Theme: Why People Say YES or NO

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).

Rise NYC
43 West 23rd Street
New York, New York, 10010
United States

Alicia Syrett

Startup Investor

Founder/CEO of Pantegrion Capital and The Point 25 Initiative. CNBC Power Pitch and MSNBC Your Business Regular. Contributor for Inc. Instructor at Columbia University. Board of the NY Tech Alliance. Ms. Syrett was named as one of the “25 Angel Investors in New York You Need to Know” by AlleyWatch, one of Wharton’s “40 Under 40” young alumni by Wharton Magazine, and one of Virgin’s “Five Next Generation Leaders Emerging from Tech.” She has been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, Inc., The Huffington Post, Mashable, Entrepreneur, NPR’s Marketplace, and USA Today. She has also appeared on CNBC’s Make Me a Millionaire Inventor and Cash Crowd, Nightly Business Report (NBR) on PBS, and Fox Business’s Risk & Reward. She founded The Point 25 Initiative and also wrote a Guide for Entrepreneurs for #MentHERnyc, an event she co-founded.

Christopher Hadnagy

Human Hacker

Christopher Hadnagy, is the founder and CEO of Social-Engineer, LLC. Chris possesses over 16 years experience as a practitioner and researcher in the security field. His efforts in education and awareness have helped to expose social engineering as a top threat to security today. Chris established the world’s first social engineering penetration testing framework at social-engineer.org, as well as the first hands-on social engineering training course and certification, Advanced Practical Social Engineering, attended by law enforcement, military, and private sector professionals. Chris is also the best-selling author of three books; Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking, Unmasking the Social Engineer: The Human Element of Security and Phishing Dark Waters: The Offensive and Defensive Sides of Malicious Emails. Chris has been invited to the Pentagon to debrief 30+ general officers and government officials on social engineering and its effect on the United States.

Dennis Kneale

Media Strategist

For three decades, Kneale has been a journalist and media relations strategist. Formerly with FOX Business Network (FBN) and CNBC, Kneale was previously a managing editor at Forbes Magazine where he most notably covered corporate corruption, including the trials of Martha Stewart, Dennis Kozlowski, Bernie Ebbers. While there, he also oversaw business coverage including the Internet boom, bust and rebuild; corporate scandals and investor fallout; the backlash against the drug industry amid drug recalls and soaring costs; and the rise of Google. Kneale joined Forbes in 1998 to expand its coverage of technology, media and health. Prior to his role at Forbes, Kneale spent 16 years at The Wall Street Journal where he was a senior editor, directing much of the coverage of new AIDS treatments, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997. He started at the Journal in 1982 initially covered advertising, technology and media before becoming an editor in 1990.

Denny Daniel

Technology Historian

Denny Daniel is the curator and founder of The Museum of Interesting Things — a traveling interactive demonstration/exhibition of antiques and inventions that goes to schools and events and inspires kids and adults to be curious and to tinker. The recession that disillusioned so many ironically spurred Denny into a buying frenzy of various interesting things for his newest vision, The Museum of Interesting Things. The epiphany that inspired the museum is two fold: one at Shea Stadium, and one with a neighbor’s son. A 1904 Thomas Edison Cylinder phonograph arrived at Denny’s apartment with a large curved horn. A neighbor’s child, Enoch, enjoyed postulating various methods to assemble it until he figured out how to put it together and make it work. That was when Denny realized he needed to put the things he owned to work inspiring people to invent and innovate.

Gene Dolgoff

Holography Pioneer

Mr. Dolgoff is best known as the man who invented the LCD projector. However, for science-fiction fans, he is known as the man who conceived of the Star Trek Holodeck and got it added into the Star Trek shows. As a good friend of science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, he was introduced to Arthur C. Clarke and had the opportunity to influence his science fiction writing. He has decades of experience in Coherent Optics, 3-D Imaging, computer programming, and brain and neural processing science. Gene built the first holography laboratory in New York City in 1964 where he invented holographic transfer printing, used for security on credit cards, before founding Projectavision, Inc., the world’s first digital projector company, in 1988, raising $20 million (listed on NASDAQ in 1990), and starting the multi-billion dollar digital projection industry, where he worked on the development of the U.S. HDTV system standard.

