WHAT IF?
These two simple words have led to the discovery of continents, the splitting of the atom, novels, paintings and even the phone in your pocket. They’ve started revolutions, launched crusades and built space stations. “What if?” is the seed for every step of progress, every two steps back and even the occasional giant leap for mankind.
“What if?” looks at the world with a fresh perspective, and that’s what TED is all about. Today it’s not about finding better answers, it’s about asking better questions.
W HAT IF THI s
progr A m gu I de WA s I n T er A c TI ve?
The pages of this guide are just the beginning. Every speaker and performer photo contains a digital watermark that leads to a more in-depth digital experience. Learn about a speaker, or place a bid on a piece of art.
Simply go to the iTunes app store or Google Play, download the free Digimarc® Discover app and use it. Enjoy.
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Masataka Odaka (performer)
Asia Greene (performer)
Kate Bingaman-Burt
Jonathan Krisel
TED.com (video)
Ben Huh
Mike Thelin
TED.com (video)
Brian Faherty
Di-Ann Eisnor
Brian Grant
Dr. Laurie Marker R
TED.com (video)
Kimberly Howard Naomi Pomeroy
The Royal Blues (performer)
TED.com (video)
Guido Rahr
Tom Brokaw
Denver (performer)
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Dream big. s trive to create the best talk you have ever given. Reveal something never seen before. Do something the audience will remember forever. s hare an idea that could change the world. s how us the real you. s hare your passions, your dreams . . . and also your fears. Be vulnerable. s peak of failure as well as success.
Make the complex plain. Don’t try to dazzle intellectually. Don’t speak in abstractions. Explain! Give examples. Tell stories. Be specific. c onnect with people’s emotions. Make us laugh! Make us cry! Don’t flaunt your ego. Don’t boast. It’s the surest way to switch everyone off.
No selling from the stage! u nless we have specifically asked you to, do not talk about your company or organization. And don’t even think about pitching your products or services or asking for funding from the stage.
Feel free to comment on other speakers’ talks, to praise or to criticize. c ontroversy energizes! Enthusiastic endorsement is powerful!
Don’t read your talk. Notes are fine. But if the choice is between reading or rambling, then read!
End your talk on time. Doing otherwise is to steal time from the people who follow you. We won’t allow it.
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Rehearse your talk in front of a trusted friend. For timing, for clarity, for impact.
WEL c OME TO
What if Portland were Boston? In 1845, Francis Pettygrove and Asa Lovejoy disagreed about the name of their new city—Lovejoy preferred Boston, Oregon, while Pettygrove was partial to Portland, Oregon. With the flip of a coin, Pettygrove won the right to choose, and the rest is history.
Today, Portland is a city filled with over 2 million inventive, creative and environmentally friendly coffee lovers and beer drinkers who never stop asking “What if?” Like, what if Portland weren't home to both the smallest and one of the largest city parks in the world? Or, what if I grew an ironic mustache? Or, what if Portland didn’t support funky local businesses? And what if Portland weren't one of the greenest cities in the United States?
Home to so many great things, we welcome you to the city of “What if?”
Illustrator / Author / Educator
Kate Bingaman-Burt is an illustrator and educator. As an artist she’s been creating work about consumption since 2002, teaching since 2004 and drawing since 2006. Her first book, Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today? , was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010. she lives in Portland, where she’s an assistant professor of graphic design at Portland state university. Her work is represented by Jen Bekman in New york city. Recent clients include IDEO, Etsy, the New York Times the MoMA and Hallmark.
Writer / Producer
Jonathan Krisel is a grad of N yu ’s Film s chool where he was obsessed with cable access, industrial films and animation. In 2007, he parlayed this into a role as director, co-executive producer, editor, animator and co-writer of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! He’s also co-directed, co-executive produced and edited Check It Out with Dr. Steve Brule . Krisel has just finished co-executive producing and directing the entire third season of Portlandia and executive producing, writing and directing Kroll Show on c omedy c entral.
Innovator
Ben Huh is the founder and cEO of the cheezburger Network. He’s been credited with pioneering Internet culture as entertainment, crowd-sourcing and mainstreaming Internet memes. His media company includes more than 50 online humor sites, receives 400 million page views monthly, has spawned two New york Times Best sellers and inspired a TV series. He’s a co-founder of circa, an online journalism start-up reimagining the way we consume news. Huh holds a BsJ from Northwestern university and lives in seattle with his wife, Emily.
c ulinary Vanguard
Feast Portland co-founder Mike Thelin conceives, creates and consults for foodrelated projects nationally. He has invented pop-up cooking schools for Whole Foods Market, started a national food festival and worked with a wide range of partners to create projects that grab attention and maximize outcomes. After traveling the world, Thelin returned to Portland to launch a career as a food critic and writer and found the multi-platform Bolted services. you may recognize him from the cooking channel’s Unique Eats .
Builder
Brian Faherty, owner, founder and creative director of schoolhouse Electric & supply co., began the lighting and lifestyle housewares brand in 2003. His passion stems from his desire to help people create personal spaces that inspire. Faherty is a proponent of micro-manufacturing and believes that building a strong u.s. vendor community will help to put the united states back on the map as a thoughtful, sustainable and competitive place to manufacture quality goods. Faherty lives with his wife, Jill, and their three children in Portland.
