The second annual TEDxUIllinois conference will be held September 15, 2011, with registration beginning at 8:30 a.m., and events from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, located at 405 North Matthews Avenue, in Urbana, IL.
The event’s theme is “the Medium is the Message,” in honor of what would have been Marshall McLuhan’s 100th birthday this year. A range of accomplished and acclaimed speakers will explore topics such as the future of journalism, the worldwide race to create the perfect battery, building a “smarter” Chicago, threats to the freedom of the Internet, and how a pair of traditional institutions — C-SPAN and Major League Baseball — have reinvented themselves online.
In the spirit of the world-famous TED conferences, the independently-organized TEDxUIllinois will demonstrate the wealth of knowledge, talent, and energy the University of Illinois and Champaign-Urbana are known for.
Speakers include  Argonne National Laboratory battery and transportation researchers Jeff Chamberlain and Don Hillebrand; Brant Houston, Knight Chair for Investigative and Enterprise Reporting, College of Media, University of Illinois; Larry Ingrassia, Business Editor for The New York Times; Alan Joyce, Content Manager for socioeconomic data in Wolfram|Alpha; Rob Kennedy, President and Co-COO, C-SPAN; Will Leitch, Author and Contributing Writer for New York Magazine; Greg Lindsay, Author and Contributing Writer for Fast Company; Dr. Lisa Nakamura, Professor of Media & Cinema Studies, College of Media, University of Illinois; Lee Rainie, Founder and Director, Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project; Dr. Christian Sandvig, Associate Professor of Communication, Media & Cinema Studies, Library & Information Science, and Research Associate Professor at the Coordinated Science Laboratory, University of Illinois; Joseph Squier, Associate Director, School of Art & Design; Professor, Art & English, College of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Illinois; and John Tolva, Chief Technical Officer for the City of Chicago.
In the TED tradition, each speaker is challenged to give “the talk of your life” in 18 minutes or less.
“We expect this event to be exciting and especially timely, given all the deep and broad changes happening in the media on an almost daily basis,” said Brant Houston, the Knight Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting at the College of Media and co-chair of TEDxUIllinois with journalist and Illinois alum Greg Lindsay.
TEDxUIllinois is made possible thanks to the in-kind sponsorships of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, OJC Technologies in Urbana, and financial assistance from the College of Media and the Knight Chair for Investigative and Enterprise Reporting.
Attendees must register at: http://go.media.illinois.edu/TEDxUIllinois. Powered by the University of Illinois, the event will be available in high-quality video for free live viewing on the Internet. Follow TEDxUIllinois on Twitter, @tedxuillinois. For more information, contact Greg Lindsay at greg@babelfish.net or at (718) 254-2015.
About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani,Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, California, with simulcast in Palm Springs; TEDGlobal is held each year in Oxford, UK. TED's media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily, 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 TEDFellows 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.
Follow TED on Twitter at twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at facebook.com/TED.
TED2012, “Full Spectrum,” will be held February 27-March 2, 2012, in Long Beach, California, with the TEDActive simulcast in Palm Springs, California.
