TED Talks’ mission is to spread ideas. Speakers take the stage to share their idea, usually in less than 18 minutes. This March, ideas are coming to Rexburg at TEDx Rexburg.
Maija-Liisa Adams is an organizer for the event, as well as a public speaking coach and adjunct teacher at BYU-Idaho. She is looking forward to finally hosting the event after it was postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic.
This year’s theme will be resilience. Adams says there are two factors that inspired the theme. First, resilience was required to make the event happen. The speakers have waited since 2020 to share their messages, and organizers have persisted to make the event happen. Second, resilience is an ode to Rexburg. The day of the event, March 12, is the city’s birthday.
“Rexburg is founded basically with resilient people,” Adams said. “We have strong winds here, we have deep roots, and we are just a resilient people.”
The ‘X’ in TEDx talks means that although the event receives a license from the parent organization TED Talks to host the event, TEDx events are independently organized and hosted on a local level, rather than global.
Each TEDx event chooses how to select speakers. In Rexburg, speakers can be nominated. This year Jenna Johnson, Dr. Russ Gaede, Clayton Poland, Dr. Seth Robins, Dr. Jason Karp, Marcy Axelrod, Rick Hansen and Calvin Krainock will speak.
When reflecting on the impact of a TEDx talk, Adams thinks of Bill Crawford, a BYU-Idaho professor whose TEDx Rexburg talk has garnered over 600,000 views on YouTube. The former bomber pilot and current owner of local Rexburg business Righteous Slice, shared how to be the best at what you do.
“He even talks in his TEDx talk about how he wants to be the best at pizza making… That’s how he approaches life and that’s definitely an idea worth spreading. And it has spread to hundreds of thousands of people,” Adams said.
To get tickets or to nominate a speaker go to https://tedxrexburg.com/.