Neogeographer
Di-Ann Eisnor, vice president of platforms and partnerships at Waze, runs u s. operations and is crafting the cartography of “live mapping” for Israeli crowd-sourced navigation and real-time traffic. Eisnor is a neogeography pioneer and serial entrepreneur employing all means to increase the world’s citizen mappers. Prior to Waze, Eisnor founded Platial, the People's Atlas, and Eisnor Interactive. Eisnor believes social mapping to be a critical tool for cultural diplomacy. she sits on the board of Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA).
c ommunity c rusader
During and after his 12-year career in the NBA, Brian Grant dedicated his life to programs assisting seriously ill and underprivileged youth. In 2008, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and started the Brian Grant Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to helping those affected by Parkinson’s live active and fulfilling lives. Among its other efforts, the foundation hosts an annual fund-raiser gala called “shake It Till We Make It” that raises money to provide resources and support for those in need.
c onservationist
Dr. Laurie Marker is founder and executive director of the cheetah conservation Fund. Having worked with cheetahs since 1974, Dr. Marker set up the not-for-profit Fund in 1990 and moved to Namibia to develop a permanent conservation Research centre for the wild cheetah. Dr. Marker also helped develop the u.s and international captive program, establishing the most successful captive cheetah-breeding program in North America during her 16 years (1974—1988) at Wildlife safari in Winston, Oregon.
c ultural Ambassador
Kimberly Howard was appointed in 2009 to oversee the Oregon c ultural Trust with the mission of developing and sustaining arts, heritage and humanities. Previously she was managing director at Portland’s Interstate Firehouse c ultural c enter and education/outreach director for Artists Repertory Theatre. Howard is an accomplished actress with credits in New york, the Williamstown Theatre Festival and Portland theaters, including s ojourn Theatre and Boom Arts’ staged reading of Hollow Roots by c hristina Anderson at Reed c ollege.
Top c hef
since Naomi Pomeroy and her sous chef, Mika Paredes, opened Beast in 2007, Bon Appétit named her as one of the top six of a new generation of female chefs in 2008 and Food & Wine magazine recognized her as one of the 10 Best New c hefs in America in 2009—and she’s been named three times as a finalist for the James Beard Foundation Award for Best c hef in the Northwest. Pomeroy appeared as a contestant on Top Chef Masters and a judge on Top Chef . This year, she was included in the u. s . Diplomatic c ulinary Partnership initiative in Washington, D c.
c onservationist
Guido Rahr is the president and chief executive of the Wild salmon center, where he works to help protect wild salmon habitats in the Pacific Northwest, British columbia, Alaska, Russia and Japan. He has also worked with the united Nations, Oregon Trout, The Nature conservancy, conservation International, Rainforest Alliance and EsPN. Rahr is a master fly fisher who has explored salmon and trout streams all over the world. He lives in Portland with his wife, Lee, and their three boys.
s toryteller
Tom Brokaw has been an award-winning journalist and news anchor for over 40 years. His esteemed career includes the first one-on-one interview with Mikhail Gorbachev and the first network report on human rights abuses in Tibet with an exclusive interview with the Dalai Lama. He was also the only American network anchor to report from the scene when the Berlin Wall fell. In 1998, Brokaw published The Greatest Generation , one of the most popular nonfiction books of the 20th century.
c omposer
Born in Kuala Lumpur to a Filipina mother and Japanese father, Masataka Odaka grew up in Tokyo, graduated from high school in Putney, Vermont, and cut his teeth as a composer/musician in New york city for nine years before moving to Portland. As a bassist, Odaka has accompanied Pink Martini, sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Linda Hornbuckle and the von Trapp children. He composed the title score to TEDxPortland 2011 and 2012 and is deeply humbled to be extended an invitation to perform onstage this year.
since she was a young girl, Asia Greene has used poetry as a way to express herself. Her message has always been one of hope, strength and empowerment. Most recently, she was recognized by Portland Police chief Mike Reese and former Mayor sam Adams for a poem she wrote about gang violence. Greene is a graduate of Roosevelt High school with a full-ride academic scholarship to George Fox university. she enjoys spending time with her family and doing puzzles with her grandmother.
Poet
c
The Royal Blues headline Portland’s Grant High school choir effort. Their music medium is an advanced coeducational course of study that perfects all types of choral music including classical, madrigal, popular and jazz. The Royal Blues perform many times throughout the community and around the world during the school year. scholarship, showmanship, musicianship and dedication are paramount.
c ountry Folk
chief songwriters Birger Olsen, Mike Elias and Tom Bevitori are co-founders and lead vocals for this “ramshackle all-star country band.” The band has since filled out its lineup with a stellar supporting cast, which includes Blitzen Trapper’s Eric Earley and Michael Van Pelt, drummer sean MacNeil and a rotating crew of even more of Portland’s finest musicians.
hoir
Horns
Rose city Trombones is a group of passionate musicians dedicated to showcasing the majestic trombone. Their mission is to provide both concerts and educational outreach to unravel the mysteries of this shiny machine. The members’ musical pedigrees include being part of well-established music organizations across the Northwest and music schools around the country. They are thrilled to partner with TEDxPortland to help add a little flair.
P RE s ENTING
volun T eers A nd
PLATIN u M
c OMM u NIT y
ATT endees H elped
m A ke T od A y come
A l I ve.
T HA nk you.
THA nk you F or J o I n I ng us T od A y
THA nk you T o TH e 26 A r TI s T s
WH o m A de THI s poss IB le
PORTLAND P HOTOGRAPH y: cHRI s L AR s ON
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P ORTLAND A RT Mus E u M / A PRIL 27, 2013
