Theme: Make x Belief

TEDxStJohns 2015 – Exploring what it is to Make + Belief

We are the makers of things. Tools. Societies. Norms. Ideas. We advance through our creations in an attempt to make sense of it all. We have strong convictions, yet we can be easily swayed. Because in an age when we have the answers at our fingertips, many questions still go unexplained. And in a time of information overload, we struggle to know what is real.

Believing can be magical, beliefs can be contentious. At the crux of culture and the heart of identity, in the end, it is you who decides. What does it take to make you believe? Join us at TEDxStJohns 2015 as we explore the intersection of innovation and imagination.

BMW St. John's
120 Kenmount Rd
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, A1B 3R2
Canada

Anne Malone

Anne Malone is a writer, speaker, and creator who envisions and advocates freedom from disability for people who are blind. Malone’s writing plumbs the depths of history, the classical arts, and popular culture to reveal the origins of deeply buried cultural beliefs about the abilities and characteristics of people who are blind, and the catastrophic consequences these misbeliefs have on blind people around the world. In partnership with her guide dog Cheryl, Malone opens the eyes of the sighted to the complexities of living with blindness in a visual world. Anne Malone lives in Newfoundland, and is currently writing Blinding, a multimedia, multi-platform work of creative non-fiction.

Bruce Templeton

Bruce Templeton believes that you get one chance to make a memory for a child. His volunteer life has been thrilling youth at Scout Jamborees (Provincial Commissioner, Scouts Canada) , hearing children laugh on new playground equipment in Bowring Park (Founding Chair of the Bowring Park Foundation) or seeing how United Way has made such a difference in our community and province. (Bruce was the founding Campaign Chair of United Way.) In 2015, Bruce officially received the Order of St. Nick in Albany, NY. Over the past 37 years he has assisted Santa and they have had over 1500 visits together. He is a former Chair of the St. John’s Board of Trade. Bruce and his son Jim own and operate a financial planning office. Bruce is an active member of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, married for 46 years to Paula, and together they have three children and five grandchildren.

Ella Clarke

Ella Clarke is 12 years old and a Grade 7 student at Villanova Junior High School in Newfoundland. She loves acting, dancing, singing and telling stories. She is a member of her school’s drama club and has appeared in Newfoundland films and commercials.

Kris McNeil

Kris has spent more than 14 years working in various start-up wireless tech companies. Prior to founding Solace Power in 2007, Kris created wireless email software (early 2000s), and managed products for wireless marine navigation & communication (mid-2000s), for other startups in his home province. With a background in software development and product management, Kris now manages Solace Power, a hardware research and development company that is creating and advancing new technology for wireless power transfer, called Resonant Capacitive Coupling (RC2). He has successfully grown Solace Power from an idea into a successful business, with patents filed in more than a dozen countries, and doing business with several billion-dollar companies in aerospace, defence, automotive and other industries.

Mike Hartmann

Mike completed his Masters Degree in Public Health and Epidemiology at Memorial University. After graduation, Mike worked for the Department of Health and Community Services with the government of Newfoundland and Labrador as a Pandemic Planning Coordinator and Research Analyst. For the past three years Mike has worked for Eastern Health as the Clinical Epidemiologist for the Department of Infection Prevention and Control. Mike is currently completing his PhD in Clinical Epidemiology with a focus on improving hand hygiene compliance in acute care hospitals.

Todd Saunders

TODD SAUNDERS was born in 1969 in Gander, Newfoundland (Canada). He obtained his M.Arch from McGill University (Montreal, Canada, 1993–95) and a Bachelor of Environmental Planning from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (1988–92). His work includes the Aurland Lookout (with Tommie Wilhelmsen, Aurland, 2006); Villa Storingavika(Bergen, 2004–07); Villa G (Hjellestad, Bergen, 2007–09); Sogn og Fjordane Summer Cabin (Rysjedalsvika, 2007–10); and Solberg Tower and Park (Sarpsborg, Østfold, 2010), all in Norway. He currently realized the Fogo Island Studios, four of which have been completed out of a program of six (Fogo Island,Newfoundland, Canada, 2010–11), and has also completed the Fogo Island Inn (2014) in the same location.