A day of inspiration from the world of Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED) at the Malibu Jewish Center.
By Bibi Jordan / Special to The Malibu Times
Coming to Malibu for the first time on Sunday is a day of inspirational lectures presented in the style introduced by Technology Entertainment and Design, better known as TED.
The conference will take place at the Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue.
TED is a non-profit organization that sponsors two annual conferences, one in the United States and one in the United Kingdom, that bring together visionary speakers from the world of Technology, Entertainment and Design. A spin-off of TED, TEDxMalibu is an independently organized events that mirror TED’s unique format of short, inspirational 20-minute live presentations that are simultaneously illustrated with visuals projected on multiple large movie screens.
“The TEDx conference series is one of the most prestigious conference series in the world,” event sponsor and CommCinema owner Scott Tallal, said. “As a Malibu business owner in the entertainment industry, I see the value in using the cultural touchstone of film to help build a greater sense of community, especially as part of such a forward thinking and visionary event.”
TEDxMalibu is sponsored by Malibu’s ChocolateBox Cafe and CommCinema: Mobile Digital Cinema Systems. Christopher Blake, an award winning architect, professor and principal of Machado.Blake Design and Hybridhaus, will host the event.
“We’re thrilled to have the Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue serve as a focal point for TEDxMalibu,” Rabbi Judith HaLevy said. “As a synagogue dedicated to new paradigms and awareness, we hope that TEDxMalibu opens new vistas and frontiers for intra-community discussion.”
Malibu resident Lisa Cypers Kamen organized the TEDxMalibu event. An international documentary filmmaker and life coach, Kamen has dedicated her professional life to empowering people through the cultivation of happiness. Most recently she founded a non-profit HH4Heroes, a series of workshops for veterans returning in December from Iraq. Her realization that many Americans, including Malibu residents, are facing the trauma of having lost money, homes, jobs and their customary lifestyle became the springboard for launching TEDxMalibu with presentations focused on the theme, “How to Flourish in the New Paradigm,” which she defines as cultivating happiness in “the ‘new normal’ post-economic crisis world.”
“We are in a new paradigm,” Terence Davis, Malibu Music Awards Founder and one of the TEDxMalibu presenters, said. “Many of us are refocusing our positions in the business world and our personal lives to determine how we can give back to make the world better. I believe that each of us possesses the ability to add joy and harmony by our individual acts of care and generosity.”
In addition to his talk, Davis will be bringing performances from Oprah show repeat guest and inspirational R&B Malibu Music Award winner Abe MacDonald, American Idol’s Hannah Mulholland, and Los Angeles artist Holly Kerk to the TEDxMalibu stage for the event.
For visionary artist Leigh McCloskey the concept of the “new paradigm” can be translated as “the new assumptions about who and what we are, and what we believe our purpose and shared responsibility is to be as humans.
“Ideas transform reality, and we are the gardens that we cultivate,” McCloskey said. “We become the ideas we are willing to take responsibility for. This is the new paradigm, a co-creative, rather than reactive, way of seeing, being and interacting with others.”
A highly regarded author and Hollywood actor for more than 30 years, McCloskey will speak at TEDxMalibu on the topic of spiritual relevancy in the modern world.
“My art and visual philosophy reveal that we are in a time of blossoming, and remembering that we are here not by chance but by choice,” he said. “If we are to flourish in Malibu, as elsewhere, we must tell stories that liberate rather than enslave.”
Another TEDxMalibu presenter will be Douglas Kmiec, Pepperdine University professor of Constitutional Law, former Ambassador of the United States and author of “Illustrating How Faith and Kindness Can Overcome Doubt and Tragedy.”
He views the event as an opportunity to speak clearly and passionately about things that really matter-often from intensely felt experience as well as research.
Kmiec had undergone great hardship after a car accident killed Our Lady of Malibu’s Sister Mary Campbell and critically injured and eventually caused the death of Monsignor John Sheridan in August 2010. Kmiec was driving the car and suffered injuries as well.
“Over the last years, I have become an ‘independent’s independent’ in politics as well as life,” Kmiec said. “Atop of this, the inspirational voice for my life died in my care under tragic circumstances. Independence of mind costs friends, and death focuses like little else. TEDx provides a fast-paced, provocative opportunity to put these thoughts on the implications of loving one’s enemy – political and otherwise.”
Other speakers will include Dr. Narayan Srinivasa, principal research scientist and manager at HRL Laboratories in Malibu, who will share his research on creating perceptive machines and artificial intelligence; Dr. Jessica Wu, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at USC and a practicing Los Angeles board-certified dermatologist, who will expand on medicinal and well-being benefits of healthy eating in her talk, “Food: the Cure for What Ails Us;” and Rabbi Judith HaLevy, spiritual leader of the Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue since 1996, recipient of advanced degrees in International Relations from Rutgers University and Columbia University, who will address cultivating a creative community.
TEDxMalibu will take place Nov. 13, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue and will also be broadcast live on USTREAM. Event details and live streaming information and tickets can be obtained online at www.tedxmalibu.com, or at TEDxMalibu on Facebook. In addition to the presentations listed, there will be numerous surprise activities, many designed to appeal to “the child in all of us,” including children under 12 years old who will be admitted free of charge with childcare service available for toddlers.