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).
For more information please visit: https://www.tedxpaloalto.com/
Speakers
Speakers may not be confirmed. Check event website for more information.
Addi Somekh
Balloon Artist
Addi Somekh is recognized as one of the most innovative, prolific and well-traveled balloon artists in the world. A self-taught balloon twister, his style incorporates improvisation, abstract design and comic delivery, culminating in custom-made headdresses that have an uncanny ability to reflect the wearer’s personality. Addi’s balloon hats have taken him around the world, as he traveled to 34 countries with photographer Charlie Eckert, making hats for people for free and photographing them, in a kind of rolling investigation into the universal nature of laughter. Their travels resulted in the book The Inflatable Crown (2001, Chronicle Books). In 2011, Addi starred in the TLC reality show, “The Unpoppables”, which followed his LA-based company, New Balloon Art, as they built impossibly large, interactive balloon installations at high-end events.Ankur Gopal
Technology Entrepreneur and CEO
Ankur Gopal is a Technology Entrepreneur and CEO of Interapt, an award-winning innovation-as-a-service software company that serves the Fortune 1000. He is the recipient of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2016 Technology Award, selected by the Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame as the 2014 Emerging Entrepreneur, and one of 40 business leaders under 40. Ankur is a recognized speaker who has addressed audiences at multiple leading conferences, including US News and World Report's STEM Conference, and Salesforce’s Dreamforce Conference. He was selected by U.S. Representative Hal Rogers (KY-5th) and Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin to lead a ten-year-plan to teach Kentuckians technology skills and build a sustainable technology ecosystem. He has created one of the the first IT Apprenticeship programs recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor, Interapt Skills, and is expanding this program nationally.Dr. Jacob Rosen
Professor
Jacob Rosen is a professor of medical robotics at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering with joint appointments with the Department of Surgery and the Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His research interests focus on medical robotics, biorobotics, human centered robotics, surgical robotics, wearable robotics, rehabilitation robotics, neural control and human-machine interface. Dr. Rosen received his B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering, M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Tel Aviv University in 1987, 1993 and 1997 respectively.Dr. Kari Nadeau
Doctor
Dr. Kari Nadeau is the Naddisy Foundation Endowed Professor of Pediatric Food Allergy, Immunology, and Asthma at Stanford University and the director of the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University. For more than 30 years, she has devoted herself to understanding how environmental and genetic factors affect the risk of developing allergies and asthma, and the molecular mechanisms underlying the diseases. As one of the nation’s foremost experts in adult and pediatric allergy and asthma, Dr. Nadeau's research is laying the groundwork for a variety of potential future therapies to prevent and cure allergies and asthma. She leads a diverse team of specialists—in areas from immunology to chemical engineering—a team that was among the first to show that high dimensional immunophenotyping of T cells involved in allergy could be used in therapies for patients.Dr. Mark Allen
Doctor
Dr. Mark Allen’s mission is to create a world where, as we age, our bodies stay young and vibrant. He is a medical doctor, inventor, entrepreneur and business executive, with experience leading organizations from inception to profitable growth to successful exit. Dr. Allen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Elevian, a Harvard spinout developing medicines to cure aging. Elevian’s scientific founders, working at Harvard University, discovered natural proteins that regulate aging. One example, GDF11, a “young blood” factor, broadly stimulates repair of age-related damage. When provided to aging animals, GDF11 stimulates regeneration of heart, brain, muscle and other tissues, reversing age-related diseases. These discoveries were recognized as a top science breakthrough. Dr. Allen leads a team of amazing Harvard scientists and drug development experts commercializing these amazing discoveries.Dr. Nathan Szajnberg
Child Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst
Born in Germany and raised in the US, Dr. Szajnberg attended college and medical school at the University of Chicago. He was the Freud Professor of Psychoanalysis at the Hebrew University and is the author of several books on development, as well as a recent novel, Jerusaland: An Insignificant Death. Dr. Szajnberg is in private practice in Palo Alto.Grand Tapestry
Band
Rap has gone global, but there are still a few instances where the realms of rap and world music meet. Marrying hip-hop with classical Indian music, the newly formed group Grand Tapestry, bridges that gap. The group features Eligh, an independent hip-hop artist known for genre experimentation; Alam Khan on the 25-stringed fretless instrument called the sarod; and Salar Nader on the Indian drum known as the tabla.Idit Sagiv-Barfi, PhD
Instructor of Medicine
Idit earned her B.Sc. in Life Sciences from the Hebrew University Jerusalem in 2004. She continued her studies at Hebrew University, receiving her M.Sc. and Ph.D in Structural and Molecular Biochemistry, under the supervision of Prof. Alexander Levitzki. Since 2012, Idit has conducted research in the field of Immunology/Oncology at Stanford School of Medicine, under the supervision of Prof. Ronald Levy, first as a post-doctoral scholar and now as Instructor of Medicine. She focuses on finding ways to stimulate the body’s immune system to fight and eradicate cancer cells.Ivan Orkin
Chef