Hawk Newsome

Human Rights Activist

HAWK NEWSOME is an activist at the forefront of the New Civil Rights Movement and former County Committee Member of New York’s District 79. He has dedicated his adult life to the betterment of his community & our nation as a whole. After graduating from Concordia College, Hawk worked for the Honorable Robert T. Johnson at the Bronx County Office of the District Attorney, as a paralegal assisting to prosecute crime. Hawk was then promoted to the position of Special Projects Coordinator. As the DA’s liaison to the community, he worked with N.Y.C.H.A tenants’ associations and social service organizations throughout the Bronx. Throughout his life Hawk has engaged in protests and activities to combat injustice. Over the past few years, he has worked tirelessly leading protests and seeking justice for the families of those slain by overzealous police officers. In 2013, Hawk joined the Justice League NYC and has engaged in their national campaign to fix the broken criminal justice system.

Kobi Wu

Mobile Advertiser

Kobi is the founder and CEO of VisuWall Technologies. VisuWall is a physical to mobile ad platform that leverages vacant storefront windows and turns them into smart billboards with computer vision and mobile proximity technologies, allowing advertisers to connect directly with consumers as they move along their journey. A former ad agency executive Kobi has led creative and revenue strategies spanning sectors in media, technology, entertainment, sports, fashion, footwear and consumer packaged goods.

Lance Pendleton

Relationship Strategist

As Head of Agent Development for Compass, Lance disrupts traditional approaches to real estate, creating, envisioning, building and training on next-generation tools for the company, its agents and their clients. Lance specializes in the psychology of human behavior within a sales environment with a focus on developing business professionals who can humanize relationships and anticipate a client's needs. His mission is to drive solutions that impact business and industry segments to deliver new growth opportunities and cultivate and commercialize market breakthroughs. Lance Pendleton’s programs integrate next-generation skills with real-life situations to help correlate between business success and interpersonal relationships; all focused on unique client experiences. Formerly the Chief Innovation Officer for the largest Sotheby’s realty affiliate in the world, Lance brings over 15 years of experience from a background including three Fortune 500 companies, including Apple.

Layne Braunstein

Creative Director

Layne is an award-winning creative and futurist, known for his focus on experimental design and post-digital storytelling. As co-founder and CCO at Fake Love, now a New York Times company, Layne leads the conceptual creative practice. He helps to set the vision and tone for clients, defining a platform and overseeing all the cross-media execution. Layne has led groundbreaking global campaigns for brands such as Google, Levis, Microsoft, Virgin, Amex, M·A·C, Air Force, Marc Jacobs, Bacardi, Lexus, Coke, MTV, Samsung, Heineken, Universal, Acura, VICE, The New York Times, and Nike. Layne’s company Fake Love is the recent recipient of the Adage Small Agency of the Year NE and has become part of the Inc. 5000. Other awards include the 2016 Gold Clio for Experiential in Music, 7 Cannes Lions, including a Cannes Lion Grand Prix; as well as a Golden Pencil One Show award and some more Clios.

Morgan Weidinger

Performing Artist

Combining her passion for songwriting, arranging, and performing, Morgan revels in a melodic strain of funk-pop. She is a St. Louis-native violinist, guitarist, vocalist, live loop-ist. Morgan attended Berklee College of Music on a 4-year, full-tuition scholarship, graduating in 2017. Five months later she released her debut album, Fairchild. From February - July 2018 she established herself in Manhattan's East Village, performing a weekly residency every Thursday night at Speakeasy Sessions. She is daily working towards a career filled with energy that propels her music: stages, sound, traveling.

