[September 26, 2016]

TEDxSanFrancisco Tackles Topics with Global Impact

On Thursday, October 6th, TEDxSanFrancisco will bring together visionaries from cryptocurrency, mobile health, venture capital, and beyond at the Herbst Theater to push the frontiers of knowledge and make lifelong connections. The event, themed #DareToKnow, is independently organized and licensed by TED, and will feature a full day of 20 game-changing TED speakers and performers addressing critical issues impacting society - from entrepreneurship and running global companies to virtual reality and the ethical issues that arise through artificial intelligence. Tickets start at $269 and are available for individual or group purchase online at: www.tedxsanfrancisco.com.

Launched in 2009, TEDx is a program of locally organized events that bring the community together to share a TED-like experience. Some of the best talks from TEDx events have gone on to be featured on TED.com and garnered millions of views from audiences across the globe.

For the first time, TEDxSanFrancisco is organized and curated by Sam De Brouwer. Sam is a serial entrepreneur who, most recently, co-founded Scanadu, a company developing a suite of medical grade devices for the consumer market. Sam's career places her in the middle of technology, entrepreneurship, health, and innovation, and TEDxSanFrancisco brings those influences together to address some of the largest issues facing the San Francisco Bay Area and the world today. Sam led and curated TEDxBrussels from 2009 to 2014, welcoming speakers such as Steve Wozniak, Nicholas Negroponte, Dambisa Moyo, Tan Le and Sebastian Thrun. For TEDxSanFrancisco, Sam has brought together a diverse set of speakers, from inventors to entrepreneurs, an ethicist, humanist, scientists, performers, a Michelin-starred chef and more.

TEDxSanFrancisco will feature the following four sessions:

Session 1: What do entrepreneurs see that others don't?

• Theresia Gouw is an engineer, entrepreneur, and co-founder of Aspect (News - Alert) Ventures. She will speak to the importance of diversity and data, and how the two can be combined to support the American dream.
• Michael Zeissner oversees US Investments for Alibaba Group and will provide insights for entrepreneurs to better understand how businesses and investors can benefit from interaction with China.
• Stanley Li is the founder of DXY, one of the most popular medical communities in China. He will discuss his experience as an entrepreneur in China.
• Kara Swisher (News - Alert) is the founder of Recode and a leading technology columnist and commentator. She will discuss how she approaches emerging ideas in technology from a journalistic perspective.
• Homer Hans Bryant is the choreographer for The Hiplet, a local ballet group tht uses hip hop to modernize ballet. He will discuss his mission to contemporize ballet and provide an artistic resource for dancers to express themselves.

• Alex Tapscott is the CEO and Founder of Northwest Passage Ventures, an advisory firm building industry-leading blockchain businesses. He is the author of The Blockchain Revolution (News - Alert) and will discuss cryptocurrency.
• Kathryn Haun is Assistant U.S. Attorney & Digital Currency Coordinator, the U.S. Justice Department's first-ever coordinator for financial technologies and cybercrime, who brought down the Silk Road. Speaking in a personal capacity, she will discuss how using the blockchain could combat government fraud and waste.
• Juan Benet is a computer scientist, engineer, and entrepreneur building tools to assist knowledge distribution and discovery. He will discuss his vision for VR and artificial intelligence.
• Brett Red is a Digital Product Designer and Design Mentor at Runway Labs and will discuss how virtual reality can change all industries, from healthcare to technology.

Session 3: Can we change reality?

• Ariel Waldman is the founder of Spacehack.org, a directory of ways for citizens to participate in space exploration. She will discuss the emergence of citizen science and the potential it has to advance technology and research.
• Tristan Harris is a former design ethicist at Google (News - Alert) and author of the viral Medium article, "How Technology Hijacks People's Minds - from a Magician and Google's Design Ethicist." He will discuss the intersection between design, technology, and ethics.
• Ashok Goel is a Director of the Ph.D. Program in Human-Centered Computing at Georgia Tech and the creator of Jill Watson - a bot who Goel used as his TA for two years. He is at the center of debates around artificial intelligence and ethics and will discuss his thoughts on that debate.
• Mary Lou Jepsen (News - Alert) is a former executive at Facebook/Oculus VR and has started her own venture to create a portable MRI machine. Jepsen has been featured on the Time 100 and on CNN's Top 10 Thinkers in Science & Technology. She will discuss her experience starting a healthcare technology company.
• Indre Viskontas is a neuroscientist and a soprano, who uses music to teach neuroscience and uses neuroscience to teach music. She will discuss how each approach is necessary to understand the other.

Session 4: Can we handle the truth about our health?

• Eric Topol is a professor of genomics and holds the Scripps endowed chair for innovative medicine at Scripps Health in San Diego. He will talk about changes that need to be made in the healthcare system.
• Udi Manber was Amazon's first chief algorithm officer and a top programmer at Google before leaving to consult for the National Institute of Health. He will discuss the broader healthcare landscape and barriers to enacting change.
• Anthony Iton is Senior Vice President for Healthy Communities at The California Endowment and his work has transformed the California Endowment and will discuss the importance of incorporating data-backed solutions into policy recommendations.
• Dominique Crenn is the two Michelin-starred chef behind Atelier Crenn and Petit Crenn, and earlier this year was named the World's Best Female Chef by San Pellegrino's World's 50 Best Restaurants list.
• Rachel Haurwitz is the founder and CEO Caribou Biosciences, a genome engineering and research company. She has a background in CRISPR-Cas biology and will discuss the potential for genomics to transform the healthcare and health research.
• Preston Estep is the Chief Scientific Officer of Veritas Genetics and creator of the Mindspan Diet, a nutrition guide to reduce Alzheimer's risk. He will discuss how genomics and technology can help cure disease.

With performances from:

• Hiplet - a Chicago-based dance group that puts a modern spin on traditional ballet by incorporating hip hop music and dance moves.
• Dawson Dance SF - Dawson Dance Company breaks down the barriers placed on classical ballet, and brings to light artists' strength and beauty by allowing them to explore their voices through choreography and vision.

TEDxSanFrancisco is supported by the following partners: Withings, NetSuite, Virgin America, Munchery, DLA Piper, BOS Investments, uBiome, and Illumina Accelerator.

For more information about TEDxSanFrancisco, please visit www.tedxsanfrancisco.com and follow @TEDxSFbay or on facebook.com/TEDxSF.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160926005388/en/

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