TEDxWartburgCollege will host its second annual event March 30, 9 a.m. to noon, in Knights Ballroom of Saemann Student Center on the Wartburg College campus.

The independently organized event, licensed by TED, will feature local voices and TED Talks videos under the theme of Innovational Generations. The event is free to the public, but RSVPs are encouraged at www.wartburg.edu/tedx/.

Launched in 2009, TEDx is a program of locally organized events that bring the community together to share a TED-like experience. Some of the best talks from TEDx events have gone on to be featured on TED.com and garnered millions of views from audiences across the globe.

TEDxWartburgCollege is a half-day event featuring talks and performances in the spirit of TEDx, which could include music, comedy, videos and other surprises.

“Besides providing attendees the best environment for the spark of conversations that matter, we want to bring to Wartburg College the best platform to promote understanding, creativity and diversity. Our final goal is to provide to our audience the joy of learning new things, learning about others’ ideas that will spur their own creativity and providing them with an invaluable networking opportunity,” said Alejandro Salazar, TEDxWartburgCollege organizer and licensee.

Speakers at TEDxWartburgCollege will include:
• Esmeralda Alarcon: “It is time to help people find their place in the context of being a global citizen and what it means to fit into the global community at large.”
• Sage Lavine: “There is a drastic untapped potential within female entrepreneurs, even though women are launching small businesses left and right … when we can design businesses and the modern market to complement both genders, we will ignite an evolution of women entrepreneurs reaching their highest potential.”
• Hailey Schmitz: “The obesity epidemic is no secret; children today may be the first generation that will not outlive their parents.”
• Britt Avery: “We often isolate and judge others by what we see and what others see, and we don’t initiate any sort of action between those people and ourselves if something stands between us.”
• Yusra Malik: “A tree takes much time to grow to full potential, and the same can be said about the change that we so wish to see in this world. It will come, but it will take time.”
• Anshika Singh: “Using stereotypes against millennials and personal stories, I will talk about the need to embrace the perspectives and working styles that millennials bring into the workforce.”
• Ian Coon: “Students are the most important stakeholder in the education process and the least consulted.”
• Wil Ranney: “We’ve been looking at fostering civility on the internet all wrong. We’ll explore why some popular theories like echo chambers lead to political polarization and don’t hold water, and why ‘calls for unity’ are misguided (at best).”
• Gale Trimble: “I want to focus on how broad of a spectrum gender has been in the past, still is and will be in the future.”
• Caleb Gipple: “We work to develop a culture where younger generations are exposed to failure more frequently in the hopes of shaping innovative leaders who are ready to tackle the problems of the future.”
• Kim Schlesinger: “It is our responsibility to admit our wrongs and listen to the experiences and knowledge of others in order to learn and grow.”
• Abby Weiland: “We dig into the stories of teachers who experience success in and out of the classroom, who feel like they haven’t lost themselves in the quest to do what’s best for kids.”

For more information about TEDxWartburgCollege, visit www.wartburg.edu/tedx/; www.ted.com/tedx/events/31097; www.facebook.com/tedxwartburgcollege/.

About TEDx, x = independently organized event

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talk videos and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks delivered by today’s leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED’s annual gathering in Vancouver, Canada; TEDWomen and TEDGlobal conferences; and thousands of independently organized TEDx events around the world, then made available, free, on TED.com and other channels.