TEDxSanJoseStateUniversity Presents: The Connection
“The Connection” is this year’s theme for the 2nd annual TEDx event hosted on SJSU campus.
This year will be an afternoon of exploring ideas that will encourage listeners to be more connected with the world around them. A connection can be complex like neurons in the brain, or simple like daily interactions in social and professional settings.
Discussions will answer questions similar to the following: how do we get people more connected to their cities? How do students feel more connected to their university? How can we connect information to make for better outcomes in business?
This conference will be a composition of talented speakers and performers who have amazing ideas to share with the local community. Audience members will be from all walks of life, from young to old, student to professional. It will be an engaging day with facilitated conversations, idea collaboration, and professional networking. Join us as we embrace the intelligent community that is San Jose State University.
Due to TED rules, we have multiple rooms hosting events simultaneously. The Student Union Theater will host 100 people, and another viewing party will separately host 100 people in the Student Union Ballroom. Viewing parties will be watching a live stream of the event. During breakout sessions, speakers will visit the viewing parties so that all guests are equally collaborating in the conversation.
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Confirmed Speakers
Chi-Wen Chang
Master Chi has over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience. He has a private practice (CWC) specializing in investment management (a NASD licensed investment advisor), commercial services (SBA), banking and financing supports, and tax planning for corporations and individuals. He is also a professional consultant with the Small Business Development Center to industry, government and nonprofit sector. He has taught courses in accounting, international business, and investment strategies at various universities (SJSU, USF, GGU, & UCSC). In addition, he is a part-time CFO with several small businesses in the South Bay area.
Anna Vital
Anna is an infographic author and visual journalist. She loves to visualize the lives of people, companies, and ideas. Her dream is to create a visual encyclopedia where every entry is an infographic. Anna’s infographics frequently appear in Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc Magazine, Venture Beat, and many others. She founded a startup information design organization Funders and Founders, located in San Francisco. Anna holds a Juris Doctor degree in law and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Linguistics. She speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese. She is excited to see how her visual thinking method can help people visualize their own ideas.
Lena Athena
Lena Athena (also known as Noga Choma Lifshitz) is graduating San Jose State University in May with a Bachelor’s in the Special Major she designed: Self-Actualization Marketing. Lena dedicates her energy to improving social justice by increasing the social values of self-love and self-respect. She believes these values inspire individuals to fight off their oppression rather than accept or internalize maltreatment. Passionate about social change, the young activist spends her free time educating herself about sociology, psychology, and various aspects of human rights. She strives to be a voice that inspires society to promote confidence in individuals and disassociate conformity with earning respect or love.
Margaretha Haughwout
Margaretha Haughwout works in the fields of new media art and participatory design of the urban commons, finding intersections that favor local relationships over networks. She was a core organizer of Hayes Valley Farm, a high profile, 2.5 acre, interim-use permaculture farm and she founded and directed Bloom Justice, a garden co-created with inner city youth in the Western Addition district of San Francisco. Margaretha co-initiated the Guerrilla Grafters and is an active participant in the project along with Tara Hui and Ian Pollock. She received her MFA from the University of California Santa Cruz, and is currently a Senior Lecturer at California College of the Arts.
Greg Henderson
Greg Henderson is the founder and chief visionary for Arx Pax. Greg began his career in the military as an Airborne Ranger, serving with the 101st Airborne and 7th Infantry. He graduated from West Point with a B.S in Engineering, and received a Master of Architecture degree from Berkeley. What Greg succinctly envisioned with Arx Pax was a new way to employ an unexploited technology in applications that others did not see. He labeled this epiphany: Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA™). It’s a big dream on a one-of-a-kind technology. Arx Pax (and Hendo) believe in its possibility, its potential—and its promise.
Greg Chase
Greg Chase is an enterprise software marketing executive more than 20 years experience in marketing, sales, and engineering with software companies. Most recently Greg has been passionately advocating for innovation and transformation of business and IT practices through big data, cloud computing, and business process management in his role as Director of Product Marketing at Pivotal Software.
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What is TEDx?
The TEDx Program is designed to help communities, organizations and individuals to spark conversation and connection through local TED-like experiences.
At TEDx events, a screening of TED Talks videos — or a combination of live presenters and TED Talks videos — sparks deep conversation and connections at the local level. TEDx events are planned and coordinated independently, under a free license granted by TED.