Christine Comaford

A life of intense pursuits and achievements taught Christine Comaford powerful lessons about the importance of the internal journey. During her time volunteering for hospice care, she discovered that we all hold a single great Question that directs our lives. She urges us to discover our Question, and shares three significant ways to find the answer that brings the peace and joy each of us yearns for.
Find your question

Jake Wood

From his combat experiences as a soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan, Jake Wood discovered that he and other vets have developed the perfect skills for service in crisis situations outside of war. Through Team Rubicon, Jake provides a role for our 1.8 million veterans to respond to natural disasters throughout the world, and thus engages a great untapped national resource.
The 1.8 million volunteer solution

Kurt Gray Ph.D.

Professor Gray shares how his research at The Maryland Mind Perception and Morality Lab showed him that doing good deeds has the power to make us physically stronger. Gray explains that instead of thinking we must be strong before we can do good, performing acts of goodness actually strengthens us.
Becoming Superman, doing good makes you strong

Tom Yellin

By highlighting the importance of educating girls, journalist and executive producer of The Documentary Group Tom Yellin and his team set out to help end global poverty. In his project 10×10, Tom illustrates the next wave of journalism and advocacy that breaks down the walls of exclusivity through active partnerships, sharing and great storytelling.
Educate girls, change the world

Shannon Spanhake

Inventor and researcher Shannon Spanhake talks about the beauty of potholes and the tensions of urban infrastructure. Convinced that one person can be part of the solution, Shannon invented Squirrel, a mobile device that easily measures air pollution levels. This cost-effective invention changes the way cities like San Diego measure air quality. It also demonstrates how individuals can make a difference in the world.
Managing tensions to strengthen our infrastructure

Marty Cooper

People are inherently mobile, no one is where they want to be. Marty Cooper’s insightful perspective on technology and human nature led him to invent the cell phone, a device that has truly changed the way we communicate. Cooper has his finger on the pulse of future breakthroughs such as digitally monitored vital signs that will make physical examinations a thing of the past.
The power of wireless social networking

Pankaj Kedia

Pankaj Kedia brings the global technology revolution down to the local level. He discusses the impact the Internet and mobile phones have on communities worldwide. He shows how innovative technology can transform those communities and enable people to care for themselves.
Technology innovations, community transformations

Dr. Eric Topol

Dr. Topol envisions the future of individualized medicine in the age of homo digitus. As technology evolves, the average person will have access to an array of health monitoring devices once available only to the medical community. In addition to thermometers and aspirin, our home medicine cabinets will soon include hand-held devices that monitor sleep patterns and heart rates.
Digitizing man

Dr. Robert Bilder

Our brains are complex information powerhouses. Dr. Robert Bilder explains how new technologies will tap that power, helping us to remember what we need to do and reminding us when we forget to do it. Bilder says software that links our lifetime goals to our daily action items should and will be available in the near future.
Personal brain management

Dr. Tony Haymet

Dr. Tony Haymet urges us to cherish our oceans as the source of our future quality of life. He reveals how oceanic molecules and microbiotic cells will provide the foundation for the next wave of medicine, and how algae bio-fuel will provide a valuable carbon-neutral energy resource.
From microbes to medicines and fuel

Nick Pudar

Nick Pudar discusses the future of automotive connectivity. OnStar is developing a car that uses embedded technology to tweet its location. As the technology progresses, software that recognizes a car’s location will eventually learn and anticipate the driver’s behavior, forever changing how we relate to our vehicles.
The future of automotive connectivity

Jake Shimabukuro

TEDxSanDiego began and ended with Jake Shimabukuro’s virtuoso ukulele performances before a transfixed audience. No one would argue that his performance of The Beatles’. While My Guitar Gently Weeps was a highlight of the day. In addition to those magical moments, the talented musician shares words of wisdom learned from his work with children: Kids need to be inspired and passionate about something.

