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).

Ashbury College Theatre
362 Mariposa Avenue, Rockcliffe
Ottawa, Ontario, K1M 0T3
Canada

Adam Dodek

Dean of the Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa

Taken from uOttawa website: Professor Dodek graduated from McGill University and Harvard Law School and then received a Fulbright Scholarship to research Israeli constitutional law while clerking for the Supreme Court of Israel. Professor Dodek joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa in 2008. He has taught Public Law, Constitutional Law, Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Torts, and a seminar on the Supreme Court of Canada. He is a founding member of the Faculty's Public Law Group and the co-founder of the Legal Writing Academy. He created and directed the Cavanagh LLP Professionalism Speaker Series which is the first and only speaker series in Canada dedicated to issues of ethics and professionalism. It is accredited by the Law Society of Upper Canada as an approved provider of Ethics and Professionalism CPD.

Ariel Lyons

Local Artist

Ariel Lyons has recently moved to Ottawa from Lambton County (Petrolia) and look forward to becoming involved in the artistic community in Ottawa. She taught Art at the High School level and also at Lambton College during 1970-2002. She is an avid participant in painting Workshops in Canada, Barbados and art travel groups to Europe and USA. She is currently a part of the Golden Art Educator Program for GOLDEN.

Carlisle Adams

Associate Director of Computer Science and Professor at the University of Ottawa

Prior to Dr. Carlisle Adam's appointment at the University of Ottawa, he worked for 13 years in cryptography and security engineering in the high-tech industry in Ottawa, Canada. He was a Senior Cryptographer at Nortel Secure Networks, the business unit within Nortel that spun out to form Entrust, Inc. At Entrust, he held the positions of Senior Cryptographer, Senior Manager - Standards Program, and Principal Architect - Advanced Security.

Courtney Symons

Lead Writer at Shopify

Courtney Symons is currently the lead writer at Shopify, a Canadian e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. She was previously a journalist covering technology and business news. She has led the Shopify Partner digital marketing team in Ottawa and launched the Shopify Web Design & Development Blog. She also created various pieces of content including guide books, webinars, and the Grow book series. She has extensive experiences interviewing, reporting, writing, researching, editing and using social media. She is also the author of Once, and We Were Stolen.

Daniel Coutu

Research Chair, Regenerative Orthopedic Surgery, The Ottawa Hospital

The focus of Dr. Daniel Coutu's research at Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and uOttawa is to study the biology of skeletal stem cells in an attempt to bring novel therapies to patients suffering from debilitating conditions with unmet clinical needs.

Jen Oliver

Founder and CEO of FitMama

Jen Oliver is an alumina from Ashbury College. Jen Oliver created the FitMama personal training and group coaching movement based on years of experience in the fitness industry where she helped thousands of people lose weight, get stronger and change their lives. She saw a need for more education on safe exercise practices during pregnancy and post-partum to avoid the often debilitating consequences of unsafe exercises that are all too common (crunches). As a trainer, nutritionist, coach and mom herself, Jen knows what it takes to strengthen the body from the inside out.

Jeremy Dias

Founder and Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity

From the CCGSD website: After coming out in high school, Jeremy faced extreme cases of discrimination by students & school officials. At 17, he began a legal case against his school and school board, and at 21 won Canada’s second largest human rights settlement. He has completed a degree in Psychology and Political Science at the University of Ottawa, continues to volunteer for a number of organizations including: the Federal Minister of Status of Women’s Gender Based Violence Prevention Advisory Committee; the Federal Minister of Health’s STBBI Partner Organizing Network; the Ontario Human Rights Community Advisory Group; the TD Scholarship for Community Leaders Selection Committee; Member of the National Advisory Committee for the Canada Booth at the World AIDS 2018 Conference, and the Ottawa Police Liaison Committee.

Jing Duo Gao

Grade 11 student at Ashbury College

Jing Duo is the founder of "Idea Club" at Ashbury College. With his experiences of making creative ideas into realities, he has a few things to say about creativity and Artificial Intelligence.

Kamal Balaa

Grade 6 student at Ashbury College

As a member of the school environmental club, Kamal Balaa is eager to share his knowledge on environmental conservation. He has had multiple public speaking experiences and he would love to share with you the importance of environmental conservation and his ways of conserving water and the environment.

Maryam Balaa

Grade 6 student at Ashbury College

Maryam Balaa is no stranger to speaking and voicing her opinions. She has won the 2018 public speaking contest for Grades 4,5 and 6 and she wishes to deliver her thoughts on issues regarding the gender wage gap in Canada.

Nic Gauthier

Grade 11 student at Ashbury College

As a teenager and a high school student, Nic is no stranger to the world of "memes". His passion for memes allows him to examine this communication platform through multiple perspectives in our society today.

Pippa Kolking

Grade 11 student at Ashbury College

Pippa is a student at Ashbury College. She wishes to make an impression so that people learn and give an effort to re-evaluate their life, change how they consume products and dispose of their waste.

Wei Li

Senior Investigator at the National Institutes of Health

Dr. Li received his medical degree in 1997 from Zhejiang University School of Medicine in China and his Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 2003 from the University of Texas at Houston where he studied the organization of reciprocal feedback synapse at the axon terminal of the retinal bipolar cell in Dr. Stephen Massey's laboratory. From 2003 to 2007, as a postdoctoral fellow, he worked with Dr. Steven DeVries at Northwestern University where he investigated synaptic connections between photoreceptors and bipolar neurons in a mammalian retina. Dr. Li joined NEI as the principal investigator of the Unit on Retinal Neurophysiology in 2007. His unit uses a variety of physiological and anatomical techniques to explore retinal synapses and circuits and their functions in vision.