This year at TEDxEastVan we are taking extra steps to make our event as green as possible. Here’s what we’re doing to further this campaign and how you can help.

Our local Green Team is made up of volunteers that are dedicated to promoting environmental sustainability before, during, and after the event. We recognize environmental stewardship is a shared responsibility and we are committed to hosting a green event.

Our vendors

We have done our best throughout our planning over the last few months to select vendors and contractors committed to sustainable practices. Our team will be establishing waste diversion stations and signage so that each and every one of our attendees and volunteers can easily dispose of any waste the right way.

To help reduce the waste at the event overall we will be using the Aboriginal Centre’s catering services with local food items served in compostable, reusable, or recyclable packaging and are minimizing single-use items. Our snack service will be provided by EnRoot who will provide zero packaging food items.

This is not just about reducing waste but also benefiting our community which is why we are also participating in a food recovery program with Food Stash. They will pick up any leftover meals and snacks and deliver them to one of twenty-six organisations they work with in BC including the Greater Vancouver Food Bank and Broadway Youth Resource.

And our favorite part, the ‘swag bag’. Our sponsors have opted to go with an electronic alternative to the physical swag bag, which will be electronic coupons full of fun, zero-waste treats for all attendees.

Getting there

We have done our best to select the event and after-party locations in close proximity to each other with access to public transportation to reduce environmentally-unfriendly travel. A big yellow school bus will be waiting outside the venue to transport attendees to our after party location and back. If you want to help out but need to drive you can always carpool with the awesome new friends you make at the event.

Here's what you can do:

• Vancouver has a vast range of options and very reliable public transport. Try taking the bus, skytrain or ride a bike to the event. Or, if you live close, enjoy some fresh air and walk to the event (before the winter sets in).
• We are encouraging all our volunteers and attendees to bring a reusable water bottle or mug to reduce the need for disposable cups on the day of the event.
• Take some time to properly sort your waste into bins provided and keep recyclables contaminant free and if you’re not sure just ask one of our volunteers.
• Participate in our ‘Share the Warmth’ clothing drive. Instead of discarding of your clean warm clothes, bring them to our event and the Move Share Care Network will set up a bin to collect the donations. They will then bring these to First United Church in the Downtown Eastside.

Getting our speakers from auditions to being audience-ready is an important behind-the-scenes task. One of this year's coaches shares her unique process and journey with us.   

Eyes, noses, hair, hands… at the first meeting with the speakers selected for this year’s TEDx East Van stage, I see a blur of people. As they talk, introduce themselves, get fired up about the opportunity, they begin to come into focus for me, become individuals, become stories still to be told.  It’s always fascinating, this distillation from a group to a handful of people to whom I am committed. I want them to be hugely successful and to be proud of what they accomplish.

To get there, to the stage of the York Theatre on September 16th, there are many hours of thinking, pondering, floating of ideas, and shooting some of those down.  My process may not be representative but it’s mine and I know it works. We start by imagining the day of the event, seeing the audience, hearing their applause, feeling their excitement and then we scroll back to figure out the best way to get there.  I like to hear their thoughts about their own Idea Worth Spreading, then take a detour into some performance exercises before we settle back down to crafting the thoughts that will become words, that will become performances, and then memories.

Sometimes the initial idea is rejected or dramatically revised. Sometimes it’s a matter of changing the order of things, adding a bit of this and a bit of that, leaving some empty words and phrases on the floor, ready for the broom to sweep them off.  I see it as a bit of a dance where each of us throws out a couple of taps and then waits to see what is tapped back. Astaire and Rogers, it’s not but there is a rhythm that evolves and eventually, we’re dancing together rather than taking turns. It’s a beautiful thing.

As always, the challenge is not to determine what to include, but what to carve away. All of my speakers are so rich in content, in fascinating ideas and information to be shared, in new ways of looking at the world and at being Human.  The process of becoming a great speaker is a natural quest for humans: to strive, to challenge yourself, to make a connection.

I’m so happy to be part of the dance.

