03/02/2020
We've been out of touch but we have BIG news!
Thank you for bearing with our absence of communication and contact. We have been largely hunkered down since our March 31, 2019 Main Stage event, thinking and talking and listening and pondering some serious questions about the future of our TEDxBend.
Last year was a success as always, as 17 incredible speakers and performers graced our stage and shared their ideas with our community and beyond. If you missed any talks they are on our website HERE. Thank you for your participation and support during our 2019 Main event at Bend High, as well as in our more recent TEDxBend Women eventthis past December 7th at The Haven Coworking. A smaller event, this one always knocks our socks off with its engagement, learning, and energy.
Here are some of the questions we have been asking ourselves:
1. Is TEDxBend still relevant, necessary and needed in our ever growing and changing community. Since we began in 2012, a plethora of stellar events have made their way to our community, delighting us even as they tax our supporter base with “where to give?”
2. If your answer to Question #1 is “Heck Yes!”, then we wonder: is the big, high production value, FULL day at Bend High the most valuable event for us to host? The event does not support itself as we work to keep tickets accessible to all, and the fund-raising and partnership costs and effort are significant year-over-year.
3. Are our free Salon events, which people love, helpful to continue to offer in-between main events to keep the TED energy alive and vibrant?
4. What is the right model for our volunteer organizing committee to share the load and stop the burnout that has plagued us, even with new members circling in? It takes many hands to carry TEDxBend.
5. What is the right role in our community for our governing non-Profit 501c3?
We do not have all the answers.
But we do have some, and we wanted you to be the first to know what we know. We will be notifying the press and other key stakeholders next.
Here are the 5 things we DO know:
1. Our Mission, Vision and Values have not changed. Here they are in case you never really knew.
Vision: TEDxBend (dba Curiosity Collective) exists to connect emergent ideas with people and with each other to provoke change at an individual, local, and global scale
Mission: To cultivate ideas, create connections, and encourage conversation in ways that are owned by our community and that inspire bigger thinking.
We are....
Inclusive, diverse and accessible
Committed to joy and play (fun!)
Innovative and we fail forward
Authentic and open in our interactions
Committed to awesome events and organization
2. As you may have suspected, we are taking a break in 2020 from a Main Stage event, TEDxBend. We want to take this season “off” to reconsider all things TEDxBend, to give our partners and volunteers a break, and to right-role TEDxBend in our ever-changing community.
3. We plan to hold Quarterly Salon-Style events starting in Q2, 2020 in our broader community possibly in Bend, Redmond, Sisters, Madras, Prineville and/or LaPine. These events will feature curated recorded talks along a theme, and may also feature 1-2 local speakers with ideas worth sharing. Speaker applications for these events for local speakers will open March 15th.
4. We actively seek to continue to diversify our volunteer organizing team, our volunteers, our speakers and performers, and our Board as we continue to evolve as an inclusive organization that represents our diverse community in the fullest possible ways. We need to change to do this.
5. We will host a Community Open Space Event in the coming months for all of you. This wide-open conversation-based experience will invite everyone to come and respond to key questions in a designed process to re-engage our base, YOU--our community--in what TEDxBend can and should be for the future. This half-day event will be a chance for us to discuss together what we hope and dream of for TEDxBend for the next 5 years and we can’t wait to see what it means to you. During this event, we will also recruit fresh leaders, organizers, and volunteers who are eager to learn from the old guard and take TEDx forward. Details will be forthcoming but the Open Space Event will likely occur in April or May. We will be back in touch in the coming weeks with a HOLD the DATE.
Each of you, friends and supporters, volunteers, speakers, artists, coaches, leaders, board members, performers, and our incredible partners MATTER to what TEDxBend has been and what it will be. Thank you.
I personally can say that my experience serving as the Licensee and Lead Organizer these past 4 years has truly been a highlight of my life.
On behalf of the Board and Committee please know that we feel grounded in this decision, and our team is excited about what will happen next for this awesome event in service of our community. We need your help as we craft the next stage and we invite you to get involved with us in the Salon and Open Space events this year to carry it forward. We trust that the answers lay in our amazing and changing community stepping up and deciding to own TEDxBend and carry it into this next phase.
Thanks for your patience. Please feel free to reach out to me or any of our Board Members or Committee Leads with your questions, interests, and ideas.
In partnership,
Moe Carrick
To reach any of us:
Moe Carrick [email protected]
Bruce Emerson [email protected]
Carrie Douglass [email protected]
Ellyn Craven [email protected]
Patricia Sargent [email protected]
Scott Douglass [email protected]
Matt Hand [email protected]
Joanne Mathews [email protected]
Liz Shurmur [email protected]
Mei Ratz [email protected]
We hope to see you at the TEDxBend Community Open Space event this Spring.
