TEDxUniversityofNevada has announced its third annual event will be Friday, January 23, 2015, and the call for speakers is now open. Local speakers interested in participating in the event are encouraged to share their big idea for consideration.

"We are looking for dynamic local speakers passionate about their ideas," Bret Simmons, College of Business associate professor and TEDxUniversityofNevada organizer, said. "Our goal is to find people with perspectives that the global TED community needs to hear. This past year's local speakers really raised the bar for our entire event and we're determined to present high-caliber local speakers again this year."

During the event, local speakers like Raquel Abowd, Bridget Park, Wendy Damonte, Paul Klein and Kristen Stith, to name a few, all shared big ideas worth spreading. The University of Nevada, Reno also provided its first student speaker, Rubik's Cube wiz Tim Grunert, and two faculty members, David Aucoin and Peter Epstein also participated.

"The University is again committed to finding stories, ideas and performances among its own students, faculty and alumni," Simmons said. "We are also looking for people interested in performing at the event. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. We try and make sure to incorporate each of these elements into our full day of speakers."

The call for speakers can be found at www.tedxuniversityofnevada.org and is open from now until September 15, 2014. People interested in applying are encouraged to do so early as the event's programming committee is hoping to have the majority of the speaker line-up completed by August. The title sponsor of TEDxUniversityofNevada is the University's College of Business Online Executive MBA program.

All TEDxUniversityofNevada talks will be posted to the TEDx YouTube site. 

"There's no telling how far these talks can reach," Simmons said. "TEDxUniversityofNevada talk by Logan LaPlante on Hackschooling has become the second most popular talk ever uploaded to TEDx Talks with more than 5 million views and counting."