Theme: Past, Present, Future

300 years of San Antonio history. Living in the now. Charting our own destiny.

TEDxSanAntonio presents its 2018 Main Event: Past, Present, Future.

For the first time ever, our annual Main Event will be in downtown San Antonio at the beautiful, historic Charline McCombs Empire Theatre.

We heard community feedback about the length of previous events, so this year we will be featuring a half-day program. A tentative schedule is below.

We'll still have live TED-style talks from local leaders and global experts, in addition to visiting our favorite recorded TED talks. We'll also still have networking opportunities with the speakers and other attendees at our exclusive after party.

We also heard community feedback about the cost of attending, so we have lowered ticket prices! Early Bird pricing is available through Wednesday, September 12.

Our speaker and performer line-up will be announced in early September, but you should act NOW to lock in the lowest ticket prices possible!

The schedule (subject to change):

1pm - Registration

2pm - Act I

3:45pm - Break

4:30pm - Act II

6-8pm - After Party @ TBA

Charline McCombs Empire Theatre
226 N. St. Mary's St.
San Antonio, Texas, 78205
United States

Aristides Jimenez

Evil is out there, ready to show its ugly face either as a car plowing into a crowd, a deranged individual stabbing innocent bystander, or an active shooter. These tragedies are becoming more frequent and more vicious. With no warning, are we prepared to seek survival through these violent events? Learn how to develop a survivor mindset. Deputy Chief Aristides “Harry” Jimenez serves as the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office Chief of the Community Readiness and Intelligence Division responsible for the Intelligence support of the Criminal Gang and Transnational Criminal Organizations Investigations Unit. Additionally, Chief Jimenez is responsible for the Court Security Services Unit overseeing the safety and security of judges and magistrates in six different buildings and more than three million visitors annually. Chief Jimenez is a Certified Instructor of the Texas State University Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) and a 31 years law enforcement veteran who have held numerous leadership positions in law enforcement during his career. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://TED.com/tedx

Doug Stevenson

How do you talk to someone who is intolerant of people who are different or who hold different beliefs and opinions than your own? How do you have a conversation with someone who is so rigid in their beliefs that they can’t see beyond their anger? How do you persuade them to listen to reason? What a shock it is to realize that the very act of sitting in judgement of bigots, makes you a bigot. You are what you hate. Doug Stevenson, CSP, is the CEO of Story Theater International, based in Tucson, Arizona. He is the creator of The Story Theater Method and a master storyteller and storytelling keynote speaker, trainer and coach. Doug has taught storytelling for business success to a diverse group of clients that include Google, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Caterpillar, Pfizer, among many others. After several decades of working as a professional actor, he began teaching The Story Theater Method in 1996, and since that time has helped tens of thousands of business professionals and hundreds of companies and associations in 16 countries to find, craft and tell their compelling stories. Doug is an avid runner, a Gluten free pizza lover and a happy grandpa. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://TED.com/tedx

Gary Sweeney

A house is like a pictorial frame delimiting the lives lived within it, littered by the details of experience and age as the years pass. As city landscapes succumb to an ever-growing suburban development, humble homes that harken to a bygone era face the demise of increasing real estate values. For most people, bidding farewell to the dwelling they grew up in is bittersweet. One artist found solace grieving the loss of his modest beachside family home the only way he knew how. Gary Sweeney appropriates commercial signage, his family photo archive, and found objects to create paintings, sculptures, and installations that humorously confront cultural topics and nostalgia. In his text-based compositions, he often uses linguistic puzzles and famous quotations to question the progress of society. The artist questions the patterns of social Darwinism and exposes the discrepancies and contradictions in current governmental, economic, and social milieux. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://TED.com/tedx

Jennifer Potter

The opioid crisis rose to prominence at a shocking rate. And the trail of destruction left in its wake has damaged relationships, families, and communities. With more than 72,000 Americans dying from drug overdoses and 2.4 million struggling with opioid addiction, there is no time to lose in addressing this epidemic. We need to take an honest look at how we got to this point and what we can do to stop it. Jennifer Sharpe Potter, Ph.D., M.P.H., is Professorin the Department of Psychiatry and ViceDean for Research at the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio. Dr. Potter is a national expert in opioid use and opioid use disorder. Her research focuses on the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders, with emphasison opioid use disorders and chronic pain in civilian and military populations.Dr. Potter served as the National Project Director for the CTN Prescription Opioid Addiction Treatment Study (POATS), the largest multisite clinical trial conducted to examine treatment of prescription opioid dependence. She is the San Antonio Site principal investigator and a co-investigator with the Texas Node of the NIDA National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://TED.com/tedx

