FlourCity
x = independently organized TED event

This event occurred on
May 30, 2015
9:00am - 4:00pm EDT
(UTC -4hrs)
Rochester, New York
United States

Branch Out

In the past four years, since we started TEDxFlourCity we’ve noticed a sea change in Rochester. We've seen more and more people consciously elect to stay in Rochester. If you look at those attending this year, you’ll see that growing contingent of people. Those who’ve decided they want to reshape a city rather than conform to another.

This year, our team believed those roots have been established so we wanted to offer a forum to branch out to others doing incredible things. For those that are starting a company or new job to connect to others running parallel lives. For our speakers, who've put a lifetime into their body of work, now having the opportunity for it reach a global audience. For those who have the ambition to start their passion project, but haven't know how to get started.

The foolish man searches for happiness in the distance. The wise man grows it under his feet.

Kilbourn Hall
26 Gibbs Street
Rochester, New York, 14604
United States
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Speakers

Speakers may not be confirmed. Check event website for more information.

Caitlin Meives

Caitlin Meives is a preservation nerd who believes in the power of preservation to change lives and communities. She is the Preservation Planner at The Landmark Society of Western New York and the co-founder of The Landmark Society’s Young Urban Preservationists (YUPs). In her position at The Landmark Society, Caitlin works directly with municipal officials, developers, neighborhood and community advocates, and property owners of all types to assist in the rehabilitation and revitalization of historic buildings, structures, landscapes, and communities.

Callie Babbitt

Dr. Callie Babbitt is an Assistant Professor in the Golisano Institute for Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology, where she conducts research to proactively quantify and minimize environmental impacts of emerging technologies, like consumer electronics, nanomaterials, lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles, and biofuels.

Cathy Rasmussen

Cathy Rasmussen is an educator with expertise in language and communication. She is professor and chair of the Communication Sciences & Disorders Department at Nazareth College where she co-directs the Deafness Specialty Preparation program. Cathy presents cueing and its applications across the country and is a long-time organizer of Cue Camp New York.

Chris Teal

In addition to his active career as a performer, drummer Chris Teal strives to build new opportunities for students to experience the arts in Rochester, NY and beyond as co- Director of the Institute for Creative Music (IfCM). Joining Chris are members of the IfCM Collective, the Institute for Creative Music’s showcase ensemble. Mike Kaupa (trumpet), Mike Frederick (guitar), and Danny Ziemann (bass) are all active performers and educators based in the Rochester area.

Elizabeth Schirmer Shores

Elizabeth Shores equips entrepreneurs with rewarding business platforms that leverage their unique talents and experiences to change the world. These simple wealth and wellness blueprints are used to generate Conscious Cash™ and design their new venture legacies. She is the CEO and Co-founder of Untapped Shores International and recipient of the RBJ 40 Under 40 Award.

Erin Green

Erin has at different times been called a flight risk (traveling widely), policy expert and future author. However, today she will share her private self and her history of depression and anxiety, starting in her teenage years. At various times she has taken prescription anti-depressants and -anxiety medications, but the many negative side effects led her to abandon medication as a viable option several years ago.

Felix Kim

Growing up in South Korea, Felix (Joung Yoon) Kim was a philanthropist and poet, creating a poetry society group numbered over 7,000 ardent admirers and evangelists from kids to the elderly. He left Korea at fourteen to be schooled in the United States. He became fascinated by optics at the University of Rochester and is now the CEO of the Ovitz Corporation, a high tech startup company, where he hopes to can bring improved eye care to the underprivileged.

Gabrielle Javier-Cerulli

Gabrielle Javier-Cerulli is an Archetype Consultant, a mixed media artist, the creator of an iPhone and iPad app called Archetypes4U, author of Art Journal Your Archetypes (July 2016) and holds a M.A. in expressive arts therapy.

Gay Men's Chorus

For more than 30 years the RGMC has exemplified excellence in choral arts by serving the Greater Rochester Community as well as all of Western New York.

Jay O'Leary

Jay has performed at the Rochester Comedy Club and has participated in numerous slam poetry competitions. She has a B.A. in Theatre from SUNY Brockport, has trained with Geva Theatre’s Summer Academy and Hochstein School of Music. She is a private acting coach for ages 16 and up. Jay would also like you to know that she loves vanilla cupcakes and her favorite instrument is the tenor sax.

Karsten Brooks

While pursuing a degree in drum set performance from Towson University, Karsten Brooks began composing after being introduced to the piano. Since then, he has developed a sound all of his own on drum set and in his compositions. His wide reaching performing career includes playing with jazz combos, singer-songwriters, musicals and marching bands.

Kelly Clark

Kelly Clark is a consultant, lecturer, and author of the blog He Throws Like a Girl: Essays on the Intersection of Homophobia & Misogyny. Ms. Clark has over 25 years of experience as a social justice educator and is an expert in LGBTQ cultural competence and masculinity as it relates to homo & trans phobias.

Lourdes Santiesteban

At various points Lourdes has been a piano professor, vocal coach, music director and conductor. She conducted the orchestra from the Escuela Nacional de Arte for many years in Cuba, arranging a selection of themes from "Dias de Gloria" to feature Cuban singer and composer Pablo Milanés. Throughout her career she has conducted distinguished soloists such as Niuka Wong, Humberto Bernal, and Angel Abel.

Lovely Warren

Lovely Warren was sworn in as Rochester’s 67th mayor in 2014. She is the first female mayor in the history of the city, the second African-American mayor, and the youngest mayor in modern times.

Natasha Alford

As a teenager, Natasha became an award-winning orator. Inspired to reach a broader audience, she decided to use her voice as a journalist. After graduating from Harvard, she attained her Master’s from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism (MSJ '14) and now works as a reporter at WROC-TV, telling stories of impact for the communities and people who inspired her journey.

Phyllis Peters

Phyllis Peters is an author and educator who has variously embodied the spirit of musician, waitress, filmmaker, rape crisis advocate, wanderer, and ingrate. Her latest novel, "Untethered: A Caregiver’s Tale" is a fictionalized, comedic take on her family’s experience with caregiving in the 'sandwich generation'. 100% of the profit from its sale is being donated to Alzheimer’s research via the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.

Scott Grove

Scott Grove is a third-generation artist. As a self-taught woodworker, he is known for layers of artistic expression and creative vigor; his pieces are a combination of unique carved textures, radiant veneers, and copper polychrome finishes. He creates a desire to touch each piece for a sensuous, pleasurable experience. Sophisticated and elegant with a touch of whimsy, his work raises a sense of wonder and delight.

Sukanya Chakrabarti

Sukanya Chakrabarti is a professor of Physics and Astronomy at RIT. She tries to understand the dark side of the universe, in particular the mysterious stuff that we call dark matter. After predicting a dark-matter dominated dwarf galaxy years ago, she recently discovered Cepheid variables, 300,000 light years away from our Galaxy, to prove its existence.

Organizing team

William
Monteith

Organizer
  • Colleen Rennie
    Co-Curator
  • Megan Johncox
    Co-Curator
  • Ben Cross
    Director of Speaker Development
  • Tom Myers
    Experience Design
  • Nick Piccolo
    Director of Finances
  • Darren Miller
    Designer
  • Johanna Kelly
    Director of Salons
  • Irene Kannyo
    Storyteller
  • Kelsey Delmotte
    Partnership Coordinator
  • Gary Bogue
    Speaker Coach
  • Laurene Jennings
    Speaker Coach
  • John Lam
    Project Manager
  • Michelle Prohov
    Participant Coordinator