SUNY Oswego will be hosting a TEDx event in Sheldon Hall Ballroom, sharing themes of progress and ideas, on April 11.

TEDxSUNY Oswego is an independently organized event spearheaded by Eason Lee and his 40-person team. 

“ I started this dream [when] I was 15 and when I came from Malaysia all the way to the United States, specifically SUNY Oswego,  I was thinking. I’m closer than ever to making this happen,” Lee said.

TED, which stands for “Technology, Entertainment, Design,”  is a global brand that has brought independent organizers through its TEDx license for  more than 30,000 events worldwide since 2009. 

“ We are all united by the theme of progress because we believe that ideas change everything,” Lee said. “Ideas, create progress and ideas move people.”

TEDx Talks are independent from TED Conferences but obtain a license for their name. TED Talks, which are run by the TED Conferences non-profit, gear towards a global audience, while TEDx Talks gear towards local audiences.

This event will showcase six speakers to represent the main ideas of the event. Three of the speakers are professors at SUNY Oswego.

Natalia Lewandowska is the director of the planetarium on campus, and her talk discusses the timekeepers of the universe. Technology professor Christopher Stein is giving a talk on the tools of life and surviving technology. Yonggang Wang from the meteorology department will speak on the impact of lake effect snow. 

Student Association President Aiden Wilson will also be delivering a talk at this event. He will discuss his struggles with homesickness and how to create opportunities and grow as an individual. 

The final two speakers at the event will be Oswego alum Aunrée Houston and Robert Simmons III, an executive director at National Grid.

Houston’s talk will discuss purpose through his experience in marketing for Netflix and HBO. Simmons will discuss how to create dreams for progress, showcasing his talents through his experience as a leader of corporate philanthropy at Micron Technology and as the CEO of the See Forever Foundation. 

For an audience incentive, there will be goodie bags and refreshments available.

“There’ll be networking opportunities, even including 15 VIPs, including the mayor of Oswego and the president of SUNY Oswego too,” Lee said. 

Tickets are available at the university box office. Student tickets are $20, and general admission tickets are $25. It is an exclusive event – only 100 tickets are available. TEDxSUNY Oswego wants to ensure that those who are most interested are able to get a ticket to the event, according to Lee. 

The event will also be live-streamed for free through SUNY Oswego’s YouTube page, for which tickets are also available online at the university box office. The six speakers’ speeches will be edited and posted on TEDx’s own YouTube channel to be watched by a community of over 42 million followers, Lee said.  

This event is also sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs, Office of Admissions and Auxiliary Services.

Image from SUNY Oswego