Attendance Application Deadline has been extended to August 25.

(Charlotte, NC) August 15, 2011 – Details for TEDxCharlotte 2011 “Risk-takers and Dream-makers” — October 15th at Queens University of Charlotte — are being finalized. Speakers are confirmed; the application to attend has been extended and a special alliance with TEDxNASA is forged.

TEDxNASA

Dr. Mark Moore, an expert in conceptual design of personal aircraft with a focus on small powered-lift personal and unmanned air vehicles at NASA has been invited to speak at TEDxCharlotte. Dr. Moore, who performs conceptual design system studies of advanced concepts at NASA’s Langley Research Center has a Bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Cincinnati, a Master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Stanford University, and a PhD in Aerospace System Design from Georgia Tech. He has worked for NASA for 25 years. His talk at the last TEDxNASA was very popular and he will do a similar talk on the future of personal space flight.

In turn, Quentin “Q” Talley, a Charlotte-based playwright who presented at the inaugural TEDxCharlotte, will speak at TEDxNASA. Furthering the alliance between TEDxCharlotte and NASA, TEDxCharlotte committee member and new media strategist Desiree Kane will be live blogging from TEDxNASA August 17.

Tracy Russ, of TEDxCharlotte, explains how the relationship began, “This story exemplifies what I love about TED. During an amazing conversation I had with TEDxNASA curators Steve Craft and Hayley Foster, we discovered that our ideas worth sharing weren’t just about the ideas included within our separate events, but ideas across our TEDx events. TEDxNASA wanted a jolt of the creative spirit and they were taken with the talk I had co-presented with my poet colleague Quentin “Q” Talley. We were literally jumping up and down at TEDActive because we knew a great connection had been made as we agreed to “exchange” speakers across the TEDx network – a scientist and a poet. Now, we’re so excited to include NASA aerospace engineer Dr. Mark Moore at TEDxCharlotte on October 15, and TEDxCharlotte poet Quentin “Q’ Talley will be sharing ideas at TEDxNASA in November. Sharing IS an idea worth sharing.”

Speakers
From space to installation art, from 365 days of intimacy to label-maker, this year’s roster of speakers represents the great diversity of our community. Over a dozen speakers will present at TEDxCharlotte. They include:

• Dr. Mark Moore, NASA Scientist
• Susan Harbage Page, Artist
• Juan Logan, Artist
• Charla Muller, Author of 365 Nights
• Loan Tran, Human Rights Advocate/Student
• James Adams, Community Leader and Human Rights Activist
• Scott Swimmer, Founder, DRUMSTRONG
• Max Wallace, Hackerspace Charlotte
• Dolph Ramseur, Founder, Ramseur Records
• Rebekah Ferguson, Documentary Filmmaker
• Clay Presley, CEO Carolina Pad/Humanitarian
• Kirsten Hemmy, Poet/Educator
• JD Lewis, Jackson Lewis, Buck Lewis, Founders,Twelve in Twelve/Bloggers/Humanitari​ans
• David Johnson, photographer/Founder, Silent Images
• Manny Ohonme, Sports Hero/Founder, Samaritans Feet

Check the website, www.TEDxCharlotte.com for speakers’ biographies.

Application Deadline
The application deadline to attend the conference has been extended to August 25. Confirmed applicants will be notified the first week of September.

Finally
All TEDxCharlotte 2010 speakers and performances are available for viewing at http://www.YouTube.com/TEDxCharlotte. TEDxCharlotte organizers work diligently to provide a stage from which to present original, thought-provoking ‘ideas worth spreading’. The all-volunteer team strives for the highest standards of authenticity, transparency and inclusion.

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TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 26 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. At TED, the world’s leading thinkers and doers are asked to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Benoit Mandelbrot, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Two major TED events are held each year: The TED Conference takes place every spring in Long Beach, California (along with a parallel conference, TEDActive, in Palm Springs), and TEDGlobal is held each summer in Edinburgh, Scotland.

About TED

TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily; the new TED Conversations, enabling broad conversations among TED fans; and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide.

TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action; TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self-organized events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

For information about TED’s upcoming conferences, visit http://www.ted.com/registration

Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED

Application Extension: August 25, 2011 http://www.tedxcharlotte.com/attend