What a fantastic day it was this past Saturday. Thanks to everyone for helping make TEDxEdmonton 2011 another success. More recaps, photos and videos to come, but for now enjoy some of the (many!) images from this year’s event. Thanks to the guys at 3TEN for the shots and to the Student Design Association for another brilliant stage design.

Tune into the TEDxEdmonton 2011 live webcast on USTREAM today. Click here to watch now!

Live streaming video by Ustream

Let the countdown to TEDxEdmonton continue! More favorite TEDTalks from our organizing team.

Pamella’s top talk is Karen Armstrong’s TED Prize Wish for a charter for compassion. “Karen Armstrong is a provocative, original thinker on the role of religion in the modern world. Although I don’t adhere to one specific belief, I too believe that all spiritual/religious ideas/beliefs are based on one common theme: the Golden Rule. Karen Armstrong approaches this idea in an educational way that is acceptable and non-threatening.”

Alana’s favorite is Wade Davis’s TED2003 talk on endangered cultures. “Wade Davis is a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and one of the foremost experts on indigenous peoples and cultures. He has amazing photos and stories about the world’s many cultures that are disappearing at an alarming rate – 50% of the world’s 6000 languages are no longer spoken to children. It’s a favorite because it’s a reminder to step out of your own life and recognize that there are a myriad ways of seeing the world. It’s through that diversity that we start to expand our own minds and, inversely, end up learning about ourselves.

The job of the onstage host at TEDxEdmonton can be a daunting one. He or she is responsible for introducing each talk, keeps the program on schedule, and represents the vision for the event. The host also helps to make connections between each talk and draws connections that fuel conversation during the session break. And most importantly, the host encourages our audience to engage with speakers – applause, laughter, cheering – anything to create a positive environment at TEDxEdmonton that both speakers and attendees can thrive on!

We thought about a few different people, but in the end we arrived at not one, but a dynamic co-host duo that would fit the bill, and reflected the new energy brewing in our city – Ryan Jespersen and Kari Skelton.

We’re super excited to have Ryan and Kari co-host TEDxEdmonton this year. The TED format certainly works well for this pair. The Edmonton-based TV and radio personalities (Ryan hosts Citytv’s Breakfast Television, Kari hosts up! 99.3′s Wake up! Show and Telus TV’s My Edmonton) spend many of their waking hours in front of an audience, speaking without notes. At home, the married pair spend at least 18 minutes each evening convincing one another their perspective on any given issue is the right one. Diverse interests define these two. If forced to affiliate themselves with the Technology, Entertainment or Design community, Ryan and Kari say they’d remain neutral…for once.

You’ll find them on twitter @ryanjespersen & @KariSkelton, and of course, catch them at TEDxEdmonton 2011 this Saturday!

We’re counting down the days to TEDxEdmonton by sharing our favorite TEDTalks! Committee member Cary Williams on Michael Pritchard‘s TEDTalk on “Inventing a Water Filter“:

“I really believe that water is the biggest challenge we face. Bigger than the economy, bigger than climate change, bigger than health care – because all of these depend on water. While this talk can seem like a bit of a commercial, I love the fact that it addresses 3 key concerns: how to get access to those that need it; how to do it affordably; how to deal with the rich country/poor country divide as it relates to both of these challenges. I think Michael Pritchard leaves me with just one question: Why the hell haven’t we done this yet?”

We’re super excited to announce that Edmonton’s award-winning singer-songwriter Colleen Brown will be performing at TEDxEdmonton 2011 this Saturday!

A recipient of the Alberta Emerging Artist Award, finalist in last year’s CBC Song Quest, and most recently named Best Female Artist at the inaugural Edmonton Music Awards, multi‐instrumentalist Brown has been called “a national treasure in the making – along the lines of Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot or k.d. lang.” (Sandra Sperounes of The Edmonton Journal)

Colleen Brown re‐released her album “Foot In Heart” with Emm Gryner’s Dead Daisy Records & Outside Music on March 16, 2010 and is steadily gaining career momentum and recognition.

Since she first self‐released “Foot In Heart” in 2008, she’s enjoyed dedicated radio play on CBC, CKUA and college stations across the country and placement in a CBC Radio 2 TV commercial. Most notably, Brown’s songs have been featured in regular airplay on Rich Terfry’s Radio 2 program ‘Drive’. “[The album] sounds like some of the best music you heard on pop‐radio back in the ’70s…I love this album,” says Terfry (aka Buck 65). That musician, MC and radio host was so enamoured with Colleen’s music he has invited her into the studio along with another self‐professed fan, Hawksley Workman, to co‐write and sing in an experimental studio‐based writing project. Brown is also currently recording her 3rd solo studio album, featuring a song co‐written with Pierre Marchand (most notably longtime Producer/Co‐ writer for Sarah MacLachlan.)

To date, Colleen – both solo, and as part of her side projects ‘The Secretaries’ and ‘The Kit Kat Club’ ‐ has performed more than 300 shows, (including this year’s Edmonton Folk Fest) sharing stages with a broad range of artists across Canada including Jim Cuddy, Hawksley Workman, Kathleen Edwards, Frank Black, Gogol Bordello, Hey Rosetta, Dan Mangan, Danny Michel, Hannah Georgas, and Fred Eaglesmith. She also toured across Canada this October with Canadian folk/rock icons Crash Test Dummies.

Following a recent show where Brown supported Frank Black, SEE Magazine’s Fish Griwkowsky said, “Colleen Brown played the show of her life, opening up. There is a confidence about her new songs that’s actually scary, savaging the things we men do with a sarcastic lilt and an eager smile for the next round of battle.” Colleen was also chosen by popular online music site NXEW as the ‘big find’ of the 2010 NXNE Festival; and her composition Western Fire was one of the winning entries in the All Albertan Song Contest.

Find out more about Colleen Brown at www.colleenbrownmusic.com.

With TEDxEdmonton 2011 being only a few days away, we asked members of our organizing committee to share their favorite TEDTalks of all time. We’ll be posting more over the coming week!

Here’s one of Sam Jenkins‘ favorite talks from Seth Godin on tribes and leadership:

“Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so. No one can argue Seth Godin’s brilliance. Even though this talk is a few years old, this talk is about connecting people and ideas through his concept of ‘tribes’, or unique social units. He argues that the internet and modern media have created more tribes than ever, and that today’s tribes will change the world because people naturally want to connect with each other. Powerful stuff.”

What are some of your favorite talks on leadership?