Tomas Jech is a professional animator in the videogames industry. He currently holds the position of Senior Animator at Riot Games on League of Legends. Prior to joining Riot, he has interned in animation at Pixar, animated on Halo: Reach at Bungie Studios, and was an animator at Blizzard Entertainment. Throughout his career, Tomas has had the great fortune to work alongside some of the most talented creative professionals in the world. But creative work is always a struggle, and innovation comes with a host of fears and insecurities to overcome. In his talk, Tomas shares the lessons that help him deal with insecurity directly and maintain an innovative environment in the ever-changing industry of game development.
Author: Angela Wilcox
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You Have One Life. Live It
After the tragic death of her husband Shane in 2009, Sherry McConkey had to change in order to continue to thrive. Shane McConkey, regarded as the most influential skier in the world, believed that if you have the courage to be authentic, anything is possible. In this very authentic talk, Sherry discusses how the legacy of Shane empowers her daily to discover a new and better version of herself.
An avid world traveler, Sherry McConkey was born in Ireland, raised in South Africa, and began her global journey in 1989. After traveling through Europe and Canada, she landed in Lake Tahoe, CA, which she still calls home.
A passion for the outdoors connected Sherry to legendary free ski pioneer Shane McConkey. The two were married in Thailand in 2004 and their greatest creation, Ayla, came along in 2005. Shane passed away in 2009.
Through both her life with Shane, and his death, Sherry has come to believe that with desire, passion, and a goal, anything is possible. Despite the grief after losing him, Sherry knew she wanted to carry on Shane’s legacy. She turned moments of sadness into inspiration and used the power of positivity to build The Shane McConkey Foundation, and Executive Produce the movie, McConkey. -
Stop Waiting for Life to Happen
What is the ultimate App you ever downloaded? Facebook, Twitter, Shazam? According to Peter Sage it is and has always been Love. Love is they key to unleash our potential and reach for true connections between one another. In his talk Peter reflects on why separation is an illusion and illustrates how we can transform our lifes into a smashing experience.
Peter Sage is a well-known international serial entrepreneur with twenty-five years of experience in growing fast-paced enterprises.
During that time he launched, operated and brought to success over a dozen companies, several of which were large enough to qualify for the global Entrepreneurs Organisation membership. He served as the Chairman of the London YES Group (the largest personal development organization in Europe) and currently serves on the Entrepreneurship Advisory Board for INSEAD – a global top-five business school and one of the world leaders in the field of entrepreneurship education. Peter is also an advisor to the Hungarian Government on their creative think tank policies. Virtually all of the businesses Peter created have been in different industries.
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The Mindset of Summeting Mt. Everest
Norwegian adventurer Siv Harstad was a survivor of Nepal’s 2015 earthquake. As a Mount Everest summiteer, she is known for her unlimited source of courage, enthusiasm and ability to transform challenges into achievements. Listen to the amazing talk from this professional adventurer and her journeys from the TEDxArendal stage.
Siv has worked internationally with many of the leading Fortune 500 companies. Today, she helps people transform challenges into achievements with her inspiring and authentic leadership methodology, by taking people on eye-opening adventures in places like Kilimanjaro and Nepal.
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Stop Asking “How Can I Help?”
When faced with a problem, we ask ourselves: “How can I help?” But, what if it is precisely this question that is keeping us from making real progress towards solutions? Laura Gassner Otting offers a better question, one that solves the problem because it serves the solution and not just our own egos.
Laura Gassner Otting has spent the last 20 years working to strengthen organizations that weave our social and civic fabric. Through Limitless Possibility, Laura collaborates with entrepreneurs and investors to push past the doubt and indecision that consign great ideas to limbo. She delivers strategic thinking, well-honed wisdom, and catalytic perspective informed by decades of navigating change across the start-up, nonprofit, political, and philanthropic landscapes.
Laura’s 25-year resume is defined by her entrepreneurial edge. She served as a Presidential Appointee in Bill Clinton’s White House, helping shape AmeriCorps; left a leadership role at respected nonprofit search firm, Isaacson, Miller, to expand the startup ExecSearches.com; and founded and ran the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group, which partnered with the full gamut of mission driven nonprofit executives, from start-up dreamers to scaling social entrepreneurs to global philanthropists.
