Photo credit: Michael Bolden

Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center glittered with bright lights, swag bags and red carpet Thursday night, but the hordes of people streaming through the doors were not there to ogle movie stars. They had turned out to listen to ideas from an array of experts, advocates and academics.

The Fourth Annual TedXMiami fall conference attracted more than 1,400 people for a sold-out event in the John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall. The conference has grown significantly since 2010 when about 100 people attended the first event at the Wolfsonian-FIU in Miami Beach.

The speakers covered diverse topics, from education, to entrepreneurship, health and the effect of rising sea levels, exhorting the attendees to take either individual or communal action.

 “The concept for TEDxMiami was that we would focus on speakers from Miami and ideas relevant to Miami,” said Matt Haggman, one of the founders of the event and Miami program director for Knight Foundation, which he says was instrumental in launching the event. Knight first supported TedxMiami with a $64,000 grant in 2011.

“We decided we would not bring in big name speakers from elsewhere who did not have a connection to South Florida,” he said. “The aim is to showcase ideas and speakers that people didn’t realize are here. An ongoing theory is that there is more going on here in Miami than we often realize.”

Haggman founded TedxMiami with five other South Florida residents when he was a reporter at the Miami Herald: Matt Greer, Caroline MacDonald, Gina Rudin, Stephanie Rosenblatt and Suzanna Valdez. The organizers, known as curators in Tedx nomenclature, now consist of Greer, Haggman and Valdez.

“The question we wanted to test is whether significant numbers of people wanted to connect around ideas,” he said. “The answer has been a resounding yes.”

The theme for the event was “Be the Difference.” Attendees also had the chance to network during a reception after the conference and to engage in some dancing and drumming, which brought the crowd to its feet in a spirited show of community. 

The speakers for the TedxMiami fall conference included:

• Rodrigo Arboleda, CEO, One Laptop Per Child Association, on “Learning How to Learn.”
• Risa Berrin, founder and executive director, Health Information Project, on “Hijacking the High School Peer Pressure System.”
• Richard Weiner, author, on “Gossip Is Good.”
• Anabelle K. Paulino, on “Updating An Ancient Memory Trick.”
• John E. Lewis, associate professor, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, on “The Future of Health Is Here Today.”
• Fernando Fabre, president of Endeavor Global, “Creating an (Entrepreneurial) Mafia.”
• Frankie Ruiz, chief running officer, US Road Sports, on “Running to Join a Miami Movement.”
• Ravé Mehta, CEO, Helios Entertainment,  on “Graphic Novels, Education and the Story of Tesla.”
• Sandy Skelaney, entrepreneur, on “A Novel Solution to Sex Trafficking.”
• Keren Bolter, researcher, Florida Atlantic University Center for Environmental Studies, on “Floating Above the Rising Tides Debate.”

For more details on the speakers and their talks, check out this Storify of the conference.