Tickets go on sale for TEDxStanford 2013, set to the beat of breakthrough innovation

News correspondent Juju Chang will co-host TEDxStanford 2013. (Photo: Linda A. Cicero / Stanford News Service)

TEDxStanford returns to campus on Saturday, May 11. Tickets for the daylong intellectual feast of brief talks by fascinating speakers will go on sale at 9 a.m. April 8, online, in person or by phone, and are expected to sell out quickly.

A free, live webcast of  TEDxStanford 2013 will also be available.

This year's theme, "Break Through," brings a cutting-edge cast of speakers from laboratories and classrooms across the campus. Cliff Nass, the communications researcher, will, for example, talk about technology addiction and tween-age girls.

Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell, a faculty member at the School of Medicine who is also known as "the real elephant woman," will talk about how the huge animals communicate.

There will be talks on neural prosthetics that allow the brain to take over in spinal cord injuries and on how illusion and magic merge with design, and then attendees will hear about the Humboldt squid that are taking over Monterey Bay.

Among other topics, participants will hear about politics, the online learning movement that is changing education, deafness, solar energy, planetary change (the beginning of the Anthropocene Era) and dance as therapy.  

"One of the exciting things about this year's TEDxStanford program is the incredible variety of content, which exemplifies the range of disciplines, research and people at Stanford," said Melinda Sacks, curator and producer, TEDxStanford. "From our youngest residential student's dorm experience and a story about the Africa no one knows, to how you can overcome your inner critic, and a retrospective of the year in football from Stanford Coach David Shaw, we've created an unforgettable day. Integrated with the short breakthrough talks will be hip-hop dance, bluegrass, violin and much more. It's a program you'd only find at Stanford."

Co-hosts Juju Chang and David Hornik will present the speakers and dance and music performances throughout the day.

Chang is an Emmy Award-winning correspondent and national television reporter who has appeared on shows such as ABC News' Nightline, Good Morning America and 20/20.

Hornik, a lawyer who lectures on intellectual property issues at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, has worked for numerous startups and is the author of VentureBlog and producer of VentureCast.

Stanford's TEDx event is an independent offspring of the annual Technology, Entertainment and Design conference held in Monterey, Calif., since 1984. The nonprofit has dedicated itself to "ideas worth spreading" by inviting people from around the world to give the talks of their lives in under 20 minutes.

These talks have traditionally been closed to the public. However, in recent years, TED has helped to democratize information by posting all its talks for free.

TEDxStanford 2013 will be held at the Cemex Auditorium in the Knight Management Center at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Tickets are $35 for students, $69 for faculty and staff and $99 for general admission. This year there will be overflow rooms, for which tickets cost $25 and include lunch and the reception.

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