SARASOTA, Fla. (Sept 23, 2019) – If you or someone you know is interested in compelling stories relating to the topic of “Defining Your Legacy,” TEDxUSFSM is the ideal place to hear them. The University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee will hold its first TEDxUSFSM event this fall. Featuring a variety of faculty, alumni, and community member speakers, the event is designed to celebrate the rich legacies that are the foundation of the Sarasota-Manatee region.  TEDxUSFSM is set for Nov. 7, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., at the Selby Auditorium at USF Sarasota-Manatee, 8350 North Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Audience applications are open until Sept. 26. Per TEDx guidelines, no more than 100 attendees for this event, and the planning committee intends to select a diverse spread of students, alumni, faculty, staff and community members to make up the audience.

Those interested in at becoming an audience member are encouraged to apply at http://tedxusfsm.com/.  

“Our event will showcase a myriad of topics from an exciting lineup of speakers, but that’s only half of it,” said Evan Fruehauf, a USFSM student and executive producer of TEDxUSFSM. “We want to impact the lives of our community by inviting them onto our campus and giving them a chance to be part of our event. This isn’t just some speaker panel either, this is a full show with professional production quality and extensive expectations of our attendees and speakers. It’s the real deal.”

The TEDxUSFSM team has selected a distinctive speaker lineup for the event after an intensive three-month selection process. Speakers include alumni, current faculty and engaging local members of the Sarasota-Manatee community. The alumni speaker is Lukas Oest. Lukas was the Spring 2019 Outstanding Graduate at USFSM. He currently works as the head of global marketing development for Florida Worldwide Citrus. Faculty members speaking at the event include Lisa Penney, PhD, of the College of Business, and John Mann, PhD, of USF in Tampa.

Community members include Crishuana Williams, a senior technical assistant at the Jane Bancroft Library at New College of Florida.

The four other speakers are Elaine Mendoza, a Venezuelan immigrant who has challenged the idea of labels; Shannon Rohrer-Phillips, who is the CEO of her own social impact agency; Simi Ranajee, PhD, who is the former Miss India Worldwide and current CEO of IMISCO; and Thuy Nguyen, who, among her diverse set of roles, has done something new every week for the last seven years.TED is an organization devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks under 18 minutes long, and a TEDx event is an independently organized version of these talks. Speakers are not allowed to promote business or endorse products according to TED guidelines. TEDxUSFSM is a student-led initiative sponsored by USFSM’s Student Government Association with support from a team of faculty and staff.

For more information about USF Sarasota-Manatee, visit http://usfsm.edu/. 

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