Ideas worth spreading from Detroit

10 Tips for Attending TEDxDetroit 2015

New to TEDxDetroit this year? You’re in for a treat! To get the most out of your experience, here are 10 tips every TEDxDetroit newcomer needs to know:

1. Arrive early. Doors at the Fox Theater open at 8:00 AM. Depending on your commute, plan for traffic into Detroit and parking at the event. You’ll find plenty of parking close to the Fox. Keep in mind that Woodward is under construction in front of the theater, too.

2. Be part of the Giant X. Join us for the annual photo, which will be taken inside the Fox Theatre (we have something special planned!) at 8:55 AM sharp. It’s fun to be part of this piece of history for the event and see yourself in pics from years past!

3. Make new friends. The folks who come to TEDxDetroit are good people to know, so sit next to people you don’t know and introduce yourself. Build your network and share a smile, whether you’re at your seat, TEDxLabs, Comerica Park, Hockeytown Cafe, or out to lunch.

4. Bring your tech. The T in TED stands for Technology! There will be WiFi at the event. If you have your laptop, feel free to bring a powerstrip to share with friends (old and new alike).

5. Get social. Blog, Facebook, Tweet, Instagram, Snapchat, and more from the event. Last year #TEDxDetroit was a nationally trending hashtag, and we can do it again! Share the great ideas you hear with your social networks, and be sure to use the hashtag #TEDxDetroit or tag us at @TEDxDetroit so we can join you in the conversation.

Join us at the historic Fox Theatre in downtown Detroit on Thursday, October 8 for TEDxDetroit 2015!

Great Lakes, Great Ideas

The area’s leading creators, entrepreneurs, educators, artists, geeks, designers, scientists, leaders, thinkers and doers will gather to share what they are most passionate about – positive ideas for the world from Detroit.

Get fired up about our shared future. Connect with curious, creative, passionate and interesting people from across a wide range of fields. Help us amplify ideas worth spreading.

Name: Eric

Twitter Handle: @eric_henry_

How many TEDx events have you been to? 1

What are you looking forward to at this year’s event? I’m looking forward to hear about the latest and greatest ideas from our great city and take part in some interesting conversations with the other attendees!

What advice would you give to a first time TEDx attendee? Bring a notepad and lots of business cards.  You’ll be meeting some very interesting people from a wide range of fields while hearing about all kinds of innovative and cutting-edge ideas.

Name: Joe

Twitter Handle: @JLaRussa

How many TEDx events have you been to? 2014 event will be my second event.

What are you looking forward to at this year’s event?  Renewing my mind and creative energy listening to the speakers and visiting the various demos in the tech expo.

What was the best part of TEDxDetroit 2013?  John U. Bacon’s kickoff really energized me for the day; seeing RoboRoach in action was really cool; and of course, all the energy I got from interacting with all the other X’s there!

"A city is more than a collection of buildings and some lines in the dirt. It's bigger than that. It's an attitude. A belief. A people. All pulling together. Forging ahead in a common direction."

Kacha and Susan are looking forward to being inspired and sharing in the excitement with everyone else!

Name: Kacha

Twitter Handle: @kachaazema

How many TEDx events have you been to? 1

What are you looking forward to at this year’s event? Being inspired.

What was the best part of TEDxDetroit 2013? The guy with the remote control cockroaches

What advice would you give to a first time TEDx attendee? Listen and apply. Find a way to make each TEDx talk relevant to you. What can you take away from it?

Name: Susan

Twitter Handle: @swattsbulb

How many TEDx events have you been to? 2

What are you looking forward to at this year’s event? The diverse group of speakers and interesting variety of subjects.

What was the best part of TEDxDetroit 2013? Hearing about "Out-of-the-Box Ideas" which are being successfully implemented in Detroit.

Heather is returning for her second TEDx event!

Name: Heather

Twitter Handle: @HeatherBroos

How many TEDx events have you been to? One

What are you looking forward to at this year’s event? I’m looking forward to being inspired, networking with people I know, and meeting new people.

What was the best part of TEDxDetroit 2013? The best part of TEDxDetroit 2013 was the overall positivity about the city, the people, and the opportunities we all have to impact our future – personally, professionally, and as a community.

Name: Evan

Twitter Handle: @nakeenibs

How many TEDx events have you been to? 2

What are you looking forward to at this year’s event? The networking opportunities, along with being inspired by other brilliant people.

What was the best part of TEDxDetroit 2013? Meeting some inspiring people, that I still speak with

What advice would you give to a first time TEDx attendee? Be in the moment, and soak it all in.

  Name: Sumanth

Twitter Handle: @detroiter

How many TEDx events have you been to? All events in Detroit and one in California

What are you looking forward to at this year’s event? The landscape of Detroit is changing, I’d like to see what was done and what’s in store for the future

What was the best part of TEDxDetroit 2013? COBO hall and the surge in attendees

TEDxDetroit 2014 is in one week, so we wanted to reach out to past attendees and see what everyone is most excited about. Check back throughout the week for more posts!

