2025 TEDxNormal Speakers
“Thinking Small: Community-Oriented Responses to Urban Issues” Instead of relying on inflexible and expensive multi-year plans, cities and neighbors should use iterative and small incremental improvements. This ethos of constant improvement reels in the community to projects, directly improves our conditions in quick ways, and builds confidence to tackle more…
“Exploring the Implications of Biophilia on Recreation Programming, Learning, and Workplace Design” Research into biophilia has provided valuable insights into addressing several pressing issues in today’s world including hyper productivity, attention restoration, environmental advocacy, learning, and even the way we approach leisure and recreation! Biophilia has been a central focus…
“Empowering Your Community Relationships to Help Transform Cancer Research” Early detection of cancers and improvement of education among young adults for whom cancer incidence is on the rise makes my idea relevant especially as I practice much of my ideas here in the Bloomington/Normal community every day. Not only do…
“The Way You’re Coping with Burnout is Keeping You Stuck” To truly heal from hustle culture we have to identify our indoctrination stories and untangle them from our identities. This topic is particularly relevant to people in working-class communities, like those in Normal, Illinois, and beyond, where many face the…
“Sunset on the Longest Day – An Act of Act of Relational Community/ An Act of Relatives in Communion” A free, outdoor community performance event titled “Sunset on the Longest Day – An Act of Relational Community/ An Act of Relatives in Communion” will take place on the summer solstice:…
“Mission to Turn Dream into Reality – Growing Young Dreamers into Entrepreneurs” Bloomington/Normal is a vibrant small businesses community. Both cities support and build infrastructure to support the growth of small businesses. We are also a family oriented communities and the idea of investing in young entrepreneurs = investing a…
“The Plus One Method” What if you are transitioning back to the workforce after staying home with children? That changes the narrative of the plus one method. It is easy to get lost in the day-to-day responsibilities of parenthood. And if we can be honest, we can get lost in…
“From Followers to Trailblazers: Gen Z’s Impact on Society” Generation Z will be the leaders in every faction of life including the workforce by 2030, (in 5 years). Some say this group of humans are lazy but statistics say they ARE challenging the status quo. My big idea is to…
“Developing Cultural Intelligence for Leaders and Followers” Grounded in social scientific research, the session will provide participants with insights into the foundational elements of cultural intelligence, leadership, and followership. Attendees will gain practical, actionable strategies to foster authentic interpersonal connections. Whether you’re an experienced leader or aspiring to step into…
Ideas Worth Spreading
“TEDxNormal taught me a lot about presenting. As a professional speaker, I get to do lots of talks that are 45 minutes or longer. You’ve got 10 minutes to get your point across.” Mike Veny
“I hope that my video makes a significant impact on one person’s life. Positive comments and view counts will help me feel confident about the talk I gave but I just want to help someone.” Michael Luchies
“TEDx is about telling stories. People learn best through stories and remember them long after the talk is over. Forcing myself to tell MY stories was a great, transformative event.” Lisa Bodell