Joanna Piros
TEDxEastVan 2017 Coach

We’re excited to share a little about the third and final group of speakers who will be rounding out the group taking over the York Theatre stage on September 16th. They’re working hard with their coaches to craft talks and create spaces in which to educate, to entertain, and to inspire their audience, which could include you! Don’t miss out!

Laura Cuthbert
3 Words to Describe Me: Curation, rigour, and inquiry.
Favourite TED Talk: Ze Frank, My Web Playroom

Laura Cuthbert is an Anthropologist and has spent the past eight years looking deeply in British Columbia’s history. She’s made it her mission to provide a more intersectional story of our past and open access to the tools and research methods she uses. This broad focus has turned into her project, Populous Map, a still in-development website and storytelling series in Vancouver. Her research has brought her to over 130 abandoned towns across BC and into rural areas to document history with the people who have lived it.

Laura has used her anthropology and community mobilization skills through her work at Kudoz, a startup where she curates a catalogue of learning experiences that enables adults with cognitive disabilities to get out and meet people in their community.

She's found that Populous Map has given her a local perspective on the global issue of historical erasure, while Kudoz has encouraged her to celebrate learning, rigour, intentionality, and reflection in everything she does. Both projects rely on the power of people and their stories, Laura is looking forward to sharing a few of her own.

Mark Haden
3 Words to Describe Me: psychedelics and drug policy
Favourite TED Talk: Graham Hancock, The War on Consciousness

Mark has worked in the field of addiction services for 28 years and is an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia in the School of Public and Population Health. He is an instructor at the University of British Columbia and has published studies on drug control policy in several Canadian and International academic journals.

He works closely with the Health Officers of British Columbia on position papers related to market regulation of illegal drugs and was awarded the Queens Diamond Jubilee Medal for his work on drug policy reform in 2013.

Lynne Laporte
3 Words to Describe Me: Strength. Yoga. Mother-Nature
Favourite TED Talk: Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight

A former National triathlon team member and Varsity Cross Country athlete, Lynne moved to BC almost 10 years ago and is now a converted BC mountain biker and yoga enthusiast. She has owned and operated her own gym, Enhanced Performance with husband, Cian Lanigan, in East Vancouver for the past 3 years. For Lynne, training and moving her body has always been a part of who she is and how she interacts with the world. She believes that those who move and play, learn skills beyond the gym that translate to happiness and personal connectedness.

Nadine Wildheart
3 Words to Describe Me: Imagination, Play, Curiosity
Favourite TED Talk: Benjamin Zander, The transformative power of classical music

Nadine Wildheart is a storyteller, who has been trained by world renowned storytellers, Laura Simms and Nancy Mellon. She also sits with Haida History Keeper and Storyteller, Woody Morrison, Ph.D., who was trained by The Old Ones as a little boy.

Nadine holds a Bachelor of Education with a teaching philosophy in whole brain thinking and emotional intelligence. She also completed a Bachelor of Arts in Great Books/English with a focus in Spiritual Psychology, the theories of the Western Cannon, Consciousness Studies and Jungian and Freudian Dream Theory.

Nadine is a professional trained clown in the Pochinko technique, she studied with the Halifax circus, has hitchhiked across Canada five times and helped edit a textbook on Indigenous Injustices, “The Colonial Problem” by Dr. Lisa Monchalin.

Daphne Roubini
3 Words to Describe: Charismatic, Healing, Gratitude
Favourite TED Talk: Brené Brown, The Power of Vulnerability

Daphne Roubini is a vocalist, ukulele player, educator, writer, songwriter, healer, ukulele school owner, and producer of the Vancouver ukulele festival. Music and healing has always been the backbone of her life.

She has worked in the healing field for over 20 years, supporting patients suffering from professional burnout. As a professional musician, she has trained with London’s finest jazz musicians, and presently leads two bands: Ruby & Smith and Black Gardenia.

She is currently recording two albums to be released this fall. She is also the founder of Ruby Ukes, Vancouver’s Ukulele school, that now supports the strumming of over 1000 students a year.

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