Theme: What's the Story?

TEDxCapeMay returns for its fifth season on Sunday, October 16, 2016 to our performing arts theater with the theme "What's the Story?" featuring over seven outstanding presenters from a wide variety of fields. Tickets include the program, snacks, gifts and an open bar lunch reception at the Congress Hall Hotel. Tickets are $60 per person.

The Paul Schmidtchen Theater
687 U.S. 9
Cape May, New Jersey, 08204
United States

Arfan Qureshi

Leadership development

Arfan Qureshi is a Senior Talent Consultant at The Hershey Company. He has led Leadership and Organizational Development programs across industries and across the world. He has worked in 10 countries and is proficient in 4 languages. He holds two master’s degrees from the University of Oxford and Michigan State University.

Bill Hargenrader

Cybersecurity and innovation expert

Bill Hargenrader is a United States Army Veteran, a Project Management Professional focusing on cybersecurity and innovation with the Fortune 500 technology and strategy consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, and founder of Next Level Life where he focuses on empowering entrepreneurs so we can massively change the world for the better together. Bill has been quoted and featured for his cybersecurity expertise in the Washington Post, CIO.com, Huffington Post, NBC news, and more. When Bill was 8 years old, he was wrongfully committed to a mental institution for 3 years due to an unfortunate course of events. This set him on a lifelong quest of learning and discovery to figure out what the best tools are for us to truly change our lives for the better. Now, Bill is a bestselling author, and an international keynote speaker who is both a technical presenter and an inspirational motivator with his talks ranging from the latest advances in technology, to advancing through our lives.

Eric Ratinoff

Consultant, Executive Editor of the Ferguson Commission Report

Eric Ratinoff is the Executive Editor of the Ferguson Commission Report, and leads the storytelling team for Forward Through Ferguson, the organization carrying on the Commission’s work. He is also founder and Chief Storyteller for the strategic storytelling firm Story First, co-founder and Principal of The Mouse and the Elephant, a diversity and inclusion training company, and co-author of “A Seat at the Table,” an award-winning column on diversity and inclusion for the New Hampshire Business Review. In addition to his work as champion for the power of storytelling and advocate for inclusive workplaces, Eric is the lead organizer for TEDxAmoskeagMillyard in southern New Hampshire.

Julie Mann

Food scientist

Julie Emsing Mann, M.S. Food Science and Nutrition, has been with The Hershey Company for 21 years and is currently leading the Protein Research Team. Known for translating complex scientific principles and concepts into easily grasped analogies, Julie is Manager of Technology and New Business Development in the Snacks Division. Julie has also been mentoring high school and college students for the past 15 years.

Larry Coben

Archaeologist, preservationist

Archaeologist Dr. Larry Coben is the founder and Executive Director of the Sustainable Preservation Initiative, a not for profit organization providing sustainable business and entrepreneurial opportunities to poor communities where endangered archaeological sites are located. Dr. Coben is a Consulting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. He has also started and run numerous energy companies. He heads the Tremisis Energy group, and was CEO of its two public vehicles.. Coben is a former CEO of the NYSE-traded Bolivian Power Company and a founder of Catalyst Energy Corporation. Coben is an expert member of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management (ICAHM).

Matt Katz

Author, journalist

Matt Katz is a political reporter who has covered New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for nearly six years, first for the Philadelphia Inquirer and now for WNYC public radio and NPR, where he reports on air and on the Christie Tracker Podcast. In 2015 Matt Katz and a team from WNYC won a Peabody Award for their coverage of Christie and the Bridgegate scandal. Matt's biography of Christie -- American Governor: Chris Christie's Bridge to Redemption -- was published by Simon & Schuster's Threshold Editions. Matt has written about politics for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New Republic and POLITICO magazine.

Rebecca Alexander

Psychotherapist, author, extreme athlete

Rebecca Alexander, LCSW-R, MPH, is a psychotherapist, author, fitness instructor, Lululemon Athletica brand ambassador, volunteer, and an extreme athlete who is almost completely bind and deaf. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, she currently lives in New York City with her mini goldendoodle Olive.Rebecca came to national prominence with the release of her memoir Not Fade Away: A Memoir of Senses Lost and Found which was recognized as an Indie Book Selection (Fall 2014).

Sylvia Tenkorang-Kontoh

Student presenter selected by Lower Cape May Regional High School

Sylvia was born in Tema, Ghana. Before attending high school in Cape May County, NJ, Sylvia and her family lived in Africa and the Pacific Islands, experiencing a broad variety of cultures and differences from around the world. Sylvia has one sister and three brothers.