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XRD = Crossroads

Our theme this year is "crossroads." A crossroads is a place where two things impact one another in a way that creates change. It's where technology impacts behavior, where beliefs create ideas or where different branches of social science come together to create a whole new philosophy or field. The possibilities are endless, and the end results more powerful than we can imagine.

TEDxPortland

Welcome to the inaugural year of TEDxPortland, an official TEDx licensee. At its core, Portland, Oregon, is a city with imagination and an insatiable desire to learn and to create. Please join us on Twitter and Facebook in celebrating what we hope will be the first of many exciting and inspiring TEDxPortland events to come.

TEDx

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).

• Spencer Beebe President — Ecotrust

  As founder and president of Ecotrust in Portland, Oregon, Spencer Beebe is a leader in environmental and economic sustainability. Spencer believes that by addressing the fundamental needs of people — and the ecosystems that sustain them — we can create a different kind of economic prosperity that can endure for generations. Spencer's book, Cache: Creating Natural Economies (Ecotrust, 2010), recounts his 40-year journey with economics and the environmental movement and provides fresh thinking about the road ahead.

• Roberta Conner Director — Tamástslikt Cultural Institute

  Since 1998 Roberta Conner has been the director of Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, a tribally owned and operated cultural center on the Umatilla Reservation. She worked for the U.S. Small Business Administration for 13 years and is a graduate of the University of Oregon and of Willamette University's Atkinson Graduate School of Management. Roberta is a past recipient of the Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Award and serves on the boards of the National Museum of the American Indian and the Umatilla Tribal Community Foundation.

• Mia Birk President — Alta Planning + Design

  In her book Joyride: Pedaling Toward a Healthier Planet, Mia Birk tells the dramatic story of how a group of determined visionaries transformed Portland into a cycling mecca and inspired the nation. She has spent over 21 years creating active communities where bicycling and walking are safe and fun daily activities. Former bicycle program manager for the City of Portland, Mia is currently teaching urban studies at Portland State University and is the president of Alta Planning + Design.

• Karen Brooks Author — Portland Monthly / Foodie

  Karen Brooks is the dining editor for Portland Monthly magazine. Previously a food critic for the Willamette Week and the Oregonian, Karen has become Portland's defining food voice. Her humorous reviews and restaurant guides helped Portland find its place on the national food map. The author of eight books on food and pop culture, Karen is at work on her next book, The Mighty Gastropolis: How Portland's Rule-Breaking Chefs Hand-Crafted the New Urban Cuisine, which will be published in 2012 (Chronicle Books).

• John Jay Executive Creative Director — Wieden+Kennedy

  As an Executive Creative Director and partner at Wieden+Kennedy, John Jay is currently helping to oversee W+K's global creative work. He launched the W+K Tokyo office and became a cocreator of W+K Tokyo Lab (an award-winning independent music label that has just released its seventh DVD). John was named "one of the 40 most influential designers of the year" by I.D. Magazine. His work has appeared in museums and gallery exhibitions in New York City, Paris, Moscow, Milan and more.

• Scott Kveton Co-founder & CEO — Urban Airship

  Scott Kveton has spent 13 years building technology, developing business strategy and leading engineering teams with companies like Amazon.com, RuleSpace, Vidoop and now Urban Airship. While working at Oregon State University, Scott cofounded the Open Source Lab, which helped open-source projects like Mozilla, Linux, Apache and Drupal grow into mainstream usage. Scott was named on Red Herring's list of "25 Titans in Waiting" in 2007 and holds a BS in computer science from Oregon State University.

• Mark Edlen Builder — Gerding Edlen Development

  For 15 years, Mark Edlen has been helping create sustainable communities in Oregon, California and Washington. He cofounded Gerding Edlen in 1996 with his good friend Bob Gerding based on their belief that environmental sustainability can also contribute to the economy. Successfully knitting projects into surrounding neighborhoods and building strong business, government and community partnerships are fundamentals of Mark's philosophy. He is committed to developing buildings that attain net-zero energy use within the next three years.

• Greg Bell Author & Thought Leader

  Founder of Water The Bamboo Center for Leadership, Greg Bell has worked with thousands of individuals and organizations. Author of Water The Bamboo: Unleashing the Potential of Teams and Individuals (Three Star Publishing, 2009), Greg believes that every team, organization and individual is unique. Greg is also a two-time Inspirational Player of the Year for the University of Oregon basketball team and the force behind Coaches vs. Cancer, which has raised over $50 million for cancer research.

• Elliot Mainzer Executive VP, Corporate Strategy — Bonneville Power Administration

  Elliot Mainzer has built a career devoted to combining renewable energy with our existing power model. In 2006 he led the development of the Northwest Wind Integration Action Plan to establish a cost-effective integration of wind power into the Northwest grid. A graduate of Yale University's joint MBA/Environmental Studies program, Elliot is currently the executive vice president for corporate strategy at Bonneville Power Administration where he works on timely issues like the assimilations of renewables and climate change.