Name: Katelyn

Twitter Handle: @katelynshelby

How many TEDx events have you been to? This will be my third TEDx event that I have attended. Ever since the first one I attended, I've been hooked.

What are you looking forward to at this year’s event? Besides the speakers and the amazingness that is TEDxDetroit, I always look forward to meeting new people. My first year I went alone, but I met some great people who also attended alone. We kept in touch and the next year we met up again at the event and added some new people to our group. This year we're all looking forward to expanding our group and continue to meet new people!

What was the best part of TEDxDetroit 2013? The best part of all the TEDxDetroit events is the contagious energy and passion. You can feel the excitement when you walk in the door. Everyone you meet has true passion and commitment for what they are involved with and when you leave, you leave inspired to feel the same way about something in your own life.

What advice would you give to a first time TEDx attendee? Come ready and prepared to meet and hear from some amazing minds. From the speakers to the attendees, every person you will come across has a story and is more than happy to share it with you. It's enlightening. Also, there always seems to be a lot of surprises in store at TEDxDetroit!

Being amongst a room full of people of this caliber is like no other. #tedxdetroit Here's to next year! http://t.co/vqnEMOFBvr

— Katelyn Davis (@katelynshelby)

How do you design something for the human being?

Blake Leeper is fast. He's a world-class athlete with the medals to prove it. Now he's set his sights on the 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janerio. There's only one additional challenge: Blake is a bilateral below-the-knee amputee.

Blake relies on prosthetic blades to run. He's off balance coming out the starting blocks. He has to adapt his running to the blade. “That’s a huge problem," says Blake, "The user that is using the product shouldn’t have to adapt to the product, the product should adapt to them.”

When Kevin Shinn heard Blake's talk at the 2013 International Design Society of America International Conference, he welcomed the challenge. What if we start with a clean sheet? Use a human-centric design approach to rethink prosthetics technology for athletes as well as for the general population.

As the vice president of design at Altair Thinklabs, Kevin is able to bring Altair's expertise in product design, engineering and software to the table. Together with advanced material science expertise from Eastman Innovation Lab, they are developing a breakthrough approach – looking beyond the blade.

Kevin is passionate about human-centric design, reimagining prosthetics and helping Blake go for the gold in Rio. We’re excited to hear his idea worth spreading at TEDxDetroit.

Can a Sharpie save you're life? Dr Joyce Lee thinks so.

Joyce is a pediatrician, diabetes specialist and researcher, but she thinks like a designer and she thinks you should too.

For too long, folks in black turtlenecks and have co-opted the title "designer" while inspiration and design challenges abound in every profession. And her work has proven that design thinking can solve health problems.

And she's using a participatory approach with here patients. Using markers, post-it notes and YouTube, Joyce and her patients have tackled everything from food allergies and eli-pen use to resident sign-out in the hospital.

Joyce is also shining a light on how good design in healthcare is saving lives. She's an evangelist for patient-centered design pushing the transformation of healthcare.

We’re proud to have Dr Joyce Lee designing, teaching and practicing medicine here at the University of Michigan and we're excited to hear her idea worth spreading at TEDxDetroit.

So how did a girl from Seven Mile fall in love with the guy from Stratford? 

It was an arranged love of sorts. Samantha White's mother wouldn't allow her to listen to rap music as a kid. So Sam got lost in books and theatre. In no time at all, she found herself on stage.

Sam began her Shakespeare in Detroit efforts in 2012 -- at Children's Hospital of Michigan, by producing Shakespeare vignettes for children between the ages of 2 and 17 who were receiving chemotherapy. The performances served as a respite and her acting troupe was also able to leave Shakespeare-themed gifts for the kids.

The young theatre company has engaged with nearly 3,000 people, including Sam's alma mater , Mumford High School, where the troupe performed "Romeo and Juliet" in the school's new state-of-the-art theatre -- the first time a play had ever been performed in the space. 

To date, Sam has produced five full-fledged productions including "Othello" at Grand Circus Park, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at New Center Park, "The Tempest" inside the Marlene Boll Theatre (YMCA Detroit) and even recreated Rome and Egypt from recycled materials with "Antony and Cleopatra" at Recycle Here.

Next up, Sam's Shakespeare in Detroit company is gearing up for "King Lear", but first, she'll share an idea worth spreading at TEDxDetroit 2014. We'll have to wait and see if she brings a skull, a crown or tights.

Bruce Banner. Peter Parker. Indrin Chetty.

All three of them have experimented with radiation in the lab. All three of them are super heroes saving lives and battling impossible odds. While two of them are known for their work with the Avengers, one of them is doing remarkable work right here in Detroit.

Indrin Chetty serves as the Director of Radiation Physics, Department of Radiation Oncology for the Henry Ford Hospital. He's a pioneer in using Stereotactic Radiosurgery to treat brain tumors. Together with doctors at researchers at Wayne State University and Henry Ford Hospital, Indrin is innovating new techniques to help radiation oncologists and brain surgeons detect and fight cancer.

