Theme: Creating the Community you Want to Live in

TEDxCarsonCity is an all day event where engaging speakers from a variety of disciplines share their life's work, passions, and concepts through thought-provoking and entertaining talks that run between 10 to 15 minutes in length. The event combines live talks, TED Talk videos,and opportunities to network and discover unexpected connections and ultimately build community.

TEDxCarsonCity is a not-for-profit event that is brought to you by an incredibly dedicated group of unpaid volunteers.

The theme for TEDxCarsonCity 2016 is "Creating the community you want to live in". Carson City is on the cusp of doing great things by working together and uniting all stakeholders from different fields and organizations. The goal for TEDxCarsonCity is to unite the entire community both formal and informal leaders from all sectors and silos in the community with the common vision to transform Carson City to a 21st Community that all would want to live in.

Ultimately TEDxCarsonCity is an incubator for great ideas, a perfect opportunity to meet people who are doing interesting things, and a way to explore the inter-connectivity that joins us.

Brewery Arts Center
449 W King St.
CARSON CITY, Nevada, 89703
United States

Ananda Bena-Weber

Actress Performer

Ananda Bena-Weber is a versatile artist who performs throughout the world in the areas of theater, dance, film, television, and commercials. She is an accomplished voice over artist and creates her own finished-product spots in her home studio. Ananda provides workshops and training bringing dancers and actors together to create work that is a conversation, exchange, and a synthesis of natures. She is currently working on an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College toward a PHD with an emphasis on Linklater Voice technique. Ananda is an adjunct professor of dance at Marymount Manhattan College, and a teaching artist for the Dance Theater of Harlem.

Antsy McClain

Singer/Songwriter

Singer, songwriter, humorist and small town philosopher Antsy McClain writes what he knows: The good life. Staging his live shows from a small, fictitious trailer park called Pine View Heights (patterned after his own childhood surroundings and experiences), McClain is free from an over--abundance of material things and appreciates time with family and friends. Sharing his mantra of “Enjoy The Ride,” McClain has won friendship and collaboration with some of the most talented musicians in the world. With such a wide circle of mentors like Waylon Jennings, Tommy Smothers, guitar legend Tommy Emmanuel and cowboy poet Baxter Black, it’s no wonder McClain marches to the beat of a different drum. And his influences don’t stop there. His live shows touch upon Country, Rockabilly, Jazz, Swing, and a number of Pop culture references.

Audrey Markowitz

Artist

Audrey Markowitz has extensive experience as a public speaker and trainer in industry as well as teaching public speaking as a college professor. Among the many different workshops she developed, one focused on how to take what you do seriously, but take yourself lightly. She did it by teaching people how to juggle!   Audrey has incorporated her experiences as a Vice-president of Human Resources and as a public speaker into her art which is on display at the Artisan Store at the Brewery Art Center (BAC) in Carson City, Nevada. One aspect of her artistic interest led her to become a Certified Zentangle® Teacher (CZT). Audrey has shared her passion for this amazing, wonderful, joyful, relaxing, magical, rewarding, and mistake-proof art form by developing 8 workshops that over 300 individuals have attended.

Bailey Gumm

Student/Miss Nevada 2016

Bailey Gumm, born and raised in Nevada, is currently a junior majoring in communication at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her younger brother Alex was diagnosed with autism at 22 months old. Bailey has seen and lived the effects of autism directly through her lens as a sister. Bailey took on the role as an autism advocate at a very young age. For the last six years Bailey has been a titleholder in the Miss America Organization where autism awareness has been her platform. This past summer Bailey was awarded the Miss America Community Service award for her work within the autism community. Currently, Bailey is a board member for the Autism Coalition of Nevada, and is a blog writer and featured sibling advocate for the national autism organization- Autism Speaks.  Bailey was just named Miss Nevada 2016 and will be representing Nevada at the Miss America pageant.