Gad Shaanan

Industrial designer Gad Shaanan will be forever influenced by a quote from his father, We are too poor to buy something cheap. Shaanan makes us rethink being green today by finding ways to leave our planet green for generations to come. Instead of merely considering how recyclable the contents are, he suggests we buy products that bring value and longevity to the world. He proposes we build homes that last centuries and questions why we build multi-ton cars just to move a 170-pound person around instead of developing more efficient transportation.
Green alternative thinking

Roxana Velasquez

The new director of the San Diego Museum of Art talks about the art of ugliness. She explains that when we understand both the context and intent of the artist we get a much deeper interpretation of the art. Ballet dancers in Edgar Degas time were desperately underpaid, so most of them worked as prostitutes. Velasquez asks if knowing that the woman in the tutu is a prostitute changes our view of his beautiful canvases. She asserts that analyzing ugliness helps us connect with other citizens. When museums are spaces that encourage this critical dialog they can change the world.

Lawrence Burns

Lawrence Burns compares today’s China to the United States of the 1950s, when progress was spelled with a capital C and anything was possible. There was a sense of optimism that we have lost, but China is now experiencing. Expo 2010 Shanghai had over 73 million visitors in 184 days. For many Chinese, it was their first trip outside their village or city. At the Expo, they saw the brightest and best inventions including General Motors’ new ENV technology. To achieve something completely new, Burns encourages us to use generational learning, to rethink the DNA and think like a designer
The power of And

Pete Garcia

Garcia asks what San Diego’s next big idea could be. He suggests making it a place that uses the business of design as the driver for a new industry cluster. San Diego has been rich in technology, but light in design; today it is the combination of both technology and design that creates opportunities for growth and innovation. To catch the next wave and remain competitive, the answer for San Diego is to stretch beyond our comfort zone and tackle something big.
San Diejo, a new I.D.E.A.

Jean Isaacs/San Diego Dance Theater

Dance is one more way to express innovation. But is this a mysterious process that non-dancers cannot imagine executing, or is it something the human body innately understands? Jean Isaacs says we can all tap into this art form. She shows us how the human body can explore space on cue and through quickly learned memory.

Bill Toone

Bill Toone shares his personal and moving story of how the concept of conservation changed for him. Initially, he thought it was enough to save a species. But as Bill has learned from experience, effective conservation efforts must address the people who live in the habitat. If we don’t solve the human issues first, animals like the monarch butterfly can’t be saved.
You can't save Bambi without building a stove

James Fowler

James Fowler has been studying the power that real and virtual social networks have to influence our behavior. For thousands of years, human beings were conditioned to living in villages with a social sphere of about 150 other people. It’s only recently that we have become isolated and anonymous. Online social networks are a return to the village where our actions have consequences on others around us. Fowler’s work shows that our life actions, positive and negative, affect the people we know personally, their friends, and even their friends’ friends.
Back to the village

Jason Russell

Jason Russell can tell you how to get away with murder. He and his colleagues at Invisible Children know too well the terrible reality of thousands of children abducted and forced to fight in Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army. Invisible Children led a five-year quest to have the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act signed and enacted. Their journey took them to Chicago, where a determined young woman led a tireless campaign to get Invisible Children featured on Oprah and call attention to the child soldiers. Jason shares his inspiring story of how one person with little experience but much determination can make a huge difference.
Justice for some

Simon Sinek

The greatest challenge any organization faces is success says Simon Sinek. As organizations grow, inevitably they reach “The Split” a point when what the organization does gets separated from why it does it. When this happens the emphasis on making money increases along with the stress level. At the same time, passion and trust decrease. Simon calls on us to make “handshake friends” engage in “handshake dialogues” and build “handshake businesses.” In this way, we can return to valuing human relationships and get back to a place where trust becomes the standard, not the exception.
Restoring the human in humanity

Joe Pine

Joe Pine seeks to do nothing less than redefine our known universe, a bold goal which manifested itself in The Multiverse, a 3D framework he created. By examining the fields created at the intersection of three axes (space/no space, time/no time, and matter/no matter), Joe introduces us to eight realms for creating value by innovating experiences. Physical virtuality, for example, involves designing things virtually and then making them a reality, such as the way 3D bio-printers manufacture human tissue and organs. Through Joe’s eyes, we see the future and it is mind blowing!
Infinite possibility