TEDxLSU announces final lineup – March event features 15 speakers at Shaver Theatre

TEDxLSU hosts its second installment of innovative talks in March, and today organizers announced the full list of speakers.

The event, which started last year, features innovative Louisianans giving the “talk of their life” about dynamic, social, civic and commercial efforts and ideas that inspire positive change for the state. This year’s theme is “Enact,” and speakers will discuss efforts to foster immediate change, how we can enact, the effects of change and much more.

Among the speakers this year are Triumph Kitchen founder and chef Chris Wadsworth, Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority chair Garret Graves and others. Check out the full list below.

TEDxLSU curator Joey Watson says the audience will be surprised at how these seemingly different speakers’ topics will interconnect.

“It will be fun to watch the audience make those connections,” Watson says. “What you always find is that people pull away different things. We hope you’ll find an excitement about what change is going on in our community because of what’s going on in these areas.”

Watson says this year’s TEDx will be “more like a theatrical production” that’s “very orchestrated.” The number of speakers has been whittled down from 24 to 15, spread across three sessions running an hour each. There will not be a host this year, meaning the talks will flow seamlessly from one to the next.

“I’ve worked with the speakers hard to get their ideas and talks to a powerful 10-12 minutes,” he says. “That seems to be the most effective mold for TED. It’s become a fun classroom assignment.”

For Watson, however, the secret to a successful TED event is the post-talk conversation.

“When you catch the speaker and you’re having a chit-chat with him or her, that’s when the magic starts to happen,” he says. “There is still something inherently good about sharing and exposing ideas because it leads to knowledge.”

During the event, there will also be demonstrations outside on the lawn of the Music and Dramatic Arts Building, including a mobile exhibit from the SEATIGER program that promotes engineering and energy education, a Coastal Roots exhibit and 3D scanning and printing equipment used by some academic units at LSU.

TEDxLSU is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 29, at the Shaver Theatre in the Music & Dramatic Arts Building on Dalrymple Drive. Early bird admission tickets are $60 through Friday, Jan. 31. General admission tickets are $75. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

This year’s TEDxLSU speakers
“Silky Slim” Reed, former gang member turned anti-violence activist
Garret Graves, chair of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana
Dustin LaFont, owner of Front Yard Bikes
Jacqueline Stephens, scientist, researcher and investigator of diabetes
Sarah Broome, of THRIVE, a boarding school for at-risk youth
Dima Ghawl, training program manager and community outreach activist
Courtney Brandabur, founded of local organization Girl Warrior
Bryan J. McCann, prison reform activist
Lauren Collignon, entrepreneurial artist, owner of Flaming Lotus Jewelry
Stephen Moret, secretary of Louisiana Economic Development
Chris Wadsworth, culinary community activist and owner of Triumph Kitchen
Leone Elliott, healer and artist
Victoria Ippolito, marine environmentalist and preservationalist
Dominique Ricks, poet, playwright and education advocate
Marybeth Lima, LSU professor, director of LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning and Leadership