TEDx Edmonton is being organized by the artsScene Edmonton Organizing Committee. Our team is made up of young creative and business leaders and professionals who are passionate about making Edmonton a vibrant, creative community. And, we all love TED. Our team includes:

Ken Bautista, Chair/Host

Ken is an interactive creative director and entrepreneur. His most recent venture is Seek Your Own Proof, an online game where kids are challenged to investigate science and history as agents of a fictional spy agency. Seek Your Own Proof is exclusively distributed by Discovery Kids, the kids brand of the world’s number one nonfiction media company Discovery Communications. In his spare time, Ken has led and founded several non-profit organizations focused on growing the creative and technology community, including artsScene Edmonton, Startup Edmonton, TEDx Edmonton and Digital Alberta. Ken’s companies have won several awards including Best in Show at the Fusion Digital Media Venture Forum in Vancouver, Pitch It! Winner at KidScreen Summit in New York, and Most Promising Company at the Canadian New Media Awards. He has been invited to speak at international events including the Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum in Hong Kong, Banff World Television Festival and Canadian Arts Summit, and was recently featured as one of Avenue Edmonton’s 40 Under 40.

Michael Brechtel, Lead Organizer/Host

Michael is a graduate of the Bachelor of Commerce program at the University of Alberta. He is currently an Account Director at RED The Agency, one of the fastest growing marketing communications agencies in Western Canada. Before coming to RED, Michael owns and operated his own communications agency, Firebrand Media. He is deeply passionate about the community as well. He is the founding chair of interVivos, a group for young people to get involved in community development. In addition to sitting on the board for VOTE! Society of Alberta, he was named one of Edmonton’s “Sizzling 20 Under 30″ for 2008. He also co-founded artsScene Edmonton, a nonprofit focused on engaging young creative and business professionals through the arts and creative industries, and is one of the lead organizers behind Reboot Alberta, a political and social movement currently mobilizing across the province.

Cam Linke, Lead Organizer/Host

Cam Linke is a software entrepreneur and startup community evangelist in Edmonton. He is the co-founder of Startup Edmonton, brought DemoCamp to Edmonton two years ago to build the tech community, and continues to work building resources and networks for startups in the city. Recently having worked at one of Edmontonʼs brightest tech startups, Nexopia.com, Cam is now building a software company to help people deliver great experiences with mobile applications.

Stephani Carter, Lead Organizer/Host

Stephani is a LEED® Accredited Professional and a passionate Sustainable Building Materials Specialist. She is trained as an interior designer and from working in the industry recognized a need for a new support system around transitioning the current market to a more sustainable one. In 2006 she started her own consulting firm, EcoAmmo and Green Alberta, an online database of evaluated sustainable building products. Stephani works with local manufacturers to help them understand what it means to be ‘green’ and how to integrate sustainable practices into their processes. Stephani co-founded the Alberta Chapter of the Canada Green Building Council. Stephani is a self proclaimed “volunteer-aholic” and also volunteers for the Clean Air Strategic Alliance – Indoor Air Quality Team, Alberta Federation of Labour to promote green jobs, and Greater Edmonton Alliance – Sustainable Works to grow home energy auditing and retrofitting services and consumer awareness among others.

Cindy Fulton, Event Coordinator

For three years, Cindy worked as Program Coordinator at the Northern Alberta Business Incubator where her primary focus was on helping entrepreneurs connect. This included organizing social gathering, business planning sessions and workshops, and business briefs. She also spent time sitting on organizing committees in the community including St. Albert Chamber of Commerce, St. Albert Small Business Week Awards of Distinction, and the Vision of Success committee, a special speaker series featuring successful women in business. In late 2009, she started a new venture, Cindy Fulton Events, putting her passion for event coordination and project management to work. She has worked on several projects including social and corporate events, weddings, as well as not for profit initiatives. This also includes event coordination for artsScene Edmonton, Startup Edmonton, and TEDx Edmonton.

Elizabeth Capak

Since graduating with a Museum Studies degree from the University of Toronto, Ellie has worked in the arts administration field in a variety of capacities. Currently she spends her days as the Art Collection Registrar with the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and her nights as an aspiring seamstress.  She is an avid consumer of anything to do with design, culture and art and enjoys volunteering with artsScene and the Edmonton International Film Festival. You will find her pounding the streets or utilizing the transit system as she refuses to buy a car.

Marc Carnes

Originally from Ottawa, Marc has over 10 years of professional experience as an advocate and promoter of music and the arts.  Currently he is the Director of Development for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and Francis Winspear Centre for Music.

Merran Carr-Wiggin

Merran Carr-Wiggin is studying Art History and Drama at the University of Alberta. She has acted in numerous festivals such as New Works, Nextfest and the Edmonton Fringe and sings with Kim Mattice Wanat’s Studio. She is a board member of Harcourt House Arts Centre. She is thrilled to be part of Edmonton’s vibrant arts community and is happy to be working with artsScene to bring TEDx to our fair city!