While Bruce and Peter may save the world on the big screen, Indrin is proud of the innovative work Detroit-based hospitals are doing to save lives here in the real world. We’re looking forward to hearing Indrin Chetty's idea worth spreading at TEDxDetroit 2014.

Detroit native Devita Davison was perfectly happy taking a bite out of the Big Apple. She had a great job at a blue chip publishing house, volunteered her time helping young entrepreneurs with their business plans and launched her own startup bring Southern flavor to the city.

When Hurricane Sandy hit Devita's house in Long Island, she came home to Michigan for a spell. In rediscovering her hometown, she was inspired by the good folks at FoodLab, Eastern Market and Green Garage to create Detroit Kitchen Connect.

Detroit Kitchen Connect combines all of Devita passions: entrepreneurialism, bringing people together, marketing and delicious food. DKC is part food incubator, part network weaver, part business accelerator, part test kitchen and all good. With DKC, Devita is helping the city's food entrepreneurs serve up economic development, a thriving community and tasty cuisine.

All that hard work is starting to pay off. In one year, 13 brand new businesses have opened their doors with the help of Detroit Kitchen Connect. And people are starting to take notice. When Oprah's The Life You Want Weekend rolled in to the Palace this past weekend, Oprah honored Devita with a “Standing O-Vation” for not only making the world a better place, but also motivating others to spark their own journey of personal change.

We're glad to have Devita Davison back home creating in the D and we can't wait to hear her idea worth spreading at TEDxDetroit. If we're lucky, we also might have a chance to sample some of the creations to hatch out of Detroit Kitchen Connect.

James Ford Murphy is living the dream.

The self-taught artist and animator from Detroit got his start in the business animating Pizza Pizza commercials for Little Caesar’s. Ads gave way to animating video games as Jim served as the lead animator on Torin's Passage. In 1996, his career took a giant grasshopper sized leap as he joined the ranks of Pixar Animation Studios as an animator on “A Bug’s Life”.

At Pixar, Jim has help create some of our favorite films: “Toy Story 2,” “Monsters, Inc.,” “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles,” and “Ratatouille.” As the Director of Creative Artists at Pixar, he's overseen Animation, Art, and Story across the studio.

In-between Oscar winning projects, Jim fell in love the natural beauty and volcanos of Hawaii. They inspired his directorial debut: "Lava," the latest Disney•Pixar short that will play before 2015's "Inside Out."

We're delighted to welcome Jim back home to Detroit for TEDxDetroit to share his idea worth spreading. We'll also sneak a peek at "Lava" and gain insight into his creative process. He might even break out his ukulele.

We're excited to officially announce that TEDxDetroit 2014 will be Tuesday, September 30th at the historic Detroit Opera House. It's just 18 days away so we'll be moving fast. Here are the details:

WHAT: TEDxDetroit 2014 (part conference, part tech expo, part art festival, part revival, all good)

WHO: 1,250 optimistic thinkers and doers in the fields of business, education, design, tech and community service from around the midwest

WHERE: The historic Detroit Opera House

WHEN: Tuesday, September 30th, 2014 from 9am - 6pm

Ishita Gupta asks the questions most people are afraid to ask: What are your biggest fears, failures, and mistakes? How can you use these to live a more courageous life? 

In fact, Ishita's built a magazine based on exploring the "grey" topics that most people steer clear of, and emphasizes them so we all understand: Fear.less profiles hundreds of thought-leaders, CEO's, and business leaders on how they've overcome fear to build successful careers and lives. 

Ishita was born and raised in metro Detroit and while she currently resides in New York City, Detroit will always be home and close to her heart. She is looking forward to seeing not the "bankrupt" Detroit people refer to it as, but the creative, visionary, and vibrant city she's always known it to be. Detroit, to Ishita, is a great example of resilience and success."

“No city, no success in life, nothing is built only on a stream of wins - it is always built on two steps forward and one step back,” she says. “It’s built upon failure after failure and I’m looking at Detroit from the lens of what true success means.”

In 2012 Norman Witte found himself living in Detroit, unemployed with a dead car. With no means to replace it, Witte learned alternate ways to get around the city as he continued to look for employment. The process, he said, involved navigating the city’s public transportation system and learning to be a good cyclist.

More than a year later, Witte, now a web developer at Crain’s Detroit Business, is continuing his car-less life in the city, but this time out of choice. It’s a lifestyle, he said, and one he wants to share with others.

“It’s been both a learning experience and a challenge,” he said.

Witte has attended every TEDxDetroit conference since it began in 2009 and said his favorite talk was by Brian Mulloy, who spoke in 2011 of the history of Detroit and how the city’s original plans by the French can be applied today.

Witte is originally from Lake Orion and started to visit Detroit as a teenager to explore its music and art scene.

“Throughout the years, that’s what really kept bringing me back,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave. Eventually I realized this is the place I should be living.”

To make positive change, Witte said it’s about stepping outside your comfort zone.