TEDxMcGill

Our Speakers

TEDxMcGill is thrilled to finally announce its exciting line-up of McGill students, faculty and alumni who will share their cutting-edge research and engaging ideas for the future.

• Neuroscience masters student, Mohammed Ashour, introduces a break-through idea to address economic and health issues with aging populations in a feasible, voluntary way.
• Architecture masters student, Ellen Bleiwas, bridges art and architecture for a discussion of innovative non-commercial public spaces that infiltrate the urban fabric year-round.
• Engineering undergraduate, Max Finder, advocates for student start-ups and redirects our attention to the hidden value of building ties with fresh entrepreneurial communities.
• Computer Science masters student, Jan Florjanczyk, dazzles us with the mind-blowing theories behind black holes while relating this extreme physics to our everyday lives.
• Psychology and Classical Trumpet student, Aaron Kahn, breaks down the illusory barrier between classical and popular music and examines our society’s collective need for music.
• Game theory undergrad whiz, Artem Kaznatcheev, proposes that the evolution of cooperation is leading us into a fragmented world, and challenges us to overcome low viscosity networks.
• Management and Neurology professor, Karl Moore, exposes us to modern and post-modern management styles, enlightening our understanding of how decisions get made.
• McGill alum and co-founder of Just for Laughs comedy festival, Andy Nulman, draws us into a discussion of how our lives unfold, and asks us to imagine a world without surprise.
• McGill Daily columnist, Sana Saeed, transports us with her powerful writing, proving that the more avenues we create to be public as a society, the more private we become as individuals.
• Philosophy of math researcher, Katherine Skosnik, zooms in on the way that societies – past and present – approach the number zero, and how our valuation of zero will define our future.
• Linguistics undergraduate, Adam Stikuts, calls us out on the over-use of “like” in common dialogue, and asks us whether this leads to degradation in language or accepted change.
• McGill Microbiology professor, Brian J. Ward, exposes his research on vaccines immunology and what key steps we need to be making in the future.

Registration for the conference will begin Monday, October 19, at noon.  The registration form will be available on tedxmcgill.com.  Tickets are $10. Due to limited seating, applications will be processed on a first-come, first-serve basis. All proceeds are applied to the expenses related to producing the event.

Want to attend?

TEDxMcGill will be held on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at the Thompson House Ball room on McGill campus.

The event will run from 12:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at a cost of $10. Unfortunately we have limited seating capacity, therefore we are looking for people who will be strong contributors to the TEDxMcGill experience and can commit to attend the entire event.

Registration will open on Monday, October 19 at noon and will close on Friday, October 23 at midnight. The application will be made available on the TEDxMcGill website. Applications will be processed on a first-come, first-serve basis. All proceeds are applied to the expenses related to producing the event.

Want to speak?

Thank you to everyone who has applied to speak! We have some amazing applications!

TEDxMcGill speakers will be invited to give talks no longer than 18 minutes: long enough to say something of significance, but short enough to hold everyone’s attention and to be easily watched over the Internet. In addition, we have committed to having 50% of our speaker list be McGill students.

After the conference, presentations will be made available on this website, and possibly on www.ted.com, where some talks have been attracting audiences in the hundreds of thousands or even millions

As a TED offshoot, TEDxMcGill will be following many of the TED speaker rules. Speakers are banned from “selling from the stage,” and there is strict enforcement of the clock. The TEDxMcGill team will be there ahead of time to make sure your talk is tailored to perfection.

Ten Tips for TEDx Speakers: THE TED COMMANDMENTS

These 10 tips are the heart of a great TEDTalk.

1. Dream big. Strive to create the best talk you have ever given. Reveal something never seen before. Do something the audience will remember forever. Share an idea that could change the world.
2. Show us the real you. Share your passions, your dreams … and also your fears. Be vulnerable. Speak of failure as well as success.
3. Make the complex plain. Don’t try to dazzle intellectually. Don’t speak in abstractions. Explain! Give examples. Tell stories. Be specific.
4. Connect with people’s emotions. Make us laugh! Make us cry!
5. Don’t flaunt your ego. Don’t boast. It’s the surest way to switch everyone off.
6. No selling from the stage! Unless we have specifically asked you to, do not talk about your company or organization. And don’t even think about pitching your products or services or asking for funding from stage.
7. Feel free to comment on other speakers, to praise or to criticize. Controversy energizes! Enthusiastic endorsement is powerful!
8. If possible, don’t read your talk. Notes are fine. But if the choice is between reading or rambling, then read!
9. You must end your talk on time. Doing otherwise is to steal time from the people that follow you. We won’t allow it.
10. Rehearse your talk in front of a trusted friend … for timing, for clarity, for impact.

Welcome to TEDx

This is the first news post for TEDxMcGill.

Want to partner with us?

We’re excited to be a TEDx licensee and are currently reaching out to a select group idea-driven companies and members of the university to support our TEDx event. Our team of organizers includes students, professors, and alumni, and we’re looking to expand our community of event curators to include similarly-driven people.

$3000 – First-tier sponsorship is inclusive of:

• Acknowledgement of sponsorship during opening remarks
• Sponsorship mentioned at the end of all embeddable video segments recorded at TEDxMcGill
• Opening cocktail speech by your representative to our attendees, not exceeding 3 minutes
• Eight VIP passes to conference event
• First rank logo placed on monitors during intermissions
• First rank logo placement on conference website with hyperlink and corporate description
• First rank logo placement in conference material for attendees and speakers, along with corporate description
• Option to sponsor attendee gift bags or speaker gift bags

$1000 – Second-tier sponsorship is inclusive of:

• Acknowledgement of sponsorship during opening remarks
• Second rank logo placed on monitors during intermissions
• Four VIP passes to conference event
• Second rank logo placement on conference website with hyperlink
• Second rank logo placement in conference material for attendees and speakers
• Option to sponsor attendee gift bags or speaker gift bags

$500 – Third-tier sponsorship is inclusive of:

• Third rank logo placement on conference website with hyperlink
• Third rank logo placement in conference material for attendees and speakers
• Option to sponsor attendee gift bags or speaker gift bags

$100 – Fourth-tier sponsorship is inclusive of:

• Fourth rank logo placement on conference website with hyperlink
• Option to sponsor attendee gift bags or speaker gift bags

We are looking for in-kind sponsorship in the following areas:

• Food and beverage
• Printing
• Gift bag content
• Professional photography for the event

In-kind sponsorship is inclusive of:

• Fourth rank logo placement on conference website with hyperlink
• Option to sponsor attendee gift bags or speaker gift bags

For more information, please contact Alison Withers at alison.withers@gmail.com.