About TEDxJacksonville

Jacksonville is a bustling city bisected by global trade routes, multiple interstate highways and rail lines, and a major American river.

But it is also a nexus for other, no less vital, elements: aviation, manufacturing, medicine, information and transportation services, banking, design, and the arts. These intersections — both known and unrecognized — are fertile ground for innovation.

Our team has embraced the challenge of bringing the TEDx experience to Jacksonville because we believe our city’s greatest assets are the ideas and dreams of its citizenry. Ideas have the power to reshape minds and change the way people act. Dreams are the birthplace of the possible. But, too often, dreams are deferred and ideas, unheard, because they lack a platform that gives them voice. We want TEDxJacksonville to be that platform.

We aim to showcase the broadest spectrum of voices. We welcome great thinkers and doers, creators and visionaries from all areas of thought and work and life. Our goal is to present talks on issues that matter to our community — free from corporate, political and religious agendas — and to spark a real dialogue about how to make a difference.

We believe in the beauty of our city and its many diverse voices. Our goal is to ensure that those voices are heard . . . and shared.

OUR MISSION: To be a catalyst for positive change, opening minds with inspiring ideas.  OUR VISION: That Jacksonville is an informed, inspired, and engaged city.

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, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. 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.)

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 30 years ago, TED has grown to support its mission with multiple initiatives. The two annual TED Conferences invite the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes or less. Many of these talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.

The annual TED Conference takes place each spring in Vancouver, British Columbia. TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TED Talks are posted daily; TED Translators, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed. TED has established The Audacious Project that takes a collaborative approach to funding ideas with the potential to create change at thrilling scale; TEDx, which supports individuals or groups in hosting local, self- organized TED-style events around the world, and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED, on Instagram at https://instagram.com/ted.