By Natalie Lasky
This story has been updated and corrected since its initial publication.
Technology Education and Design x Youngstown featured an array of 17 speakers March 10. The event’s theme, “Life Happens,” centered on how individuals can take a step toward success by implementing change in their personal and professional lives.
TEDx Youngstown is a platform for speakers from different backgrounds to share information. According to the event coordinators, the majority of the TEDx audience comes from social media platforms, sometimes reaching over six million views per video.
The event covered a variety of topics, including personal growth, business strategies and the power of embracing uniqueness. According to the TEDx website, each speaker brings perspectives and insights, inspiring the audience to think differently and challenge the status quo.
Jeet Kune Do instructor Chris Kent said his talk provided a platform for personal development through martial arts training with Jeet Kune Do masters Dan Inosanto and Bruce Lee.
“Personal growth requires a deliberate effort towards self-improvement, intentional learning and your consistent action,” Kent said. “While I was impressed with Bruce initially [and] physically, the more I got on the hold, the more I saw there was the mind behind the fighting machine that made him.”
Kent said the audience should embrace discomfort, take risks, learn from failures and seek liberation through knowledge.
“The more that I trained the [more] I started seeing that it had this, this phenomenal underlying philosophical foundation, which the central theme was personal liberation of, you know, self liberation … through self knowledge,” Kent said.
When radio talk show host Joe Danyi started off in his business career, he said most of his mentors were older and wanted to inspire younger generations to pursue similar careers.
“When I first started in business, a lot of my peers were in their sixties, right? There wasn’t anybody my age getting into business,” Danyi said. “We go on the radio and talk about business and we try to inspire younger kids to think of that as some kinda tract.”
Danyi said he uses his challenges to inspire younger generations to not let hurdles get in the way of pursuing goals.
Leah Tekac, digital media specialist for White Glove Payroll, attended the event and said she was moved to take the lessons she learned and apply them to life.
“My favorite, I guess work related one was probably … a CEO for a day and really just talking about how it’s so important to empower employees to be decision makers,” Tekac said.
Other speakers at the event included Dr. Corinne Devin, Dr. Philippe Bouissou, Dr. Kelly Casperson, Dr. Karen Federici, Dr. Yasmine Sheik, Jason Flakes, Carol Bennett, Christina Matteucci, Olive Persimmon, Adiel Gorel, William Adams, Quinton Zondervan, Carmella M. Williams and Ville Houttu.
For more information about TEDx Youngstown, go to the TEDx Youngstown website.