• Tinker Hatfield VP Creative Design — Nike, Inc.

  Tinker Hatfield studied architecture at the University of Oregon and was an all-American track star in the pole vault under the tutelage of legendary coach Bill Bowerman, cofounder of Nike. Throughout his 26 years with Nike, Tinker helped pioneer the first-ever cross-trainer shoe and earned global recognition for his innovative designs. He also developed the Nike Innovation Kitchen, a think tank for designers to share inspiration. Fortune magazine named Tinker "one of the 100 most influential designers of the twentieth century."

• Brian J. Druker, MD OHSU

  Among his many titles, Dr. Brian J. Druker is director of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute and associate dean of oncology for the OHSU School of Medicine. He began his research career over a decade ago studying the regulation of the growth of cancer cells and the practical application to cancer therapies. After completing a series of preclinical studies, Dr. Druker spearheaded the highly successful clinical trials of imatinib for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Imatinib is now FDA approved for the treatment of CML, gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) and five other cancers.

• Jim Riswold Instructor — W+K12

  Newsweek named him "one of the 100 most influential people in American culture." Jim Riswold is also a cancer survivor. After being diagnosed with leukemia he retired from a 20-year career in advertising to become a "fake artist" — his words. His "fake art" has become part of the permanent collection in galleries throughout the Northwest. Jim is currently helping run Wieden+Kennedy's experimental ad school, W+K12. He's also working on his next show about WWI called "The War to End All Wars That Fucked Up and Didn't End All Wars."

• Genevieve Bell, PHD Director,
  Interaction & Experience Research — Intel

  Genevieve Bell has been the driving force behind Intel's emerging user-experience focus for the last decade. She has fundamentally changed how Intel envisions and develops its platforms. With a doctorate in cultural anthropology, Genevieve is currently leading Intel's team of social science researchers to create the next generation of compelling user experiences across a range of Internet-connected devices and services. Her new book, coauthored with Professor Paul Dourish, will be released by MIT Press in spring 2011 and is titled Divining the Digital Future: Mess and Mythology in Ubiquitous Computing.

Throughout the day, TEDxPortland is pleased to have the following acts perform.

• Thomas M. Lauderdale

  Thomas Lauderdale founded the little orchestra called Pink Martini in 1994. In Spring 2008, Lauderdale completed his first film score for Chiara Clemente's documentary Our City Dreams. He has appeared as a piano soloist with numerous orchestras and ensembles, including the Oregon Symphony, the Seattle Symphony and the Oregon Ballet Theatre. Lauderdale currently serves on the boards of the Oregon Symphony and Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Oregon. He lives in Portland with his boyfriend artist/designer Philip Iosca.
  
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• Storm Large

  Rock musician and writer Storm Large has been singing inappropriate banter to audiences for more than 20 years. Her band, The Balls, has toured the US, Canada, New Zealand, Spain, Iceland and Singapore. Her musical memoir, Crazy Enough ran for five sold-out months at Portland Center Stage. Storm is also an activist, and performs with The Oregon Symphony. She is currently working on her first book, for release in early 2012, by Simon & Schuster.
  
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• On The Rocks

  Known as the first official collegiate a cappella group in Oregon, On the Rocks began a tradition of excellence in a genre that was previously unheard of in the Northwest when they first formed in 1999. Their current repertoire ranges from contemporary pop, doo-wop classics, hip-hop, R&B and country to holiday standards, as well as original songs. They have released five albums and toured the West and East Coasts, as well as Canada, and have performed with professional groups and collegiate groups alike all over the country. They were most recently selected as one of the top 10 a cappella groups in the nation on NBC's reality-competition show The Sing-Off.
  
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• School of Rock

  Combining theory-based music education with a top-notch performance program, School of Rock is one of the nation's best after-school music performance programs. Its graduates are getting ready to be the next generation of high-energy rock stars. Some students have gone on to play at festivals in front of 50,000-plus people, at movie premieres and with musicians from Death Cab for Cutie, the Pixies, the Decemberists and many more. School of Rock accepts students year-round, at any skill level, to take lessons on guitar, bass, drums, vocals and keyboards, all taught by an experienced staff of local musicians.
  
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• Phame

  (Pacific Honored Artists, Musicians and Entertainers) is a fine and performing arts academy in Portland Oregon that is designed to serve adults with developmental disabilities. Founder Carol Stady developed PHAME in 1984 as an answer for those adults who might not be interested in sports or the Special Olympics. She realized a need for a creative outlet. Today the academy hosts a 40-member choir and offers a place for budding actors to hone their craft.
  
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For More Information

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TEDxPortland would like to thank these partners for their generosity and support.