Lara Stein – Founder of TEDx

On the first day of TED2019 in Vancouver, Randy Bretz, TEDxLincoln, Emeritus, and I were honored to interview the founder of TEDx, Lara Stein. This interview came by way of Randy's Behind the X series of interviews. He joined me on this episode as a co-host, and together we learned about the origins of TEDx. Lara takes us on the inside of key early decisions about branding, licensing, growth, and expansion, her philosophy about Open Source and her love of community.

Randy did an excellent job of synthesizing the interview on Medium. You can read the article here.

A few takeaways that surprised me were how Lara's background at Marvel and Microsoft helped her understand licensing issues, which were at the core of setting the foundation for the TEDx movement.

I loved the original email subject line in her message out to a group to invite them to participate in the beginning, it was, "Your help needed." TEDxUSC was the first TEDx in March 2009. Read the post from TED announcing that event and TEDx.

This year (2019) is the tenth anniversary of the TEDx, and you'll be seeing a lot of celebrations in the TEDx universe as those first TEDx events are making a point of heralding their tenth year in operation.

Lara is now off on another adventure. She's the founder of Boma a global network supporting business leaders, politicians, educators, entrepreneurs, young people, and changemakers to navigate our rapidly changing world, helping create a better, more sustainable, and human-centered future for us all.

Editors note: Randy was the first guest on Hacking The Red Circle and continues to provide support and links to amazing people for us to bring to you on the show. Thanks Randy.