Benjamin Wade

Coach/Conductor

Benjamin "Coach" Wade was a child prodigy on the trumpet and from age8-21 years of age he never lost a single competition. From All-State first trumpet to first chair in the Southwestern United States Honors Orchestra "Coach" was able to play with some of the greatest trumpet players of the 21st century from Wynton Marsalis to Doc Severson. Wade's pinnacle of success in individual competitions culminated in 1988 when he won the International Trumpet Guild prestigious CG Conn award for one of the best trumpet players in the world. Wade also performed from 1987-1993 with The New York Metropolitan Opera, The Indianapolis Symphony, The Knoxville Symphony and many others. Ben Wade put aside trumpet performing for many years to focus on his collegiate soccer coaching career but then in 2003 "Coach" came back to his first love of music and started the Susanville Symphony. Since then Wade has been the Artistic Director of this orchestra, and guest conducted all over the world.

Bernie Beauchamp

Puppeteer

As a student at the Eugene O'Neill National Theater Institute Bernie was introduced to puppetry by Rufus and Margo Rose. A year later he was hired by Nick Coppola as a touring performer with Nicolo Marionettes in New York City. Six months later the Honeymoon ended and Bernie did not touch puppets for 24 years. During this time he relocated to Reno, Nevada. married, started a family and thought about forming his own marionette company. Having met puppet builder Chris Kluge online the acquisition of puppets and development of routines began in earnest. Since then Bernie has built the first Electroluminescent Wire puppet, The first Kevlar flaming marionettes, performed at Burning Man the last 17 years and developed the fine art of roadside Guerrilla puppet performances in transit to and from the 2011 and 2013 National Festivals on the East Coast. (More details can be found at kickstarter.com by referencing “Random Acts of Puppetry” and “Puppets Busking America”).

Bryce O'Connor

Student

Bryce O'Connor is a 16 year-old from Carson City, Nevada. His interests lie primarily in the arts, specifically filmmaking, performing, and writing. He has been in a variety of local theatre productions, and has volunteered at Brewery Arts Center and Carson City Library (where he now works). TedxCarsonCity has given him an outlet for his ideas and passions, in this case the need for our educational system to recognize skill beyond the standard subjects.

Corey Rich

Photographer/Director

Corey Rich is one of the world's most recognized adventure and outdoor lifestyle visual storytellers. Combining his creativity and athleticism to capture both still and motion content in some of the wildest places on the planet, Corey has successfully transitioned his work and focus from exclusively shooting still photography to shooting both stills and directing major commercial and documentary motion projects.

Donna Walden

Green Business Leader

Donna Walden consults environmental companies and non-profits helping them to build a presence in a competitive marketplace. For the last 5 years, Walden worked for the University of Nevada Reno managing the Western Sustainability & Pollution Prevention Network (WSPPN) a four state network funded by the Environmental Protection Agency to provide technical resources to state and local source reduction programs. Prior, she was the Executive Director for the Sierra Green Building Association (SiGBA) in Truckee, CA whose mission is to educate and promote environmental design, building and living practices in the Sierra Nevada. In 2013, Walden received national recognition as the Pollution Prevention Volunteer of the Year by the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable as part of the annual MVP2 awards designed to recognize outstanding and innovative P2 projects and programs.

Dr. Rebecca Bevans

Psychology Professor

Rebecca Bevans received her Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience and a Master’s degree in Human Development from the University of Nevada, Reno. She is an expert in how physiological states can affect psychological perception. She teaches several undergraduate psychology courses at Western Nevada College including Child Psychology, Adolescent Psychology, Research Methods, Abnormal Psychology, and Introduction to Psychology. She also teaches graduate courses for Southern New Hampshire University. She is the President of Brain Matterz, a Nevada non-profit with the focus on brain disorder research and education. Her greatest position is being a wife and mother.

