Theme: Momentum

Coral Gables is home to ground-breaking research, extraordinary ideas, and remarkable people, and TEDxCoralGables looks forward to showcasing this brilliance and enabling these great ideas to be put into action. It's an inspirational model of creating the momentum for our community. TEDxCoralGables will host it's first evening event on April 8, 2015. The event will bring together talented speakers, thought-leaders, and performers to share ideas on a wide range of subjects - fostering learning, inspiration and wonder - to ultimately provoke conversations that matter.

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
10901 Old Cutler Rd
Coral Gables, Florida, 33156
United States

Alessandra Maggioni

Student

Alessandra Maggioni is a 15 year-old student originally from Rome, Italy, born in Miami. She is currently a sophomore at Gulliver Preparatory. Since the first day she set her foot on a tennis court at 4 years old, her passion for this sport grew endlessly. So much so, that Alessandra decided she wanted to become a professional tennis player. Working constantly towards her dream, she faced her first obstacle at 10 years old -- Alessandra was diagnosed with scoliosis.

Alouishous San Gomma

Artist

Ahol, whose raw yet instantly recognizable street murals evaporate the divide between high and low art, often jumbles disparate themes from mass media, popular culture and marginalized pockets of society. He often draws inspiration from the urban environment and systems of society which dehumanize its inhabitants. Ahol’s deceptively simple, yet complex renderings both portray the veneer of our everyday surroundings and the dull, job-related conflicts often found in a dysfunctional workplace.

Ben Abo

Physician

Ben Abo is a long time paramedic turned emergency medicine physician, humanitarian, and educator well known for his enthusiasm, big smile, and big hair. He is currently completing his residency in Miami at Mount Sinai Medical Center on Miami Beach and Ryder Trauma Center in Miami. With over 18 years of international emergency medicine/Emergency Medical Services experience, Ben remains active in research, education, lecturing, and clinical work with federal and state disaster medical assistance.

Daniel Mesko

The GPS Quintet is a club-style jazz combo that performs original arrangements of some of the greatest compositions of the twentieth century, ranging from swing and bebop to modern and Latin jazz. In this presentation, we will explore the melodic and harmonic elements of jazz as it developed during the last century, as well as the beauty and the importance of improvisation in jazz. These idea, complex and difficult to conceptualize in theory, will be made clear and graspable through live demonstration by the quintet.

GPS Quintet

Musicians

The GPS Quintet is a club-style jazz combo that performs original arrangements of some of the greatest compositions of the twentieth century, ranging from swing and bebop to modern and Latin jazz. In this presentation, we will explore the melodic and harmonic elements of jazz as it developed during the last century, as well as the beauty and the importance of improvisation in jazz.

Michael-Anthony Espino

Student

Michael-Anthony Espino, aka Mykee, is currently a 16 year-old junior at Terra Environmental Research Institute. He is a martial arts practitioner and a working professional dancer. Mykee enrolled in a Taekwondo studio at the age of 6, where he practiced the art for 2 years until agreeing to transition to the art of Goju Ryu. He soon began competing nationally across the U.S as an Extreme Martial Arts competitor.

Michelle Villalobos

Speaker / Personal Branding

Michelle Villalobos’ professional education programs on Personal Branding (AKA: “turning identity into income”) have been viewed – either virtually or in person – by over 150,000 people worldwide. In 2011, The Miami Herald named Michelle one of Miami’s “Top 20 Under 40” and in 2013 she won The Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge for co-founding the online personal branding program, Make Them BEG.

Ruben van Hooidonk

Marine Biologist

Ruben van Hooidonk is a marine biologist working for the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies at UM and the NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. He studies the effects of anthropogenic climate change on the worlds coral reef ecosystems. Using satellite data and climate models Dr. van Hooidonk projects impacts of both ocean acidification and increasing temperatures on coral reefs.

Ruben van Hooidonk

Ruben van Hooidonk is a marine biologist working for the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies at UM and the NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. He studies the effects of anthropogenic climate change on the worlds coral reef ecosystems. Using satellite data and climate models Dr. van Hooidonk projects impacts of both ocean acidification and increasing temperatures on coral reefs. His work has been used in influential reports including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fifth assessment report and recently in an assessment of the vulnerability of US shellfisheries to ocean acidification. Ruben studied biology in the Netherlands which included extensive fieldwork in the Caribbean. His PhD in Earth and Atmospheric sciences was earned at Purdue in Indiana. Ruben loves Miami’s tropical climate (especially after 4 winters in Indiana), bicycle polo, brewing beer and good vegetarian food.

Victor Dover

Cofounder of Dover, Kohl & Partners Town Planning

For 25 years, urban designer Victor Dover, cofounder of Dover, Kohl & Partners Town Planning, has been designing plans for livable, walkable and sustainable communities in 22 states and across five continents. He is the coauthor of Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns (Wiley, January 2014). His work spans five continents and ranges from revitalizing historic downtowns to retrofitting suburbia.