By Moe Carrick and Rane Johnson-Stempson

Living in Central Oregon we see every day amazing women who are making a difference in our local community and around the world often without recognition, press, or visibility. TEDxBendWomen provides a forum for local women to tell their stories, while also helping attendees engage with one another to start conversations about ideas that matter. In addition, women lead busy lives leading organizations, raising families, giving to their local community that they rarely do something for themselves. On May 30, TEDxBendWomen will  honor the amazing women in our community working for change with a day of inspiration, networking, celebration, connection, and fun.

As the co-chairs for TEDxBendWomen, we are excited to see our second TEDxBendWomen event come together. In April, we had over 60 speaker suggestions of great women in Central Oregon with powerful ideas and stories to share. We have landed on five speakers, two musical debuts, a lively panel, and a little poetry to provoke thought and inspiration. In addition, to the amazing performance line-up, we have over 20 Central Oregon women artist displaying their art during  the event. The day will be engaging and interactive with discussions, networking and activities for attendees.

Our event is being done in sync with the TEDWomen event in Monterey May 26 to 29, and we will show two of the inspiring new sessions from that event to our attendees. In order to attract a diverse audience from all walks of life, we have purposefully priced the event at $10 for admission.

To allow us to make tickets so affordable we thank our amazing sponsors this year: Central Oregon Community College, Bend Broadband, Old Mill District, Humm Kombucha, Straw Propeller, BackPorch Coffee, Life Flight Network, Super Foods, Hand-in-Hand Productions, Maria Fernanda Bay Photography, Worthy, TEDxBend, Microsoft Research, and Moementum, Inc. We still need a few more sponsors for our closing party if you’re interested please let us know.

Tickets will go on sale Friday with only 200 seats available.

We would also like to highlight the hard work being done by our organizing committee:  Katie Smith, Kelly Sparks, Lisa Sipe, Lisa Flynn, Sarah Laufer, Allegra Keith, Rachel Frank, and Bruce Emerson. We also want to connect all women in Central Oregon, so please join our new TEDxBENDWomen facebook.

So drum roll announcing our program this year:

TedxBendWomen 2015 Agenda

8:30am-9:00am Registration and breakfast
9:00-9:30am Welcome and setting the stage
9:30-10:18am Speaker #1 MollyCarrollSisters Youth Trio MusiciansTEDWomen Streamed Video (TDB)

Speaker #2 Sarah Pool
10:34-11:00 Break and networking/art walk
11:00-12:24 PoetrySlamSpeaker #3 Lexy PottsTEDWomen Streamed Video (TBD)

Partner Reflections

Speaker #4 Lisa Flynn
12:24-1:30 Lunch, tours, networking, inspiration station, speaker briefing for 2016, and art
1:30-3:00 Learning Panel: Investing in Ideas (JulieHarrelson, Jenn Hoffman, Dr.KatherineNeubauer)Audience Q & ASpeaker #5 (TBD)

Musician with Live Art Demonstration
3:00-3:20 Closing Thoughts
3:20-4:45 Networking reception & party, meet the speakers, meet the sponsors