TEDxUniversityofNevada organizers announced their eighth annual event will be held Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, and the call for speakers will be open from July 1 to Aug. 5, 2019.

TEDxUniversityofNevada has become one of the most prominent TEDx events in the country with videos reaching more than a combined 51 million views. These events have brought some of the most well-known speakers and astounding performers to the Reno community, all in order to start international dialogue right here, in the Biggest Little City.

With its next event, organizers look forward to acquiring a wide range of proposals and have expressed a desire to see more Reno locals share their ideas. Applicants should keep in mind that TEDxUniversityofNevada is an idea forum rather than a speaker forum.

“We continue to raise the bar on this event year-after-year,” Bret Simmons, event curator and associate professor at the University’s College of Business, said. “I am confident our event in 2020 will not only help generate ideas around the world but will also continue to offer this community a quality speaker event with a few surprises along the way.”

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, which are all elements organizers try to showcase at the event. The call for speakers can be found at the TEDxUniversityofNevada website. It is open from July 1 to Aug. 5. People are urged to apply early.

Speakers applying to TEDxUniversityofNevada should be encouraged to know there is a thorough vetting and preparation process before talks are delivered on stage. Each speaker must commit to monthly pre-event planning and preparation meetings, in order to ensure they are ready to deliver the best short talk of their life.

“The most memorable TEDx talks seem to be spoken right to you as you're watching, as if the person giving it wasn't through a computer screen years and miles away,” Jenna Weiner, a 2019 TEDxUniversityofNevada speaker and winner of the ‘Road to TEDx Student Speaker Competition,’ said. “How do they do it? Through lots and lots of practice and preparation, and plenty of good feedback about what to include, or not, in the talk. TEDxUniversityofNevada embraces this whole-heartedly, through a lengthy but extraordinarily helpful process spanning a full five months.”

Thanks to strong support from the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority and the Atlantis Casino Resort and Spa, the event will return to the Reno-Sparks Convention Center.

Presenting sponsors of TEDxUniversityofNevada include the University’s College of Business Online Executive MBA program, the Associated Students of the University of Nevada, KPS3, JamPro Music Factory, the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority, Greater Nevada Credit Union and the University of Nevada, Reno. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available for this year’s event. For more information, contact Bret Simmons at simmonsb@unr.edu.

All TEDxUniversityofNevada talks will be posted to the TEDx YouTube site. People interested in receiving ongoing updates about the event can sign up for news update via the event’s website, tedxuniversityofnevada.org.