes come from. In addition to a steep drop in American-made clothing, there has been a sharp increase in polyester, said Bédat, which is non-biodegradable, takes more energy than natural fibers to produce and is most often manufactured in factories with sub-par working conditions.
A standing ovation greeted Lissa Curtis, who spoke about her ongoing fight for justice and the importance of speaking up about sexual assault after performing “Be Brave” with dancers from Northeastern Ballet Theatre and accompanied by her brother Zachary Silk, who wrote and performed the song that accompanied the ballet performance.
Other speakers included Dr. Jennifer of Measured Progress, who spoke on using data to motivate change through better understanding of psychometrics, and Dr. Robert Eckstein of the University of New Hampshire, who advocated for men to become more engaged in the prevention of violence against women.
The event was hosted by students from Portsmouth High School and the Seacoast Rep’s Portsmouth Academy of Performing Arts, Charlie Sirmaian and Danny O’Leary.
Event sponsors this year were MacEdge, the University of New Hampshire, Untitled Hospitality, Proximity Lab, Mulhern & Scott, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and 3S Artspace.
Download photos of the event here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tedx03801/albums/72157668103686365
More information can be found at:
http://tedxpiscataquariver.com/
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About TEDx, x = independently organized event: 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.)
About TED: TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 26 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. At TED, the world’s leading thinkers and doers are asked to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Benoit Mandelbrot, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Two major TED events are held each year: The TED Conference takes place every spring in on the West Coast (along with a parallel conference, TEDActive), and TEDGlobal is held each summer in Edinburgh, Scotland. TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily; the new TED Conversations, enabling broad conversations among TED fans; and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action; TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self-organized events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.
For information about TED’s upcoming conferences, visit http://www.ted.com/registration
Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED
Media Contact:
Crystal Paradis, Organizer, TEDxPiscataquaRiver
[Contact info redacted for writing sample]
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