BILLINGS - Q2 went inside a Tedx Salon event in downtown Billings. Forty guests heard short seminars from experts on several topics, as a preview to the larger Tedx event in Billings set for February.
TED talks are a nationally, globally recognized meeting of minds, the X means that it is independently, locally organized, and corresponding to local ideas and needs.
"This whole thing is really just meant to shine a positive light on the community, and give the amazing people that we have here a platform to broadcast their ideas worth sharing to the world audience," Tedx Billings D'Vaughn LaSean Hayes said.
The salon event at the Post at the Billings Depot brought in speakers and sponsors across different disciplines.
"People coming together to really support that growth that we all want to see and that change that we all felt really encouraged by," Billings Community Foundation Executive Director Lauren Wright said.
The idea is to keep people engaged between larger TED talks.
William Breon Henry, of Billings anti-bully campaign Be Better, spoke to the 40 in attendance, incorporating the audience in one of his points,
"Right now we are in the time in the world, right now where if you don't think you can do whatever you want right now, trust me when I tell you that you can. So my favorite word is pivot. The ability to be able to pivot," Henry said.
Henry also shared a piece of a National TED Talk that resonated with him.
The theme of this year's talks is "Staying true to your roots while investing in your future."
"If we really want to make a change in Billings, we have to be willing to be uncomfortable," Henry said.
There are two more "salon" style events leading up to the main Ted-X-talk on February 27th at the Babcock Theater.