Marcus Coldeway

Marcus D. Coldeway is an artist by name and Graphic Designer by trade. Principle of his own Graphic Design firm Marc-it Creative. Marcus loves handling the creative process from beginning to end and working closely with clients. Marc-it Creative tailors creative packages and messaging suitable to the client’s needs and goals with a sound eye for the future and what has yet to be done. Always promoting the Design mantra of “Fat-Free Design” Marcus and his work strives to clean up the visual world. “There is a lot of Clutter out there but this cannot last”. With a background in Psychology and Marketing, Marcus has the creative sense and understanding to handle the ever-changing needs of clients and the market place. Marcus is a graduate of University of Alberta, with a major in Art & Design and Psychology. His works are on display at some of Edmonton’s art hubs including the Northern Alberta Jubilee Sculpture Garden. Marcus’s artistic talents include Graphic Design, Sculpture and Architecture, Textbook illustration, and Painting. Marcus is also a Professional DJ spinning a mash up style of Funky breaks and Funk.

Kim Evans

Kim began her career in communications working for Northlands, promoting major events. Following that, she lead the public relations activities for the world’s largest shopping and entertainment complex, West Edmonton Mall. In her current role with Alberta Film, Kim is proud to promote her province as a filming location and help support the talented Albertans who make up the local film, television and digital media industry. A lifelong Edmontonian and supporter of all things arts and culture, Kim is excited to be a part of the artsScene Edmonton group.

Sam Jenkins

Sam is excited about driving arts, technology and culture in the City of Edmonton. As the Director of Business Development for iomer internet solutions, Sam works with public sector and large enterprises in developing strategy for how technology can influence business. Born and raised in the City of Champions, Sam is also the Vice Chair of the Edmonton International Fringe Festival, North America’s largest fringe theatre festival, and one of Edmonton’s most recognizable brands.

Michael McDougall

From the Outreach Committee of the Edmonton Historical Board to Northern Alberta’s nominating committee for Manning Innovation Awards, Michael has been working and volunteering with groups involved in heritage, technology, and the arts since 1991. In his career in communications he has created and implemented communications- and marketing strategies for enormous corporations, entrepreneurial upstarts, and not-for-profits, too. He is currently the Media Relations Manager for Afexa Life Sciences.

Galen Scorer

Galen Scorer is the Interactive Strategist at RED The Agency. He comes from a long and varied background in media arts. He sits on the fence between art, design and technology and has held many jobs in which he helps navigate the intersection of those worlds. As an educator he has taught at several universities in interactive arts. As a video editor he mastered the art of trailers and documentaries for BioWare’s videogames. For five years he was the Research & Technology Manager at the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab. As a programmer he has worked on numerous interactive physical and virtual experiences and even developed the software for the interactive feature film Late Fragment. As an artist he has shown his interactive installations internationally and talked at conferences about the intersection of technology and our human body. If it has to do with unconventional ways in which we interact with the world around us, mediated through technology, Galen might be behind the curtain.

Paul Steier

Paul credits his dad for instilling him with an entrepreneurial spirit and introducing him to Edmonton’s start-up community. Affirming his desire to create opportunities for creative and business minded people to collaborate he has since become involved with the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise, The Technology Commercialization Centre and Startup Edmonton. Recently, he has begun using short video as a tool to provide exposure for emerging artists and entrepreneurs and their art, business, products and events. He is a member of the artsScene Edmonton organizing committee and produces their videos.

Paige Weir

In the years leading up to joining the organizing committee of artScene Edmonton, Paige has been involved in many creative endeavours, from teaching art and theory classes to event-decorating, to her 3 years spent on the board of the Edmonton chapter of The Society of Graphic Designers of Canada. Currently, she is the art director for Avenue magazine (Edmonton).

Alana Williams

Having spent her University years cultivating business acumen thinking she’d be an accountant or lawyer, Alana yearned for the addition of creative industry in her life. Hence, she found herself drawn to advertising. With 7 years experience in Edmonton’s advertising community, she currently holds a position as Account Supervisor with RED The Agency and maintains a Director position on the Advertising Club of Edmonton Board. In addition to volunteering with artsScene Edmonton, Alana also plays a recurring character on the online kids spy-fi game Seek Your Own Proof.

Cary Williams

Like many Edmontonians, Cary spent a lot of years planning how to leave Edmonton. After university stints in Ontario and Japan, Cary came back enlightened to the fantastic people and opportunities in Edmonton, IF someone makes the effort and gets involved in the community. Although he’s been lucky enough to visit some of the world’s great cities in his previous job as a textiles product manager – including Shanghai, New York, Barcelona, and Milan – Edmonton is still the best place to call home. In January, Cary realized that his true interest is in helping people navigate the challenges of personal finance. He joined Edward Jones and is training to open his own Edward Jones office in 2009. In addition to the Edmonton Next Gen Committee, Cary sits on two other volunteer organizations. artsScene is a national initiative to bring together young business leaders who are dedicated to growing the Arts, Culture, and Creative Industries through support, volunteerism, and patronage. Humanity Calls is a unique, on-line fundraising platform for nonprofits that uses crowdsourcing and viral marketing to ensure the world’s best nonprofits get the funding they need to do great work. For all his efforts, Cary was recently featured as one of Avenue Edmonton’s Top 40 Under 40, and was featured on the cover of the issue.