Ivan Orkin's journey began with a dishwashing job at a sushi bar when he was 15. He discovered a culture and cuisine that would shape the rest of his life. Upon graduation from high school, Ivan decided to major in Japanese language and literature at the University of Colorado, Boulder. After graduating, Ivan immediately moved to Japan to teach English and quickly cemented his love of everything Japanese. He returned to the US in 1990 and enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America, beginning his culinary training.Upon graduation from the CIA, and after stints at Mesa Grill, Lutece and Restaurant Associates, Ivan returned to Tokyo to live in the country that he fell in love with. He had not yet given thought to combining his love for cooking and Japan, but that was soon to change. He thought about opening a cooking school, a sandwich shop, even a pizzeria. It was his wife’s suggestion that he open a ramen shop. Ivan Ramen, opened on New York’s Lower East Side.Lauren Weinstein
Lecturer
Lauren Weinstein is a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, teaching one of the most popular classes there—The Essentials of Strategic Communication. In addition to her work at the Business School, she has served as a guest lecturer and skills coach for Stanford Law School, the Stanford undergraduate program and the Stanford d.school. In addition to her work at Stanford, Lauren is the founder of Resonate Coaching. As the principal at Resonate, Lauren works with clients ranging from TED speakers to start-up founders to high-level executives, helping them achieve more powerful public speaking and interpersonal communication skills. Prior to her current work, Lauren served as a communication strategist for high level teams at Fortune 500 companies and worked with Santa Clara County in their mediation and communication skills training program. Lauren received her J.D. from Stanford Law School and her B.A. in psychology from Stanford University.Marilyn Yalom, PhD
Author
Marilyn Yalom grew up in Washington D.C. and was educated at Wellesley College, the Sorbonne, Harvard and Johns Hopkins. She has been married to the psychiatrist Irvin Yalom for more than sixty years and is the mother of four children and the grandmother of eight. In 1991 Marilyn was decorated as an Officier des Palmes Académiques by the French Government. She has been a professor of French and comparative literature, director of an institute for research on women, a popular speaker on the lecture circuit, and the author of numerous books and articles on literature and women's history. Her books have been translated into 20 languages.Matt Abrahams
Author and Lecturer
Matt Abrahams is a passionate, collaborative and innovative educator, author and coach. At Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, Matt teaches popular courses in Strategic Communication and Effective Virtual Presenting. He is also Co-Founder and Principal at Bold Echo Communications Solutions, a presentation and communication skills company based in Silicon Valley. Matt recently published the third edition of Speaking Up Without Freaking Out, a book written to help those wishing to be more confident and compelling communicators. Prior to teaching, Matt held senior leadership positions at several software companies, where he created and ran global learning and development organizations. When not teaching and coaching, Matt enjoys spending time with his family, hiking, martial arts and eating dessert.Nachito Herrera
Pianist
Nachito Herrera is one of the world’s great Cuban pianists. He blends jaw-dropping technique and rich, powerful soulfulness in an amazing display of musical power and emotion. Herrera received a nod from the state of Minnesota in 2014 when he was named an Immigrant of Distinction, and an American Heritage Award from the American Immigration Council, one of three musicians in 2012 (along with Australian Tommy Emmanuel and South Korean Yura Lee) to receive this prestigious prize. (The last Latin musician to receive the honor was Carlos Santana.) Although he has been residing in Minnesota for the past few years, Nachito's renown is growing. He has played multiple times at the preeminent piano festival in North America, the Gilmore Festival. In 2011 Herrera was part of a 40-city tour of American performing arts centers and theaters as the pianist in the Afro-Cuban All Stars.Pam Costa
Relationship Coach
After a decade-and-a-half at Apple and Facebook, Pam left her career in high tech to found Down To There to share her real-life stories of challenges and successes around sexuality in her marriage. Through her writing, speaking and coaching, she hopes to inspire individuals and couples to find ways to renew and deepen desire and intimacy in their own relationships. Pam is also passionate about raising awareness within the medical and mental health communities about the positive impact of peer support on female sexual health, recently presenting her research on this topic at the 2018 International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health conference.Prof. Dan Siciliano
Professor
F. Daniel Siciliano is a Co-Director of Stanford’s Directors’ College, Co-Chair of the We Robot Conference on AI/Robotics, Law, and Policy, and is the immediate past faculty director of the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University. Along with Joe Grundfest, Larry Kramer and Rob Daines, he co-founded the Rock Center in 2006 and, as a Professor of the Practice and Associate Dean at Stanford Law School, led the Center until 2017. His teaching includes finance, corporate governance, and the two-part Stanford venture capital series. His work has included expert testimony in front of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives and for 2009, 2010 and 2011, alongside leading academics and business leaders such as Ben Bernanke, Paul Krugman and Carl Icahn, Professor Siciliano was named to the “Directorship 100”—a list of the most influential people in corporate governance.Syncopated Ladies
Dance Group
Syncopated Ladies is a female tap dance band from Los Angeles, widely known for viral videos that have been Beyoncé-approved and accumulated over 50 million views. They were featured on So You Think You Can Dance—Season 11 as the winner of the First Crew Battle. Syncopated Ladies was created by critically acclaimed tap dancer and choreographer, Chloé Arnold, who was discovered at an early age in Washington, DC by legendary choreographer Debbie Allen. Now a leading lady of tap, Chloé has performed on stages around the globe and her choreography has been featured on hit television shows such as So You Think You Can Dance, Good Morning America, The Talk and over 20 episodes of The Late Late Show With James Corden, as well as national commercials/print campaigns for brands such as Special K & Macy’s.Organizing team
