Theme: "PRESS PAUSE"

TEDxChicago is an interactive, engaging, and unique conference where you can come together to have a TED-like experience in Chicago. We will have 10 live speakers, 2 performers, and so much much more. See you there!

Venue SIX10 at Spertus Institute
610 S Michigan Ave
Chicago, Illinois, 60605
United States

Cyril Rabbath

Professional Juggler

Cyril Rabbath is a professional juggler. Since 1994, he has toured all over the world with the Cirque du Soleil and other shows. He has won a dozen International Circus Festival Awards. Cyril’s one-man-show "Dancing with Gravity" combines storytelling and performance. His podcast of the same name explores in depth the life of a juggler.

John Mak

Social entrepreneur

John Mak is a social entrepreneur and an Obama Foundation Scholar at The University of Chicago. He co-founded a social venture in Myanmar, Southeast Asia that transforms community development and civic engagement channels via crowdsourcing technology.

Lola Wright

Lola Wright is the CEO & Spiritual Director of Bodhi Center

Lola Wright is a fierce and loving community leader supporting individual transformation in the service of collective awakening. She is CEO & Spiritual Director of Bodhi Center, a global center for consciousness, engaging change agents and explorers in Chicago and around the world and also a wild and passionate mom of four

Michelle Blaise

Senior Vice President of Technical Services at Commonwealth Edison Company

Michelle Blaise is the Chief Engineer for Commonwealth Edison, the electric utility providing power to 4 million customers over 11,429 square miles in Northern Illinois. She leads efforts to make the grid more reliable, resilient and sustainable for all.

Nikhil Verma

Director of Sports Medicine, Midwest Orthopedics at Rush

Dr. Nikhil Verma, Director of Sports Medicine, Midwest Orthopedics at Rush, serves as Team Physician for the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls. Dr. Verma runs a busy clinical practice in Chicago and recently received funding for his sports medicine research from Major League Baseball. He is a father of three young sons.

Olivia Porter

Speech pathologist and communications consultant

Olivia Porter is a speech pathologist and communications consultant who has traveled around the country facilitating high energy, interactive workshops such as Communicating with Confidence and Negotiation. In her spare time, Olivia teaches ESL and coaches children competing in oratorical competitions.

Richard Baron

leads the American Board of Internal Medicine

For almost 30 years Dr. Richard Baron cared for friends and neighbors in his Philadelphia community, leaving clinical practice to work in Washington improving care models for primary practice across the country. He currently leads the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Ryan Crane

CEO, Tempo

Ryan Crane is a cannabis entrepreneur with a background in neuroscience and a passion for performance optimization. He is the founder of Chicago-based beverage brands Tukan and Tempo, companies that are re-thinking the way we fuel our bodies every day.

Sandra Matz

Professor Columbia University

Professor Sandra Matz of Columbia University is an expert in the field of Big Data and computational social science. She studies the relationships between people’s digital footprints (e.g., their Facebook profiles) and their psychological characteristics and preferences

Shahd Asaly

CEO and Founder of Blue Meets Blue

Shahd Asaly is the CEO and Founder of Blue Meets Blue, a humanitarian luxury clothing label headquartered in Chicago. She founded Blue Meets Blue to serve as a platform for refugees emigrating to the United States in the wake of the largest refugee crisis since World War II.

Shala Akintunde

Social impact artist

Shala is a Nigerian social impact artist and pioneer in the emerging medium of Solar Art, a practice that merges art and technology. He is lauded for Shala’s Bronzeville Solar Pyramid, a sculpture that generates photovoltaic electricity using his unique art-rendered solar giclees. His Chicago landmark is the first public sculpture of its kind.

Spencer Ludwig

Artist

Spencer Ludwig is a fashion-forward and confident pop maverick who rocks the stage with seismic vocal range, contagiously sexy dance moves and wonderful, wild, and wailing solos—on the trumpet. That’s the Spencer Ludwig experience.