The Hack: Stay at the same venue
Stacy Bradford is one of three co-founders of TEDxTysons. Their event is just 20 minutes from Washington DC and is in the middle of a tech corridor she calls the Tech Petting Zoo.
Their most recent event in June 2017 called [i]mpact featured speakers who represented organizations who each are making an impact on the community and the world.
She first encountered TED Talks at a sales training course, listening to Simon Sinek's, How great leaders inspire action. As the Executive PRoducer, she's always looking for a way to have a hyper-local focus and continue TEDxTyson's emphasis on being deeply integrated into the community.
I think everyone assumes we're getting paid for this."Stacy Bradford, Co-Founder, Executive Producer, TEDxTysons
The Lightning Round
Tell us a bit about your background and your TEDx origin story.
TEDxTysons was started just three years ago with three co-founders. Stacy has been listening to TED talks for years and was inspired by TEDxFoggyBottom, their neighboring TEDx event.
How many TEDx events have you worked with or produced?
Their first show was for 100 inside the USA Today Building; now they're up to 450 people. Local events they assist with are TEDxHerndon and TEDxAshburn. They're only 20 minutes from Washington DC.
What makes your TEDx unique?
Stacy says that they've deeply integrated the event into Tyson's business community and are a part of local conversations to help grow the area. They're moving towards a more family-friendly environment, and TEDx is assisting in those efforts.
What’s your Superpower?
Day-of producing, Curating and helping the speaker liaisons and managers and initially was in charge of partnerships.
What was the biggest surprise while working on your event?
Discovering when they rolled out the rug and found it was too small for the stage.
Every event has its challenges, what was the biggest dragon you had to overcome?
As we grow the team, it's dealing with all the personalities. People need to understand the culture of TEDx.
What’s one piece of advice you have for veteran organizers? For first-timers?
Monitor the workload of your team members. Don't try to grow too fast.
Looking forward to your next event, what excites you the most?
Would like to do a Women event and is applying for a Youth license.
The show is called Hacking the Red Circle, so what's your best hack?
Stay at the same venue.
Featured Episodes
TEDxUCLouvain – Creating an Experience in spite of COVID
Finding ways to be creative and stay connected to your TEDx Community during these challenging times of sequestering and dealing with a global pandemic can test even the most creative Organizers.
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.