TEDxSanJoseCA Blog Posts

Serious, Surace and TedxSanJoseCA

Putting together the TEDxSanJoseCA event with our team of passionate volunteers has been a highly rewarding experience.  After all of our hard work I am looking forward to March 26 and the full day of enlightening and passionate speakers.

I am particularly looking forward to the talk by Kevin Surace.  Kevin's taken his acumen as a leader in high tech companies producing electronic components and combined it with his passion for addressing CO₂ driven climate change.  His goal is to make it so that global warming is not as catastrophic as it could be, and in so doing give humans a chance to survive.  The company that he founded and leads, Serious Materials, is changing the way that building materials are designed and manufactured to both reduce their impact on CO₂ production and improve building efficiencies so they consume less energy throughout their lifetimes.

Kevin is looking at the climate crisis from an engineer’s perspective — and creating products that prove there’s no piece of our daily lives we can’t redesign to be cleaner and greener.  He says that Serious Materials is leading the “third industrial revolution” where territory gained is measured in dollars, BTUs, pounds of carbon dioxide, and American manufacturing jobs saved.  And he’s leading this revolution at a pace and with a passion that leaves those around him energized and excited to take on the most daunting challenge of our times.

Kevin is also building a business that is set up to succeed and deliver cleaner and greener building products for the long haul.  He’s not only guiding the research into new building materials that can be manufactured to compete with the traditional products head-to-head, he’s transforming businesses that couldn’t compete with those traditional products to succeed producing cleaner and greener versions of those same products.  A shining example is the transformation of Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago, from a closed bankrupt plant to, as Joe Biden put it, a plant making “the most energy-efficient windows in the world.”  And doing so using the same unionized workforce.   

I’m looking forward to Kevin’s talk to add fuel to my own passions on March 26.  Come and join us at this incredible event.

This post was written by Robert Clawson, a member of the TEDxSanJoseCA organizing team and an all around great guy. Meet him and others who believe in ideas worth sharing on March 26th in San Jose California.

Apply to attend here: http://www.tedxsanjoseca.com/pages/apply

Dr. Kim Silverman by Garima Agarwal

I am extremely excited to be part of  the TEDxSanJoseCA team and really look forward to the event. I am honored to be working with people who are pursuing their passions and sharing their ideas with the world. Being part of this wonderful, life-changing experience is an amazing journey.

Each speaker's unique set of ideas and experiences relates a new story to the audience, however, my personal favorite is Dr. Kim Silverman, Principal Research Scientist at Apple Inc.

Dr. Silverman is known for his magic. The art of magic is fascinating to me. He is famous for using the art to inspire hope and to create a positive attitude in the viewers. He explains that magic is not only a form of entertainment but also a way of opening oneself to new perspectives and experiences. I had the opportunity to watch Dr. Silverman perform and I'm really looking forward to seeing the whole presentation on March 26, 2011.

Are you going to be there?

I will!

Tasting the Many Flavors of TEDxSanJoseCA

Being at the TEDxSanJose event on March 26th will be, for me, a lot like being in A Baskin-Robbins store. So many flavors to pick from! At the store you end up with trying only a few flavors at most. But at TEDxSanJose you get to try them all!

Several of the planned speakers in particular appeal to my intellectual “taste buds:”

Ann Marie Calhoun personifies the realization of a longing that I have, and perhaps others, to be more than one-dimensional in my personal and professional lives. How Ann Marie went from a university scientific education into a widely diverse experience as a premier violin soloist is fascinating to me. As is the fact that she tops all of this off with a violin-related business – just great. I am very eager to hear what Ann Marie has to say on March 26th.

Dr. Adam Gazzaley will be in a position, based on his education and related lab experience, to open up for discussion and contemplation, how the power, and as yet unused capabilities, of our brain can be used effectively and creatively. We know so little of the brain that the TEDxSanJose event will go a long way to helping me to better use the wondrous gift that the brain represents.

In an entirely different direction, as the range of speakers from so many varying backgrounds permit, there will be, for me, the rare opportunity to delve into true “rocket science.” I am very much looking forward to the insights that will come from Jeff Greason’s presentation and from dialog with other attendees as to the implications of and applications for the propellant technology developed by Jeff. Pardon my pun but Jeff’s presentation should be a “blast!”

This post was written by Vince Tarpey, a member of the TEDxSanJoseCA organizing team and frequent teller of one liners. Meet him and others who believe in ideas worth sharing on March 26th in San Jose California.

Apply to attend here: http://www.tedxsanjoseca.com/pages/apply

TEDx Talks by women...

Now on YouTube Outstanding TEDx talks by women...from around the world. What's your favorite?

Blog Archive

Serious, Surace and TedxSanJoseCA — posted by t3dxideas was updated on 03/06/2011 03:22 PM by t3dxideas
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Dr. Kim Silverman by Garima Agarwal — posted by t3dxideas was updated on 02/24/2011 04:02 PM by t3dxideas
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