TEDxParkCity organizers are clearing the way for a relaunch.
The grassroots initiative that provides speakers, storytellers and innovators a place to share their ideas will start in-person events once again this autumn, said Founder and Organizer Teri Orr.
“We are pleased to reboot this catalyst for conversations,” she said. “I believe Park City could benefit from better rules of engagement. I think we have forgotten how to talk with each other instead of at each other.”
TED stands for technology, entertainment and design, and a group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology started the program in the mid-1980s, according to Orr.
“Richard Saul Wurman was one of the guys, and they were trying to figure out how to use their computers,” she said. “So they started bringing other people to MIT, and that’s how it started.”
Since then, TEDx’s TED Talks have blossomed into a global community of conferences, presentations and connections.
Presenters have included journalists, authors, activists, musicians, scientists, politicians and athletes, to name a few.
The first TEDx Orr ever attended was in 2007 in Aspen, Colorado, according to Orr.
“I was so smitten with the opportunity to attend TED and see things through a different lens, a broader lens,” she said.
That experience inspired Orr to create TEDxPark City the next year.
“We did our first one in 2008, when I worked for the Park City Institute,” she said. “We were among the first 100 licenses that TED granted, and now there are close to 5,000.”
Since then, TEDxParkCity, alone, has presented Backcountry.com Chief Executive Officer Jill Layfield, “The 85% Solution” author Linda Galindo and Mary Beth Maziarz, an award-winning singer, songwriter and composer.
“I wanted to share things like this with our local community,” Orr said. “I wanted them to experience some ‘wow’ moments that are bite-sized in a 20-minute format and don’t require getting a Ph.D. And the real magic happens after the presentations, when people who experienced them start talking with each other.”
TEDxParkCity’s new season will launch in October. Orr and co-organizer Bari Nan Cohen Rothchild are currently working to schedule a date for the venue — the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts.
“The first event will be a TED conference recap that we are calling ‘Back-to-TED,’” Orr said. “It will be a mix of curated talks from the TED Conference I attended this past April in Vancouver, and most of these presentations are not yet available to the public. So, we wanted to make sure we could get some of those great talks in circulation.”
April’s TED Conference kicked off with a simple yet powerful presentation, Orr said.
“When it opened, there were two empty chairs on stage,” she said. “Then someone from Israel and someone from Palestine sat down and spoke to each other.”
TEDxParkCity will continue with TEDxParkCity Women in early December, Orr said.
“This has been one of our most anticipated events in the past,” Cohen Rothchild said in a statement. “It’s counter-intuitive to ask an audience of women to block a day out of their schedules during December, but our attendees tell us they value the chance to step aside from the seasonal crush and connect with new people and ideas.”
“This session will be held at one of our great hotels in Park City, something we’ve done in the past,” Orr said. “And that will be a full-day event.”.
Another headlining event will be TEDxPark CityYouth, which will be held in the spring at Park City High School, according to Orr.
“This is always created for youth, by youth, and it’s a favorite of ours to present,” she said. “The goal is to take kids’ idea of having a story they want to tell to help them shape it and use it for whatever they want going forward.”
Past TEDxParkCity Youth participants have used their presentation to help with furthering their education, Orr said.
“One young local Latinx woman used it to get into Salt Lake Community College, and she was the first member of her family to go to college,” she said. “Another young woman whose family owns the Szechwan Chinese Kitchen used her TED talk to get into Harvard.”
That said, Orr knows that most of the students who participate in TED will not use their presentations to get into college.
“It still gives them the skills to stand up and present themselves,” she said. “It gives them storytelling skills, and it gives them presentation skills — something they can keep with them.”
Orr and Rothchild will work with presenters to come up with ideas for their talks.
“There are some people who we know have TED talks in them but just haven’t given them yet,” Orr said. “And then we do some auditions, which will involve the youth.”
One thing Orr doesn’t want is for potential presenters to use TEDx as a bargaining chip.
“We don’t need someone to come to us with conditions, a checklist, before agreeing to do a TED talk,” she said. “The TED motto is ‘Ideas worth spreading,’ and we want that instead of ‘let me tell you more about me.’ We really want this to be special.”
While TEDxParkCity has had sponsors in the past, the Utah Film Center will support the relaunch. Geralyn White Dreyfous, an Emmy Award-winning producer and filmmaker, founded and heads the center.
“TEDxParkCity is supported by donors and sponsors who believe in the organization’s community-building, conversation-sparking ethos, and it’s their support that allows us to keep our ticket prices reasonable for each event — and to sponsor admission for members of our community who could not otherwise attend,” Orr said. “I have known Geralyn since before the Park City Institute was opened, and she is someone who has been a longtime supporter of the arts. She was very generous in saying, ‘Why don’t you come under our umbrella at the Utah Film Center?’”
Park City Chamber/Bureau is also a sponsor, Orr said.
“They are actually the first to join us in this new interaction,” she said. “Since we are small, these sponsorships are crucial.”
Orr looks forward to introducing the community to the people and ideas that will benefit the community through TEDxParkCity.
“When I got invited to TED and got that immersive experience of being exposed to ideas and people that I didn’t know I wanted to be exposed to, and I want Park City folks to have the same opportunity,” she said. “Some of my dearest friends in this chapter of my life have come from people I have met through the TED community. There are people from this country and people from other countries that I have visited.”
For information about all things TEDxParkCity, including mailing list, mission, sponsorship opportunities and ways to donate, visit tedxparkcityut.org.