TEDxParkCity officially returns to town next week.The series of local, self-organized events and talks that bring people together will kick off with Back-to-TED, an evening of TED Talks from this year’s conference in Vancouver, at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 29, at the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts, 1750 Kearns Blvd. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.Presentations will include topics such as AI, saving species on the planet and the backstory of the guy who designed the inside of The Sphere for the U2 concert run in Las Vegas, according to Teri Orr, who is co-organizing the programing with Bari Nan Rothchild.“There will be approximately three hours of programming, which includes a dinner break,” Orr said.Red Banjo Pizza will provide the meal, which is included in the $35 ticket price, according to Orr.“Red Banjo is very supportive of the TED efforts, and we decided that since we’re asking people to join us for a long evening, we wanted to make sure people got more than a drink of water during intermission,” she said.Other sponsors include the Utah Film Center and its founder — Geralyn Dreyfous, an Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated producer.“We also are happy to have the support of the Park City Chamber/Bureau and Morgan Stanley,” Orr said.The local community inspired Orr and Rothchild to revive TEDxParkCity, which went dormant during the coronavirus pandemic after more than a decade of programming.“We did some events, mostly small and online, during COVID, but it was also enormously complicated as anyone who did anything during COVID knows,” Orr said. “We took a break, thinking it had run its course, but then many folks started to ask us when we were planning our next TED event. As the climate got better for in-person events, we started to reconsider.”President and Chief Executive Officer of Park City Chamber/Bureau Jennifer Wesselhoff, who had been involved with the TED community in Sedona, Arizona, also told Orr she really wanted to see TEDxParkCity resurface.Orr knew she needed to bring TEDxParkCity back after attending the TED2024 conference in Vancouver earlier this year.“I was especially moved by the programming and how much bolder it felt and how much more relevant,” she said. “TED has always been bold and relevant, so this is saying something.”Orr returned to Park City and began laying out some plans with Rothchild that led to a format that would include TEDxParkCityYouth, TEDxParkCityWomen and TEDxParkCitySalon.“TEDxYouth will be in May, and it’s an event where only students speak,” Orr said.Orr and Rothchild help the young presenters prepare and give their talks.“We try not to favor programs, but that is my favorite TED event,” Orr said. “It’s because you see kids transform and learn the skill of public speaking without notes right in front of you. One of the past speakers was the first of her family to graduate high school and later became the first member of her family to go to college and graduate, and her talk was very authentic.”TEDxParkCityWomen has been a highlight of TEDXParkCity since the early days, Orr said.“We will do it in December, and it’s a day for women to unplug, a gift that many of them are reluctant to give themselves, especially during the holidays,” she said. “It’s a whole day to recharge and open up to how women all over are living their lives. They look at both the challenges and exhilarating parts.”TEDxParkCityDiscoveries is a rebrand of a project that Orr had done before, and it’s formatted like an intimate, progressive dinner for a small group of invited people.“We’ll start for cocktails and bites at one place, and then we’ll go someplace to hear three people give short 20-minute talks in a TED-like fashion,” she said. “Then we’ll end up in a third place for the dinners. I remember we did some fun ones back in the day on Main Street.”Orr and Rothchild will carefully curate all of the TEDxParkCity events with the community in mind, and not just local residents will give these presentations.“We really like bringing in people from the outside,” Orr said. “We think Park City has a tremendous amount of talent and platforms for them to appear, and some of the beauty of TED is bringing ideas and speakers who are unknown to most folks. So, the discovery part of things gets to blossom.”Orr has been part of the TEDx family since 2006, and Park City was among the recipients of the first 100 TED licenses, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation TEDxChange program.“I was invited to become part of the community, and it was like getting hit with a faery wand,” Orr said. “TED, which stands for technology, entertainment and design, started with these two guys from the (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Media Lab — Nicholas Negroponte and Richard Saul Wurman.”During the early 1990s, Negroponte and Wurman took notice of how people began to use their computers differently, according to Orr. “Technology was certainly changing how we were living our lives back then, and the entertainment part has always been a huge part of things as well,” she said. “People were starting to use computers to make movies differently. They were using computers to make music differently, and they were using computers to show how scenery for plays were made differently.”The design aspect came from Nagroponte and Wurman’s love for print journalism, Orr said.“These smart and wonky guys who loved newspapers and magazines, and computers were redesigning the layout of how we were seeing and reading layouts,” she said. “So they began bringing people in to talk about these things.”Orr is honored to make Park City a TEDx hub once again.“It makes me happy to share something that has been so transformative in my life during the past two decades,” she said. “I’m someone who didn’t graduate college. I dropped out to get an education in motherhood. So this has been a PhD in life for me, and I think I’m supposed to share it.”TEDxParkCity: Back-to-TEDWhen: 6 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 29 Where: Eccles Center for the Performing Arts, 1750 Kearns Blvd. Cost: $35 Web: tedxparkcityut.org. To donate to TEDxParkCity, visit the website or contact the Utah Film Center at utahfilmcenter.org.The post TEDxParkCity gets Back-to-TED appeared first on Park Record.