TEDxUWYO Presentations Available Online

An unfortunate power outage April 20 made it impossible for the public to see firsthand four University of Wyoming professors present their innovative ideas in UW’s first TEDx event.

However, the recorded presentations of TEDxUWYO -- which were made during what was thought to be a dress rehearsal the day before the public event in UW’s College of Arts and Sciences auditorium was canceled -- are now available for public viewing.

UW videographers captured the dress-rehearsal presentations, and the event’s organizers, students Mark Menghini and Jake Aadland, submitted them to the TED organization. They’re posted at www.youtube.com/user/TEDxTalks.

“We were disappointed that we had to cancel the public event -- and that we didn’t have time to reschedule it before the end of the semester -- but we’re excited that we’ve still been able to accomplish our primary objective: bringing awareness to great ideas cultivated at the University of Wyoming,” Menghini and Aadland say.

Launched in 2009, TEDx is a program of locally organized events that bring the community together to share a TED-like experience. Some of the best talks from TEDx events have gone on to be featured on TED.com and garnered millions of views from audiences across the globe.

Under the theme of “Horizon,” TEDxUWYO featured:

-- Rachel Watson, director of the Science Initiative’s Learning Actively Mentoring Program, who spoke on “Shifting Student Motivation from Making Dollars to Making Change.” Here’s a direct link to the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjtsszwHL8w.

-- Kent Noble, the Bill Daniels Chair of Business Ethics in the College of Business, whose topic was “What’s Your Brand?” The video is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrAbwdL2G4Y.

-- Donal Skinner, professor in the Department of Zoology and Physiology and dean of the Honors College, whose talk was titled “Wired on Steroids.” The video link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x8yzoXQ-W4.

-- Mike Brotherton, professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, who spoke about “The Synergies of Science and Science Fiction.” Here’s the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuq-GAXn3gY.

About TED and 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. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to “ideas worth spreading,” usually in the form of short, powerful talks delivered by today’s leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED’s annual gathering in Vancouver, Canada, TEDWomen and TEDGlobal conferences, and thousands of independently organized TEDx events around the world, are then made available, free, on TED.com and other channels.