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Freedom From Self-Doubt
A former felon, turned doctor, clinical director, and professor, Dr. B J Davis is living proof that our past doesn’t dictate our future. Our past can refine us. He shares his story of coming to the realization that he needed to create own miracle.
Dr. Davis is the Director of Strategies for Change, a substance abuse and mental health treatment agency. He is also the author of the movie “What is Recovery?” In addition to his doctorate, Davis has a dual BA in philosophy and religion, and masters’ degrees in psychology and counseling. Aside from working at Strategies, he is a Professor in the Forensic and Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program and consultant to the Sacramento Aids Housing Alliance.
It is his history that allows Dr. Davis to speak with authority. A recovering drug addict, Davis spent time in State and Federal prisons, until he found people who believed in him, then a reason to believe in himself. Rather than drugs he depended on praise, and used that to become a director, a doctor, and a mentor. He now uses his unique background in addiction, recovery, and counseling to encourage others to believe in themselves.
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The Simple Cure for Loneliness
Baya Voce is the host of “The Art of Connection”, a web series looking to experts from across the globe on how to the live your most fulfilled life. In this TEDx talk, Baya reveals a simple tool you can start using today to create more happiness, fulfillment, and connection.
Baya’s business journey started as a cast member on MTV’s The Real World where her interest in relationships was nurtured. She transformed her TV exposure into an entrepreneurial adventure, learning early on how the power of one strong connection can transform your life and career. Her inherent belief that the quality of your relationships equals the quality of your life and that your network is your net worth, led her to her interest in connection, community, and relationships. For the past decade she has studied connection in three pillars: connection with yourself, your partner, and your community. She is a Dating and Relationship Coach, founder of Secret SLC, co-founder of Womenpreneurs and hosts a monthly segment on ABC as Utah’s Relationship Specialist. Baya is a Certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner, studies Emotional Intelligence, Positive Psychology, and Body Language, and mentors under intimacy and relationship experts.
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After Watching This, Your Brain Will Not Be The Same
Our knowledge of the brain is evolving at a breathtaking pace, and Dr. Lara Boyd is positioned at the cutting edge of these discoveries. In 2006, she was recruited by the University of British Columbia to become the Canada Research Chair in Neurobiology and Motor Learning. Since that time she has established the Brain Behaviour Lab, recruited and trained over 40 graduate students, published more than 80 papers and been awarded over $5 million in funding.
Dr. Boyd’s efforts are leading to the development of novel, and more effective, therapeutics for individuals with brain damage, but they are also shedding light on broader applications. By learning new concepts, taking advantage of opportunities, and participating in new activities, you are physically changing who you are, and opening up a world of endless possibility.
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The Surprisingly Dramatic Role of Nutrition in Mental Health
This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. In this critically important talk, clinical psychologist Julia Rucklidge explores a range of scientific research, including her own, showing the significant role played by nutrition in mental health or illness.
Julia J Rucklidge, PhD is a Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Originally from Toronto, she did her training in neurobiology (McGill) and Clinical Psychology (University of Calgary). Her interests in nutrition and mental illness grew out of her own research showing poor outcomes for children with significant psychiatric illness despite receiving conventional treatments for their conditions. For the last 6 years, she has been investigating the role of micronutrients in the expression of mental illness, specifically ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, anxiety and more recently, stress and PTSD associated with the Canterbury earthquakes.
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Losing weight the ‘cool way’
“I want you to understand that it is good to feel chilly,” Patrick Rensen says. Though there are different ways to burn calories, Rensen argues there is a fairly straightforward way to achieve this: lower the room temperature.
“Activating brown fat to burn 200 kcal per day,” says Rensen, “can translate to about three kilograms of weight loss per year. We are now investigating whether nutritional and pharmacological interventions may be effective as well.”
As a Professor of Endocrinology at Leiden University Medical Center, Rensen studies the role of sugar and fat metabolism in diabetes and heart disease. In particular, Rensen is investigating something called ‘brown fat’ which is different from the all too familiar ‘white fat’ that tends to collect around our middles. “We know that babies are born with brown fat,” says Rensen, “but we thought it disappeared after a few years…”