Jose Bañuelos

San Antonio's film history dates back to the earliest days of United States film history, in fact, the first ever Oscar for Best Picture went to a film shot in San Antonio, "Wings". Understand the outstanding contributions San Antonio has made to film history over the last 100 years and get a sense for what the future holds. Jose Bañuelos is Chairman of the San Antonio Film Institute. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://TED.com/tedx

Joseph A. Smarro

Studies support the fact that one in four or one in five adults living in the US qualify for a mental health diagnosis. If 20-25% of adults qualify for a mental illness, we must accept the idea that we encounter people in this group, every day. In jobs, schools, homes, hobbies, churches, social activities, etc. We know people are typically reluctant to change within any organizations, but if we can successfully nudge a cultural shift within a vast law enforcement agency, there is hope for any company or corporation. If we stop focusing on how frustrating or broken any system may be and individually own our portion, proven progress can be made in the right direction. Joseph A. Smarro, Chief Executive Officer of SolutionPoint+ LLC and United States Marine Corps Veteran, became one of the original members of the San Antonio Police Department’s Mental Health Unit in 2009, helping the unit become one of the most nationally recognized police programs in the nation. During his nine years working on the Mental Health Unit, he has dealt with some of the most severe cases of individuals suffering from a mental health crisis, saving countless lives. He will be headlining an upcoming full-feature documentary coming out in 2019. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://TED.com/tedx

Luke Horgan

For nearly two decades, Luke Horgan has helped to position brands and driven profit by leveraging the power of data insights. Luke honed his skills through several earlier roles with increasing responsibility across Wall Street trading firms, HBO and USAA. He also founded two web design and data management agencies at the beginning of his career, and earned multiple degrees in computer programming, psychology and business. Luke is also a decorated USAF veteran who regularly volunteers his time with small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs throughout San Antonio evangelizing the people side of data. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://TED.com/tedx

Melissa Guerra

Melissa Guerra is an 8th generation Texan, born and raised on a working cattle ranch in South Texas. She is a self taught culinary expert and food historian, specializing in the food ways of the American continent, especially Texas regional, Mexican, and Latin American cuisine. Melissa Guerra is a member of Les Dames d Escoffier, a founding board member of Foodways Texas, and a member of The Culinary Institute of America Latin Cuisines Advisory Council Executive Committee. Guerra has taught food history at the Culinary Institute of Americas in San Antonio Texas and maintains a blog about food history of the Americas and living on the Texas/Tamaulipas border. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://TED.com/tedx

Natalie Hinkel

Thousands of planets have been discovered outside of our Solar System, and with each one, there is a chance that it could be habitable or inhabited. However, everything has to be "just right" on the planet in order for carbon-based life to thrive. I will discuss the various properties that are required for life on another planet, the definition of "habitability" and how it's expanding, the statistics of finding an Earth-like planet, and what scientists are doing about it now. Dr. Natalie Hinkel a planetary astrophysicist at the Southwest Research Institute. She studies the composition of nearby stars and how that may affect the make-up of orbiting planets. She analyzes real exoplanets like the TRAPPIST-1 system, exotic systems where planets orbit two stars, fake exoplanets, machine learning algorithms, and what life would be like on an exo-moon. She has put together the largest catalog of element abundances measured in stars near to the Sun, called the Hypatia Catalog which contains 72 elements in ~6200 stars. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://TED.com/tedx

Zach Altman

Nineteen-year-old Basketball Referee Zach Altman was no stranger to the uniformed lectures and snide remarks that came along with his job on the court. What he initially interpreted as seemingly innocent comments from overzealous parents and coaches, quickly escalated into physical confrontations towards him and his colleagues. Young enough to have an unwavering passion for the game but old enough to realize when there is a problem, Altman set out on a course to find a solution. His endearing talk provides both a witty and a sobering look into to the growing epidemic of referee abuse and what can be done to improve the entire culture of youth sports. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://TED.com/tedx