Dear Albuquerque TEDsters,

In our 7 years of existence, TEDxABQ has had the pleasure of hosting events in some of Albuquerque’s most iconic venues. From the graceful auditorium of the National Hispanic Cultural Center to the historic El Rey Theater; from the light-filled atrium of the Albuquerque Museum to the grassy lawn of Old Town Farm; from the venue formerly known as the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino to the venue currently known as the African American Performing Arts Center, we have cherished all of the teams of people who have made the events at these locations possible.

Popejoy Hall at the University of New Mexico has been home to our flagship event each September since 2013. Prior to our move to Popejoy, our largest event to date had an audience of 700 people. Popejoy’s 1900-person auditorium and the complexity that comes with putting on an event of that size were both exhilarating challenges and satisfying growth opportunities for our entirely volunteer planning team. While we have thoroughly enjoyed our time on UNM’s lovely campus with an unbeatable team of front and back of house support, we are feeling the itch to shake things up again for 2016.

On September 17th, we will host our annual Main Event at the Kiva Auditorium at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Located at the heart of downtown, TEDxABQ 2016 will contribute to the growing movement to bring families, participation, energy, culture, the arts, people—life—back to downtown Albuquerque. Our team has been developing the plans for this year’s event since the spring and we are excited to announce both the venue change and a new event schedule.

We have always included some element of audience engagement outside of the theater as an opportunity for attendees to interact with and explore various ideas from around the community. For the first time, we will concentrate our audience engagement portion of the event in the first part of the day from 10 am to 1pm on Civic Plaza. There will be a mixture of scheduled experiences and play-as- you-go art projects, interactive booths, demos, and performances designed to engage you in the ideas that are shaping our community and spark the creative learner inside all of us. There will also be a wide selection of food vendors present along Third Street to keep you fed and hydrated while you explore. (Note: For those who have attended our main event in the past, you may be interested to know that we will not be including lunch with your ticket this year. However, our ticket prices will be significantly lower than they have been in the past, giving you the choice to purchase a meal, bring your lunch, or eat at home. More on that soon) Speaker sessions will run from 1 to 6 pm with several short breaks and an after party to follow.

In the coming weeks, we will be sharing more details about the event, including this year’s group of speakers, audience engagement activities on Civic Plaza, our sustainability initiatives, ticket price details, the 2016 Artist in Residence, and so much more.

Next week, we will continue the countdown to September 17th by announcing the theme for TEDxABQ 2016.

Warmly,
Beth Haley, Brian Hatchitt, and Jazmin Estrada
TEDxABQ 2016 Co-Curators