TEDxBerkeley is a production by the RCSA (Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholars Association) at UC Berkeley, and is curated by UC Berkeley student Kevin Gong.
Kevin M. Gong, TEDxBerkeley’s 2011 Curator is a translator who volunteers for the TED Open Translation Project and the Global Lives Project. An Economics and Statistics double major at UC Berkeley, Kevin is a member of the product design team Berkeley Innovation and the entrepreneurship group Startup at Berkeley. Follow him on Twitter @kmgong.
Renee Blodgett, TEDxBerkeley’s 2011 Co-Curator, is CEO and Founder of Magic Sauce Media, an integrated new media agency that incorporates guerilla marketing, creative strategies, social media and branding to create the ‘magic sauce’ companies and brands need to succeed in an always-on world. She has launched companies from over ten countries, lived in a dozen and visited nearly 70. She is also the founder of We Blog the World, a global blog network dedicated to untold stories from voices on culture, society, arts, travel and business from around the world and co-founder of Traveling Geeks, whose mission is to collaborate with global technology innovators and influencers in various countries, mentor organizations and individuals, and then cross pollinate ideas through blogging, video, podcasts, social media tools and meet-ups. Follow her on Twitter @magicsaucemedia and @weblogtheworld.
Ross Evans is TEDxBerkeley’s 2011 Co-Curator. At the age of 19, Ross travelled to Managua carrying with him bike tools, a welder and a question for his undergraduate thesis project. Alongside a group of war-disabled men, he set out in pursuit of a simple, cargo-carrying bicycle solution. What began in 1995 became two pioneering organizations – Worldbike, and it’s altruistic “for-profit” sibling, Xtracycle. In the process, Ross discovered how to enable a beautiful machine (the bicycle) to meet more needs and desires than ever before. ID Magazine declared him one of the 40 most notable socially responsible designers in the world in 2000. Curious and catalytic, he’s led a team of world-class eye surgeons to develop cataract surgical tools for Nepal, developed an award-winning construction toy and presented at the TED Conference. He is a Stanford-trained engineer, adventurer, inventor, humanitarian, yogi and design catalyst. Ross inspires others to do what we love to make a positive difference. He calls it “holishift“.
Jennifer Barr, TEDxBerkeley’s Director of Marketing and Operations, is a social entrepreneur who uses her Wharton MBA skills to make a difference in the world. She has her own management/social media marketing consulting business. She was co-curator of TEDxMarin and is the social media strategist for TEDx Silicon Valley and TEDx Marin, as well as for TEDxBerkeley. In addition, Jennifer serves as the VP of Operations for the Wharton Business School Club of Northern CA and the Career/Networking Officer of the Northern California Oxford Society. She has been a director at four Bay Area non-profits and was previously a management consultant and investment banker in New York City.
Navi Ganancial, TEDxBerkeley’s Director of Logistics, is a serial volunteer and has helped produce multiple events for such organizations as San Francisco magazine, SF Chamber of Commerce, the Junior League of San Francisco, and many more. She currently blends her knowledge of event planning, social media marketing, and volunteer coordination as the Outreach Associate for Netroots Nation, and Community Manager for ChicMeetsGeek. When not working or volunteering she sits on the San Francisco BRAVO! Club Opera Board, the San Francisco Ballet 30 & Under Committee and the Board of Directors for Kasavita.org.
Brent Locks, TEDxBerkeley’s Director of Sponsorships, is an MBA candidate at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he is the Co-President of the Entrepreneurs Association. He is also the founding COO and board member of GreenLaces.org, a non-profit social venture that fosters environmental sustainability. Prior to business school, he spent six years advising clients on M&A transactions as a manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Brent is a startup enthusiast and a strong advocate of collaboration among entrepreneurial-minded people, which is why he is excited to help promote and organize TEDxBerkeley.
Massimo Paolini, TEDxBerkeley’s Director of Web Strategies, is the founder and principal analyst of MPThree Consulting Inc., eMarketing business based in Silicon Valley. He speaks at various organizations on the power of social media and works with dozens of businesses around the country to increase their web presence, understand their site traffic, and improve profitability. With over 20 years of business and marketing experience in Canada and the U.S., Massimo jumped into the Internet world right at its inception and has developed a holistic approach to web intelligence that blends together site design, SEO, social media, content development, and consumer behaviors. When working with clients, his approach is instructional so that they will become more active in their own solutions.
Rocky Mullin, TEDxBerkeley’s Technical Director, has been a college trained (UCSC 1992) theater arts professional off and on all his life. In particular a rigger, sound designer and technical director for projects such as Cirque du Soleil, The Tandy Beal dance company, and The New Pickle Circus. Rocky is a production volunteer for the Entertainment Gathering and TEDMED. His offprofessional life has run a diverse path, with projects ranging from one of the earliest web workers at one of the first web production start-ups (Organic 1994-2001) to installing home theatre systems for Neil Young with his company Vanadium. Rocky is part owner of Taylor’s Tonics, a sixteen year Burning Man participant, a live ambient musician for weird blinking lights and a working club/event DJ (dj caliban) with the Cloudfactory.
Gloria Archuleta, TEDxBerkeley’s Director of Food and Beverages, is the founder and managing attorney at JumpStart Law, a firm focused on providing cost-effective legal services to the startup entrepreneur community. She previously served as in-house counsel at PacBell and SBC Wireless, before being promoted to head of intellectual property for Cingular Wireless. Gloria left Cingular to serve as General Counsel for an emerging startup, and has been working with startups ever since. A member of the California Bar, and the American Bar Association, Gloria currently serves on the ABA’s Committee for Social Networking Policy. She also finds time to take on Pro Bono work for animal rights, non profits and local artists and musicians. A huge TED fan, Gloria is also active with TEDxSF and TEDxMarin.
David Allen, TEDxBerkeley’s Volunteer Manager, is a student who has been involved with a variety of academic conferences on and off the Berkeley campus. He is primarily interested in the Neural Theory of Language, a particularly computationally and linguistically heavy aspect of cognitive science. Besides research on campus, David is involved in the Sensebridge project in San Francisco.
Feel free to contact us by email at info@tedxberkeley.org
See our 2010 team here.