TEDxBYU Energizes Students

PROVO, Utah – Apr 16, 2012 – The event that took Brigham Young University's campus by storm last year returned in 2012 just as strong. This year's TEDxBYU conference was jam-packed with inspiring speakers, a webcast and an energetic crowd.

"This is an exciting thing for students because TEDxBYU is not a lecture and it's not a conference," says Todd Manwaring, Ballard Center for Economic Self-Reliance managing director. "It is a performance of people sharing their creative, insightful and exciting knowledge about innovation. For a couple of hours, you hear from 12 brilliant people who explain what they're doing to change the world."

Hosted by the Ballard Center, TEDxBYU is an independently organized event modeled after TED, a global conference where "ideas worth spreading" are explored. From founders of international organizations to award winners and students to alumni, the notable TEDxBYU speakers focused on the theme, "Foundations for Good."

"I think students can get lost in their own fields and their own ways of thinking," says attendee Natalie Dance, a junior in marketing from Eden Prairie, Minn. "TEDxBYU helps us break out of that. The best ideas are born in settings like these."

One of the many inspiring messages came from Amy Albo and Zoë Rodriguez, who jointly spoke on their book and traveling exhibit, "What I Thought I Saw." They commented on the imperfect way people see one another and challenged the audience members to reconsider their beliefs in collective stereotypes.

Other speakers included Greg Van Kirk, co-founder and executive director of The New Development Solutions Group; David Bornstein, journalist and founder of Dowser.org; Jeff Dyer, professor of strategy at BYU; Christopher Mattson, mechanical engineering professor at BYU; Leigh VandenAkker, 2012 Utah Teacher of the Year; Travis Pitcher, BYU alumnus and founder of Good Line; Wilfied Eyi, finance student and associate with University Impact Fund; and Eduardo Zanatta, finance student and employee at Innosight, LLC.

Attendees at the TEDxBYU event were challenged by the speakers to be creative and to seek to be better.

"There are people all over who want to help, so I think it's essential to share ideas so we can work together," says Amy Wood, a senior in chemical engineering from Calgary, Alberta. "It's important for us to remember it takes a lot of innovation and work to solve these problems, but we can practice and get better at helping."

While the tickets for the event sold out in six hours, individuals who were not able to purchase tickets were able to connect to TEDxBYU via a live webcast. Archive video of the TEDxBYU talks can be watched at tedxbyu.com/video.

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, public management, information systems and entrepreneurship. The school's mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School's graduate and undergraduate programs.