Paolo Gaudiano

Diversity Consultant

Paolo Gaudiano, PhD, is Founder and CEO of Aleria, a cloud-based platform that helps organizations plan, execute and measure the impact of Diversity & Inclusion initiatives. He is also the Executive Director of Quantitative Studies of Diversity and Inclusion (QSDI) at the City College of New York. Paolo began his career in academia at Boston University in 1991, where he reached the level of tenured Associate Professor, teaching and doing research on computational neuroscience, robotics and machine learning. In 1999 he became Chief Scientist of Artificial Life, a company that applied machine learning to a variety of Internet usage and navigation problems. In 2001 Paolo joined Icosystem Corporation, the applied R&D company from which Aleria was spun out in 2017. In his role as President and CTO, Paolo oversaw strategy, business development, research and software efforts to solve complex business and technology problems for leading corporations, government agencies, and foundations.

Peter Jorgensen

Corporate Investor

Peter Votkjaer Jorgensen is a Venture Partner in Maersk Growth, leading the efforts within the Fight Food Waste investment domain. Maersk Growth partners with and invests in ventures with the potential of creating exponential growth within transport and logistics and defining the future of trade. Peter has spent more than 20 years within the shipping and logistics industry, joining the Maersk Group after gaining his Master’s Degree in Business Administration and Business Law in 1996. The majority of Peter’s career has been within Corporate Finance, M&A and Commercial Business Development – with more than USD 3Bn invested in infrastructure in developed and emerging markets over the last 15 years, and in his leadership positions he has driven change and inspired teams across Africa, Middle East, Europe and Asia. After 16 years abroad, living in 3 countries and working on projects in +30 countries, Peter returned to his native Denmark to take up the Venture Partner role in Maersk Growth.

Robert Galinsky

Poet Playwright

Galinsky is an NYC poet, town crier, agitator and master improvisor. Current highlight? He is teaching his new initiative “the Power of Performance and Personality: tPOPP” to incarcerated youth at Rikers Island & in prisons throughout NY State, in conjunction with Literacy for Incarcerated Teens.

Rogue Fong

Experiential Artist

Rogue Fong is an XR Developer and Installation Artist based in New York City. She is scheduled to graduate NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in Spring 2018, where her concentration is in Architecting Virtual Spaces and Interactive Narratives. With a background in computer science, fine art, narrative and game design, Rogue is interested in the intersection between technology, art, physicality, and human communication and interaction.

Svetlana Kouznetsova

Accessibility Expert

Svetlana Kouznetsova (Sveta) is a NYC-based user experience and accessibility consultant helping businesses make their products and services user-friendly and accessible to more people. Sveta works with business owners, media producers, corporations, educational institutions, event organizers. She has an MS in Internet Technology, several advanced certifications, and project experience with national/international organizations and non-profit/educational institutions. Sveta is also a founder of Audio Accessibility and provides consulting and training to businesses to help them improve quality captioning and other types of communication access to their audio, podcasts, videos, events in order to reach a wider audience. Sveta is an experienced speaker and author of a book, “Sound Is Not Enough: Captioning as Universal Design.” You can follow her on Twitter via @svknyc and @audio_a11y and check out her website for more information.

Taliesin Thomas

Aesthetics Enthusiast

Taliesin Thomas was first involved with the dynamic art world during her undergraduate days at Bennington College. She has worked in the field of contemporary Chinese art after living two years in rural China (1999-2001). Since 2007 she is the founding director of AW Asia, a private arts organization that promotes the field of contemporary Chinese art through institutional loans, museum acquisitions, curatorial projects, and publishing. She is simultaneously the manager of a private art collection. Thomas has lectured widely on contemporary Chinese art, and she has published in ARTPULSE magazine, Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (JCCA), and ArtAsiaPacific magazine. Thomas holds an M.A. in East Asian Studies from Columbia University and she is a Ph.D. candidate in Art Theory and Philosophy with the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts concurrent with her professional role in the art world.