TEDxSanJuanIsland looks at affect and effect in communities
Published 10:36 am Wednesday, September 9, 2015
People often hope to have a lasting impact on the communities they live in, whether it’s through affecting people through actions or words, or effecting change through policy, teamwork or otherwise.
TEDxSanJuanIsland will be celebrating both efforts in their debut event Sept. 20 with the theme “Affect/Effect: How do we create change?” a day-long affair featuring 14 local and global presenters. It will also showcase music from local talent Tashi and Kaj Litch in their band Brother For Sale, as well as a tour of the Friday Harbor High School STEM Center that opened this year.
“The theme is designed to reflect the ranges of ways that people can be change-makers, from leaders who take center stage to the quiet achievers whose ideas and contributions spark ripple effects the lead to enduring change,” said Megan Mulhall of the organizing committee. “The theme also has a secondary, more simplistic interpretation, which is simply that when someone affects another person or community, there is always a consequence or effect.”
The event has nine local speakers from San Juan Island and five from the Pacific Northwest and further afield. Gretchen Krampf, above, of Orcas Island will be presenting this year and was involved with the TEDx event last year on Orcas Island. Krampf, who has lived on Orcas for 27 years, is chairwoman of Leadership San Juan Island and Director of NewStories Thriving Salish Sea Project.
“I’m speaking about what creates a thriving, resilient community and it’s a bit about what I’ve worked on over the past five years in those areas of community development and leadership,” Krampf said. “I bring a real local perspective on the impact that each of us can have when we are a part of our community — that individual contributing to the betterment of the whole.”
Krampf said she looks forward to seeing the San Juan version of TEDx and for a day full of shared ideas.
Ian Boyden executive director at San Juan Islands Museum of Art will be presenting a piece of art that he has been working on for five years.
“As an artist I’m really interested in the intersections of art and ecology, art and the environment,” Boyden, pictured at left, said. “So both my work as an artist and my work at IMA are looking at how art can function as a medium or a catalyst for creating awareness and change in terms of our relationship to the larger environment.”
Boyden said that he’s looking forward to hearing the essence of everyone’s ideas in their eighteen minute presentation, almost an elevator pitch compared to what some presenters are used to.
“I’m actually learning quite a lot in the process of whittling my talk down as to what is truly the essential information and what is the information that pads things or provides context,” Boyden said.
In addition to Megan Mulhall on the organizing committee is David Mulhall and Gary Franklin. The three got the idea to do a TEDx talk after discussing how much they miss the atmosphere of college towns and the free exchange of topics in a multitude of forums.
“What really excited me about it but never ceases to amaze me is how wealthy the community is in terms of creative discourse and sources of ideas,” Megan Mulhall said of the San Juans.
The three hope to “foster the TED community over time” by having the event in the fall on a yearly basis, while Orcas Island will have their TEDx in the spring, Mulhall said. By drawing annual interest, they hope to offer more presenters, more tickets, and a bigger venue.
Tickets for the Sept. 20 event are available for sale on their website tedxsanjuanisland.com or at San Juan Community Theatre at sjctheatre.com, or call (360) 378-3210. Tickets are only available for pre-sale and are not available at the door the day of the event. For a full list of presenters and events, visit their website here.
