TEDxPhoenix 11.11.11 - November 11th, 2011

[Tomas]

Hi Geek Week AZers,

TEDxPhoenix was part of the original Geek Week AZ back in 2009, and
we're now rolling up on our third annual event. BTW I was actually in
the middle of typing up an email for the Refresh Phoenix Google Group
only to realize that it's no longer active, so I'm hoping most of you
would have received this email in some way, shape, or form.

Regarding our upcoming 11.11.11 event, this is the first time that any
TEDx in the Valley of the Sun has secured speakers who have graced the
TED and TEDGlobal stages, as well as made it to the front pages of
TED.com. You may be wondering why this matters to you, and it's a
valid question as you may not give a rats arse and that's totally cool
with me. Yet ultimately, we put on these events because a local
economy built on construction, real estate, and hospitality could use
a bit of inspiration and innovative ideas to help make things a bit
more sustainable both economically and environmentally.

Also one more thing before I forget, we've given up on keeping our
event in the City of Phoenix. Don't get me wrong, the City of Phx has
been a great home to our smaller salon events, but trying to put on
our larger annual event has proven both frustrating and cost
prohibitive as you'll either pay out the nose for a decent theater (by
decent, I mean a 300 to 500 seat theater that has all the tech you
need to put on something that's TED-like for under $1800), or you'll
pay out the nose renting chairs, a stage, projector and PA system to
make things work. So this year, we're going back to the MAC in Mesa
where we first started in 2009 (just the thought that we'll have an
audio engineer in the fray helps me sleep at night).

For those of you who are interested, you can find our speaker lineup
and link to tickets on the TEDxPhoenix website:

http://www.tedxphoenix.com/

If the ticket price makes you wince, then consider that for $39.99 you
get access to the same speakers that TED Conference attendees paid
$6000 to get access to. ;) BTW email me directly at tomas at
tedxphoenix dot com for a small discount, it's not much but it might
help to keep things within the reach of your budget.

Last but not least, if you have any ideas on how we can turn
TEDxPhoenix into something that has a larger impact on the local tech,
education, and design communities, please do share as I'm all
ears. :)

Sincerely,
~Tomas