John Rutledge

Attorney

John Rutledge, Esquire, has repeatedly been named to the annual BEST LAWYERS IN AMERICA directory. During his career, he has attained the highest-possible peer review rating by, among other things, serving as exclusive transactional counsel for a huge real estate portfolio, multiple publicly traded corporations, and a foreign nation-state in its negotiations for the television reality series SURVIVOR: Palau. He has also done legal work for, and protected and enforced the intellectual property rights of, famous musicians and several of the world’s largest software companies. In addition, Mr. Rutledge is a former candidate for Governor of our great state and is an avid entrepreneur, investor, and Ironman® triathlete. He received his undergraduate degree (a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, 1994) from Loyola Marymount University, his law degree from the Howard University School of Law (1997), and a graduate law degree from the University of Miami, School of Law.

Kimi Cole

Chairwomen at Douglas County Democrats

Since initiating her own transition in 2009, Kimi considers transition the amazing journey of a lifetime, rather than a singular ultimate destination that may someday be reached. With a profound understanding of the challenges and struggles that existed secretly for over 55 years, she decided the most effective application of her life’s experiences would be to share those learned lessons with others and to educate the public regarding the very real existence of the transgender community. Ms. Cole has developed profound insights based on viewing the world through a unique lens of actively living while being perceived as male, then later identifying and being perceived as female. Working actively with PFLAG, Carson Region, a national advocating outreach and support organization, Kimi has experience presenting to educators, medical professionals and community service organizations.

Sandra James

City Planner at City of Vancouver, BC

Sandy James is irrationally passionate about sustainably smart walkable communities. As a city planner for the City of Vancouver Sandy championed locally scaled neighborhood projects that virally became city policy in Vancouver and other cities. Working collaboratively with engineering staff Sandy developed the innovative 140 kilometer “green street” sustainable network of connected parks, streets and places where pedestrians have priority. Known as the “pickpocket of city hall” for her ability to find financing, Sandy was named Neighborhood Planner of the Year” by the Vancouver Sun newspaper for her work with communities. Sandy believes that promoting walkability is socially and morally the right thing to do, and chaired the international Walk 21 Conference in Vancouver in 2011. Sandy is a Director of Walk Metro Vancouver, which encourages best practices for the development of walkable places and spaces, creating communities we want to live in.

Shawn Thomas

Lifestyle Entrepreneur

Shawn Thomas is a lifestyle entrepreneur focused on contributing to the world through mentoring, coaching and philanthropy. After the multi-million dollar sale of his company, Shawn has embarked on the next chapter in his life—to share the business and lessons he has learned along the way. As a Lifestyle Entrepreneur, Shawn has the freedom and flexibility to work around things he is passionate about without the worry or stress of earning an income and tens of thousands of followers from all the over world tune in to see how he has created his success.

Shaylin Segura

Student

Shaylin Segura is a junior at Carson High School. Although only seventeen, she has seen the world from very diverse points of view as she has been homeschooled, attended two separate church schools and 3 different middle schools before beginning at Carson High School as a freshman. She also comes from a multicultural background with a mother born in the United States from Italian descent and a father who came into the US illegally as a toddler from a Mexican heritage. This submersion with the array of kids and teachers and lifestyles that is her life has given her a unique perspective and a versatile personality. Shaylin is passionate about her business class and is the vice president of the New Entrepreneur network. She is also a national Lincoln Douglas Speech and Debate competitor, a tennis captain, and singles player. She has played the flute and violin from very young and loves tennis, camping, reading and her bustling family.

Stephen Jon Thompson

Executive Recruiting LinkedIn

As a successful executive recruiter in the software industry, Stephen is dedicated to finding and hiring some of the most unique and smartest people in the world.  His expertise extends from data scientists who help people make the right purchase when using the Apple.com website; to infrastructure engineers that help companies process 35,000 transactions per second.  Stephen has worked with both private companies trying to go public and Fortune 10 companies. LinkedIn, Apple and Google are some of the most recognized names who have retained his services over the years.  Stephen has been married for almost fifteen years to a wonderful, successful woman and together are raising two funny and talented boys.