TEDWomen 2016 Conference, "It's About Time," Kicks Off in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26, 2016  /PRNewswire/ -- TED, the nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, opens its TEDWomen 2016 conference today at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Themed "It's about time," the event will feature a live program of more than 40 speakers and performers over three days exploring how time and attention shape our lives. TED will broadcast the TED Talks in real time to a record 275 simultaneous TEDxWomen events held in more than 70 countries and 230 cities around the world.

This year marks TEDWomen's fifth year since its launch in 2010. The event is produced in association with Pat Mitchell, the editorial director and host of TEDWomen, and will feature sessions curated and hosted by members of the TED community, including Mia Birdsong, John Cary, Courtney Martin and Dalia Mogahed.

"This year's program further affirms that TEDWomen is not a conference about women so much as it is a conference where women's ideas, on everything from race to nuclear weapons to philanthropy and time management, have the power to transform the way people around the world live and work—including those living where women may not traditionally have a voice," said Mitchell.

The TEDWomen 2016 experience will extend well beyond the audience in San Francisco through the TEDx program, which allows communities worldwide to produce independently organized TED events. Talks delivered in San Francisco will be streamed live to several thousand people watching around the globe at 275 independently organized TEDxWomen events in more than 70 countries—TEDxWomen's highest engagement yet. Events include:

• TEDxNakaseroWomen (Kampala, Uganda)
• TEDxSaoPauloWomen (Sao Paolo, Brazil)
• TEDxCairoWomen (Cairo, Egypt)
• TEDxPrishtinaWomen (Prishtina, Kosovo)
• TEDxSuzhouWomen (Suzhou, China)
• TEDxMirafloresWomen (Lima, Peru)
• TEDxLahoreWomen (Lahore, Pakistan)
• TEDxLytteltonWomen (Centurion, South Africa)
• TEDxDeiraWomen (Dubai, UAE)
• TEDxAccraWomen (Accra, Ghana)
• TEDxPovrovkaStWomen (Moscow, Russia)
• TEDxEucalyptusRdWomen (Lusaka, Zambia)

In addition to the simulcast, these events will also host local speakers sharing ideas and stories from and about women in their own communities.

"TEDWomen is more than just a conference held inside four walls—it's a global launch pad of ideas that shows people around the world, in real time, what happens when leading thinkers – women and men – come together to share their collective experience and expertise," said executive director of the TEDx program, Jay Herratti. 

In addition to the speakers and performers featured in its six sessions, TEDWomen 2016 will also host a Global Showcase, featuring 12 artisan organizations from every region of the world. Curated and organized by the Alliance for Artisan Enterprise, the Showcase will demonstrate the power and potential of the massive artisan economy by inviting artisan organizations to share stories and impact of social enterprise.

Also new to TEDWomen this year is the inclusion of five original short films commissioned specifically for the event. Created by women filmmakers with the curatorial and production support of Chicken & Egg Pictures and Lifetime, the films honor this year's "It's about time" theme and will be screened on the main stage between talks and performances. 

The TEDWomen 2016 speaker list includes:

Anela Arifi, Student scientist, flutist
Suzanne Barakat, Physician
Peter Boyd, Social entrepreneur
Sharon Brous, Rabbi
Michelle Carter, Olympian 
Brittney Cooper, Cultural theorist
Kimberlé Crenshaw, Law professor
Patrisse Cullors, Artist, organizer
Lila Davachi, Memory researcher
Thordis Elva, Writer
Jeanne Gang, Architect
Alicia Garza, Writer, activist
Erika Gregory, Nuclear reformer
Katie Hinde, Lactation researcher
Chinaka Hodge, Writer, educator
Kathy Hull, Pediatric psychologist
Ilda Ismaili, Student scientist, pianist
Ashley Judd, Actor, activist
Musimbi Kanyoro, Women's rights activist
Jude Kelly, Theater director, producer
Alonzo King, Artistic director
Deepika Kurup, Inventor, student scientist
Elizabeth Lesser, Wellness specialist
C. Nicole Mason, Author, researcher
Ian McCallum, Psychiatrist, poet, conservationist
Tiq Milan, Transgender activist
Kim Katrin Milan, Writer, educator, artist
Sisonke Msimang, Writer, activist
Jack Myers, Social analyst
Alana Nichols, Olympian 
Kennedy Odede, Community organizer
Jessica Posner Odede, Social entrepreneur, author
Peggy Orenstein, Journalist, author
Caroline Paul, Author
Nancy Pelosi, US Representative
Miriam Zoila Pérez, Activist, doula
Linda Sivertsen, Writer
Stacy Smith, Media researcher
Tom Stranger, Co-author, landscape gardener
Michele L. Sullivan, President, Caterpillar Foundation
Sandi Toksvig, Broadcast personality, politician, author
Opal Tometi, Human rights activist
Halla Tómasdóttir, Change catalyst
Laura Vanderkam, Author
Nanfu Wang, Director
Laura Soriano Yawanawá, Activist
Tashka Yawanawà, Chief of the Yawanawà

The full program can be found here: https://tedwomen2016.ted.com/program.

A number of brands and organizations have partnered with TEDWomen 2016 to share ideas and foster an atmosphere of innovation.  This year's partners include: ActuallySheCan, Arup, The Boston Consulting Group, Blackstone Charitable Foundation, Clinique, The Giving Keys, The Harnisch Foundation, IBM, Lands' End, Lifetime, MOO, Morgan Stanley, E-180, Philips Sonicare, PwC, Story, Square and UPS.

Live blog coverage of the conference will be updated throughout each day at blog.ted.com. The detailed TEDWomen 2016 program and more information can be found online here: https://tedwomen2016.ted.com/.

About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or fewer) delivered by today's leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED's annual conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, its TEDWomen conference and its TEDGlobal conferences—then made available, free, on TED.com and other channels. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.

TED's open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; the TED Translators, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from thousands of volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed; the annual million-dollar TED Prize, which funds exceptional individuals with a "wish," or idea, to create change in the world; TEDx, which provides licenses to thousands of individuals and groups who host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED, on Instagram at https://instagram.com/ted and on Snapchat as tedtalkshq.

About Pat Mitchell
Pat Mitchell has had an award-winning, groundbreaking career as a producer, journalist and media executive committed to optimizing the power of media to further empower women. Mitchell's work has garnered 37 Emmy Awards, five Peabodys, and two Academy Award nominations. In 2000, she became the first woman President and CEO of PBS. She most recently headed the Paley Center for Media in New York and Los Angeles. Mitchell has served as editorial director and host of TEDWomen since its first event in 2010.

Contact: Margaret Sullivan, [email protected], +1 (646) 519-1350

SOURCE TED

Related Links

https://tedwomen2016.ted.com