by Kelly Rogge, KCKCC
Speakers have been announced for the March 8 TEDxWyandotte program.
The event is from 6:30 to 9 p.m. March 8 at the Kansas City Kansas Community College Performing Arts Center. TedxWyandotte features opportunities for networking as well as seven presenters speaking to the theme “Dream Big: The Lost Art of Dreaming.”
“I am excited for our local TEDxWyandotte, said Gary Bradley-Lopez, KCKCC Student Senate president. “This TEDx talk is explaining the idea of bringing dreams back to life. Getting to hear stories that can be inspiring to the students here at this school and community will have an impact and mean a lot. Hearing a perspective of dreams and how students should continue to live them, along with the speakers’ stories of inspiration will be a thrill that I can’t wait for.”
Dr. Marisa Gray, TEDxWyandotte committee organizer, said TEDxWyandotte is all about networking and sharing innovative thoughts and ideas.
“Tickets are going fast, and we anticipate filling the performing arts center with people excited to network and share their ideas with others,” she said. “This year, we have added a new element for the evening. In support of our local small businesses, three food trucks will be on site during intermission. They include French Crepes KC, KCQ BBQ and Humdinger Food Truck.”
Individuals can purchase food from the truck vendors from 5 to 6 p.m. and again during the intermission, about 7 to 7:30 p.m.
Breania Rocha, a KCKCC student in the digital arts program, was the winner of the T-shirt design contest. Participants will receive a T-shirt as part of their admission packet. Additional shirts are available for $10 as long as the supply lasts.
“There is no better way to spend an evening – stimulating ideas, networking, music and great food,” Gray said.
This year’s TEDxWyandotte presenters include:
• Tony Chatman – will be speaking on “How to Stop Settling for Less.” As a recognized thought leader in the area of workplace relationships, Chatman understands the fundamental differences in how people think and act, and how those differences affect productivity and profitability. Since 2006, Tony has worked with hundreds of corporations and government agencies including the U.S. Secret Service, Chase Bank, Estee Lauder, the N.O.A.A. and N.A.S.A. to help people reach new heights of effectiveness by understanding themselves and others better. His first book, “The Force Multiplier: How to Lead Teams Where Everyone Wins,” was released in 2017.
• Mark Dupree – Wyandotte County District Attorney. He will be speaking on “Exposure to Possibilities.” He was born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas, where he currently resides with his wife and four children. Dupree has practiced in a diversity of legal capacities. He clerked in Jackson County, Missouri, served as an assistant prosecuting attorney in Jackson County, served as an assistant public defender in the Johnson County Public Defender’s Office and he and his wife practiced in their firm, Dupree and Dupree, LLC – Attorneys at Law, until his swearing into office. Dupree’s goal is to give back to the community, and he does this by speaking at countless churches, community organizations and schools.
• Fusion Combo – KCKCC’s Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Jim Mair, KCKCC Director. Members include Mark Slimm, Billy Winston, Rayvon Haggerty, Antonio Reyes and Tony Kasper.
• Nathan Horowitz – ESL instructor at KCKCC in Adult and Continuing Education. Horowitz will be speaking on “Dreaming of Health.” Born and raised in Michigan, Horowitz has taught English as a Foreign Language on three continents to students from 60 countries. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Oberlin College and a Master of Arts degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts–Boston. In the 1990s, he studied with a practitioner of traditional Amazonian medicine and spent 14 months in the rain forest, learning and healing and writing about the experience. He moved to Vienna, Austria, in 2001, and back to the United States in 2017.
• Marshee London – KCKCC Student Speaker Challenge Winner. A single mother of three girls, and a native of Los Angeles, California, she came to Kansas to start over, but ended up finding herself. She will be speaking on “Wake Up!” Marshee is the winner of the Student Speaker Challenge and is a criminal justice student at KCKCC.
• L. Carol Scott, Ph.D. – Scott will be speaking on “Never Lost Forever.” She discovered the power of a Big Dream during recovery from childhood sexual assault, which had left her with few tools for healthy adult relationships. A career in early childhood development intersected with this personal experience, creating new insights for recovery. Scott’s developmental lens shares tools that enable more trusting, less conflicted and more joy- filled relationships and interactions, at home and at work. For individuals in any stage of transformational journey, seeing life from the kaleidoscope perspective of early childhood allows you to take your relationships and your life to the next level and leave the struggle behind.
• Thom Singer – will be speaking on “The Art of Giving Small.” Have you ever felt as if you, or a member of your team, had amazing potential? Potential is great, but it does not equal results. In our busy world, achieving more can seem elusive even when bigger opportunities seem possible. Singer has become obsessed with helping people take the leap across the gap that exists between potential and results. He has had an eclectic career in sales and marketing for Fortune 500 companies, law firms and small companies. He has written 12 books and when he was 21 years old, he was a five-day returning champion on the $25,000 Pyramid game show.
For more information or to register for TedxWyandotte, visit www.tedxwyandotte.org. Select the 2018 “tickets available now” button. The cost of the event is $20 or $15 for groups of 10 or more. Admission is free for students that register and present a valid student ID. The ticket includes admittance to the event and a T-shirt.
About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to ideas worth spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or fewer) delivered by today’s leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED’s annual conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, and made available, free, on TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.
TED’s open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from thousands of volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed; the annual million-dollar TED Prize, which funds exceptional individuals with a “wish,” or idea, to create change in the world; TEDx, which provides licenses to thousands of individuals and groups who host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.
Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED or Instagram at https://instagram.com/ted.