In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

Boston Opera House
539 Washington Street
Boston, Massachusetts, 02111
United States

Masary Studios

Masary Studios is a team of artists awakening built environments through live performance of music and projection mapping, unlocking the sonic possibilities of an urban landscape. Activated through animation in collaboration with the composers, percussionists and the structure, MS develops site-specific public art that is at once a performance, a reconsideration of architecture, and a visual spectacle.

David Autor

Labor Economist

David Autor is Ford Professor of Economics and Associate Head of the MIT Department of Economics. Autor’s work assesses the labor market consequences of technological change and globalization, focusing on earnings inequality, employment and unemployment, and feedback between labor market opportunities, household structure, and the social and intellectual development of children. Autor earned a B.A. in Psychology from Tufts University and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in 1999. Prior to graduate study, he devoted three years to directing computer skills education for economically disadvantaged children and adults at non-profit organizations in San Francisco and South Africa.

Iyad Rahwan

Computational Social Scientist

Iyad Rahwan is the AT&T Career Development Professor and an Associate Professor of Media Arts & Sciences at the MIT Media Lab, where he heads the Scalable Cooperation group. Prior to joining MIT, Rahwan was an associate professor at Masdar Institute, an Abu Dhabi-based research university established in cooperation with MIT. Rahwan’s work lies at the intersection of the computer and social sciences, with a focus on collective intelligence, large-scale cooperation, and the social aspects of Artificial Intelligence. In 2012, he led the winning team in the US State Department’s Tag Challenge, in which he used social media to locate individuals in remote cities within 12 hours using only their mug shots. Rahwan’s work appeared in major academic journals, including Science and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and was featured in major media outlets, including the New York Times, The Economist, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

Janet Wu

Multimedia Journalist

Janet Wu is a multi-media journalist well known for her many years as a medical reporter and news anchor for the NBC station in Boston. She is a frequent contributor to The Boston Globe with both Op-Eds and travel writing. Her essays have also been published in The New York Times, The Boston Herald, and Harvard’s Charles River Review. She teaches journalism as an adjunct professor at Emerson College. She graduated from Yale where she studied Philosophy and Psychology and went on to earn a master’s degree in Journalism and International Affairs at Columbia University. Janet started traveling alone right after grad school, making several solo excursions while traversing the Karakoram Highway from China through Pakistan with a friend. She has since traveled to more than 60 countries, a dozen of those alone.

Laura Gassner Otting

Civic Catalyst

Laura Gassner Otting has spent the last 20 years working to strengthen organizations that weave our social and civic fabric. Through Limitless Possibility, Laura collaborates with entrepreneurs and investors to push past the doubt and indecision that consign great ideas to limbo. She delivers strategic thinking, well-honed wisdom, and catalytic perspective informed by decades of navigating change across the start-up, nonprofit, political, and philanthropic landscapes. Laura’s 25-year resume is defined by her entrepreneurial edge. She served as a Presidential Appointee in Bill Clinton’s White House, helping shape AmeriCorps; left a leadership role at respected nonprofit search firm, Isaacson, Miller, to expand the startup ExecSearches.com; and founded and ran the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group, which partnered with the full gamut of mission driven nonprofit executives, from start-up dreamers to scaling social entrepreneurs to global philanthropists.

Mark Gendreau

Emergency Physician

Mark Gendreau is an Emergency Physician and currently serves as Medical Director and Vice Chair of Emergency Medicine at Lahey Medical Center – Peabody, an affiliate of Lahey Health. He is also an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Gendreau is an expert in health issues and the spread of infectious disease associated with air travel, a topic he came to appreciate while growing up in an Air Force family. He is passionate about spreading the word on minimizing the risk of getting sick while in public and traveling. His work and expertise have appeared in major print and broadcast including the New York Times, CNN, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, Parade magazine, US News & World Report, and the Dr. Oz show.

Tricia Wang

Technology Ethnographer

Tricia Wang is a global technology ethnographer and the co-founder of Constellate Data. She advises organizations on integrating “Big Data” and what she calls Thick Data — data brought to light using digital age ethnographic research methods that uncover emotions, stories, and meaning — to improve strategy, policy, products, and services. Organizations she has worked with include P&G, IDEO, Nokia, Microsoft, Kickstarter, the United Nations, and NASA. As a tech researcher, she seeks to understand how technology makes us more human. Her research spans from China to social media and most recently, virtual reality. For nearly ten years, she has lived and worked across four continents, studying the effects of social media on people’s lives. Her immersive research has taken her to internet cafés in Beijing, urban slums in India, small towns in rural Mexico, and immigrant housing in Sweden.