Press Releases

View More In This Section

Birmingham Partners with UAB to Host Global TEDx Viewing Event

Media Advisory

Contact:

April Odom
Mayor’s Office of Public Information

 

Birmingham Partners with UAB to Host Global TEDx Viewing Event

 The City of Birmingham will partner with the University of Alabama at Birmingham to host a TEDx Viewing Event at the UAB Hill Student Center/Alumni Theatre (3rd Floor Entrance). The event will take place on Thursday, February 11, 2016 from 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.  Students and public are welcome to attend.

The second edition of TEDxPlaceDesNations will actually physically be held in the iconic Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room of the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. TEDxPlaceDesNations : Transforming Lives is meant to celebrate and spread the word about the global impact of human rights.

Birmingham joins 20 registered viewing parties in the following locations: Barcelona (Spain), Birmingham (Alabama, US), Boston (MA, US), Brugge (Belgium), Derby (UK), Guatemala City (Guatemala),  Hampton (Virginia, US), Lagos (Nigeria), Luzern (Switzerland), Natolin (Poland), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), San Jose (Costa Rica), Washington, DC (US),  Westfield (Connecticut, US), Zurich (Switzerland), and five different events in Geneva (Switzerland).

“This is truly global event, spanning across 11 countries and 4 continents. Birmingham is positioning itself as a global human rights city and we are glad to partner with UAB to host this event, said Mayor William Bell.

TEDxPlaceDesNations will bring together 11 diverse and distinguished speakers from around the world, all with powerful and inspiring stories to tell.  They are innovators, public health and energy specialists, human rights defenders and humanitarians, all of whom have made a real difference in people’s lives around the world.  The speakers are: Ranyee Chiang, Cookstove Technologist; Ger Duany, Refugee Ally; Scott Foster, Energy Activator; Thabitha Khumalo, Democracy Advocate; Beeban Kidron, iRights Campaigner; Dennis Liotta, Drug Discoverer; Şafak Pavey, Inclusion Champion; Didier Pittet, Hand-washing Provocateur; Coline Rapneau, Sexual Violence Adversary; Leonardo Sakamoto, 21st Century Abolitionist; and Rohini Swaminathan, Satellite Humanitarian.  More information on the program and the 11 speakers is available at: www.tedxplacedesnations.ch.

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 30 years ago, TED has grown to support its mission with multiple initiatives. The two annual TED Conferences invite the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes or less. Many of these talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.

The annual TED Conference takes place each spring in Vancouver, British Columbia, along with the TEDActive simulcast event in nearby Whistler. The annual TEDGlobal conference will be held this October in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TED Talks are posted daily; the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world get help translating their wishes into action; TEDx, which supports individuals or groups in hosting local, self- organized TED-style events around the world, and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks.

###