“What I Thought I Knew About Innovation Was Wrong” – An Edmonton-grown export and currently based in Silicon Valley, Shawna Pandya is passionate about technology, innovation and social development. She is co-founder of CiviGuard Technologies, a start-up based at NASA-Ames in Silicon Valley that leverages smartphones for disaster response. As CMO for CiviGuard, Shawna handles the formation of new alliances, partnerships and the development of CiviTriage, a smartphone-based patient-triage-and-tracking system. In addition to medicine (University of Alberta), Shawna also holds backgrounds in entrepreneurship/innovation (Singularity University), space studies (MSc Space Studies, International Space University), and Neuroscience (BSc Hons, University of Alberta).

“Creative Economic Emergence” – Industrial design professor, dedicated to creative-economic-emergence. Tim Antoniuk is an Associate Professor in the Industrial Design Program at the University of Alberta. Before coming to the University, Antoniuk co-founded Hothouse, a furniture design, retail and manufacturing company that sold its own line of products to over 750 international companies.

As we get busy editing all the awe-inspiring video that we captured this weekend, some of you have asked for the video that Cameron Herold featured in his talk “Raising Kids to be Entrepreneurs”. Here it is. Note: I love this video.

TEDx Edmonton is a wrap! And what a great day it was.

No doubt more recaps about TEDx Edmonton will be reflected on and written about by many of you. We’re looking forward to reading and hearing more from you as you spread the ideas you heard, and as you spread a few of your own ideas along the way. You can already check out some photos from the day here (lots more to come), and stay tuned for the presentation videos that we’ll edit and post in the coming weeks. Send us your links and photos, so we can share them here too. In the meantime, some final thoughts and thanks:

To our presenters – Tim Antoniuk, Shawna Pandya, Andrew Hessel, Shafraaz Kaba, Theresa Howland, Grant Skinner, Cameron Herold, Sean Stewart and Krystle dos Santos – thanks for taking time out of your super busy lives to share your passions, stories, music (and madlibs) with us. Same goes to my fellow hosts, Cam Linke, Stephani Carter and Michael Brechtel. It was great to share the stage and this journey with you.

To our event partners and my fellow organizing committee members – all your hard work, dedication and contributions helped us put on a show to remember. From setting up the venue, to the set design, to the camera work, to the audio and even dealing with a glitch (or crash) or two – you were all fantastic.

And to all of you who attended and watched online, thanks for helping make our first TEDx Edmonton event a huge success. You discussed, followed, tweeted (to the point that #tedxyeg was the number one trending topic in Canada!), and soaked in every minute of the TEDx Edmonton experience. Your enthusiasm kept us going and you helped push us to set the bar for our next event and beyond.

The world is changing and the creative and entrepreneur economy is here. It’s a new world where ideas, knowledge, creativity and entrepreneurship rule. Where community trumps geography, where small is the new big, and where innovation and entrepreneurial savviness is so much more valuable.

It’s a new world that presents an opportunity for Edmontonians, particularly our young generation, to make our mark on the global stage today. Because if we don’t, other cities will continue to pass us by.

We chose our speakers not only because of their passion, but to show you and to show the world that Edmonton has been quietly outputting world class creatives, entrepreneurs and innovators for years. We just want to be a little more vocal about it. And that’s why we brought TEDx Edmonton to our community, along with other initiatives like artsScene Edmonton and Startup Edmonton.

Everyone needs to know that Edmontonians are working here and beyond, changing the world in their own ways – in science, technology, entertainment, design and more. We wanted TEDx Edmonton to be a spark that would ignite and connect the entrepreneurial and creative energy we’ve always had in our community.

And judging from the feedback we’ve gotten so far, we think it’s working.

So as TEDx Edmonton comes to a close this year, let’s keep this feeling going all year long. Be proud to be Edmonton made. Spread your ideas. Dream big. And be an unstoppable force in making things happen.

Ken Bautista
Event Chair
TEDx Edmonton Organizing Committee

P.S. Check out more of our photos from the event, after party and behind the scenes here!

Thanks everyone for coming out and helping to make the first TEDxEdmonton such a great event! Thanks also to everyone who watched the webcast online, and to everyone who followed along and participated on Twitter.

We had some great speakers, lots of inspiring ideas, many interesting conversations, and a rockin after-party. Stay tuned for recaps, videos, and information on upcoming events! You can see some photos from today here.

Watch the event live here or follow the live blog here

We’ve just released the program schedule for TEDx Edmonton, which you can check out here! Remember, the live event is sold out, but you can catch the live webcast free online.

The day is broken out into four sessions – creativity and innovation, creative sustainability, creative entrepreneurship and content creation. All live event participants should arrive at 9:15 am so we can process your registration and get everyone into the theatre in time for the live webcast at 10:00 am. Please bring your printed tickets with you and we’ll give you your name badge and a rundown for the day.

There will be several breaks during the day so you can all discuss and share your thoughts on what you’ve just heard. We wrap up the day with a reception nearby and then doors to TransAlta Arts Barns re-open for the official TEDx Edmonton After Party hosted by artsScene Edmonton.

We’re excited and can’t wait to meet you all this Saturday!

We’re thrilled to announce the speaker lineup for TEDx Edmonton! Under the theme of “Cultivating the Creative Economy”, we sought out passionate entrepreneurs, innovators, thinkers, and creators across the city and beyond. We invited nine influential minds, each with some tie to Edmonton, to share their ideas and thoughts about their work and their outlook on driving the creative economy.

Tim Antoniuk – Industrial design professor, dedicated to creative-economic-emergence

Cameron Herold – Successful business leader passionate about raising kids to be entrepreneurs

Andrew Hessel - Genomic scientist and champion of open source biology

Theresa Howland – Western Canadian head of Canada’s 100% green electricity provider

Shafraaz Kaba – Local architect passionate about urban design, art and architecture

Shawna Pandya – Entrepreneur working on new start-up leveraging smartphones for disaster response at NASA-Ames

Grant Skinner – Internationally recognized leader in the field of rich interactive experiences

Sean Stewart – Influential pioneer who defined the alternate reality entertainment genre worldwide

Krystle Dos Santos – Award-winning soul and jazz singer-songwriter

Find out more about all our speakers here!