TEDxUChicago 2014: Make No Little Plans

TEDxUChicago 2014: Make No Little Plans

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

On April 19, TEDxUChicago 2014: Make No Little Plans, the 4th annual TEDxUChicago conference, will bring together world-class speakers and attendees for ten incredible talks on “ideas worth spreading.” 

The event’s world-class speakers include: 

  • Jeremy Bird, the National Field Director for Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign and a Founding Partner at the next-generation grassroots consulting firm 270 Strategies
  • Rich “Ace” Franklin, former 3-time UFC: Ultimate Fighting Championship Middleweight Champion, mixed martial artist, and co-founder and Chief Health Officer of ZeLin Juice Bars
  • Susan Messing, alumna of the Second City Mainstage, “The Funniest Woman in Chicago,” and one of the Chicago’s forefront teachers of improvisational comedy
  • Ryan Holiday, the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator and the forthcoming The Obstacle Is the Way (May 2014), Editor at Large of Observer.com‘s tech site, Betabeat, and the Director of Marketing at American Apparel
  • Sabina Shaikh, Economics Lecturer in Public Policy and the Program on the Global Environment and the Director of the Environment, Agriculture & Food Working Group at the University of Chicago
  • Borris Powell, founder of Borris Powell Designs, winner of the Oscars Designer Challenge 2011, and one of the most popular women’s luxury fashion designers in Chicago
  • Kristin Swanson, founder and director of the Swanson Lab at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a pioneer in the burgeoning field of Mathematical Neuro-Oncology
  • Khadija Mustafa, General Manager at Microsoft who has worked in and traveled to more than 65 countries doing business on the Skype and Surface accounts

It also includes two incredible University of Chicago student speakers: 

  • Lauren Riensche, the Undergraduate Student Speaker Winner, is a third year Sociology major at the University of Chicago; the sixth generation to live and work on her family’s farm (the Blue Diamond Farming Company) in Jesup, Iowa; and has come to Chicago to trade the pitchfork for the pen to promote a viable and sustainable agriculture for tomorrow
  • Aelaf Worku, MD, the Graduate Student Speaker Winner, is pursuing his Masters in Health Studies in the Biological Sciences Division at the University of Chicago, is a Hospitalist Scholar at the University of Chicago Medicine, and believes that experiences from volunteering in a resource-limited environment in Africa can provide lessons for practicing medicine in Chicago

Attendees will be able to engage with the Chicago community, converse with world-class speakers and global change-makers, and experience the life of the mind in its purest form. Attendees do not need to be affiliated with the University. The ticket cost includes a complimentary lunch. Get more information and tickets.