Members of Project Management Institute Community Take the TED Mainstage to Share Big, Bold, Creative Ideas at New Virtual Event

(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Project Management Institute (PMI), the world's leading association for the project management profession, is shining a light on the talents and ideas of the project community during TED@PMI: Action + Impact, a virtual event on 25-26 September 2020. Open to the public, this free event will celebrate a community of doers and the vision, inspiration and mesmerizing awe of turning big ideas into action.

The TED@PMI Talks were sourced directly from the PMI community. More than 600,000 members and 500 employees, as well as more than 330,000 certification holders in China had the chance to submit their ideas. Through a multi-round process, a team of TED coaches, including TED@PMI Curator Sally Kohn, vetted the entries to find the most compelling stories. From the applicant pool, 12 individuals were selected to go through the TED Talk speaker process, where coaches provide one-on-one storytelling guidance, talk development and public speaking training to sharpen and hone ideas and talks.

During the event, the speakers will take the TED@PMI mainstage across two days, but the event is not just about the Talks. Pre-, during and post-event activities make it possible to build community through experience. Start the event with a total body workout or guided meditation with fellow attendees. Before the TED@PMI mainstage session, learn how to brew the perfect cappuccino and craft the best cocktail to enjoy during the event. Unwind after the mainstage session during the virtual DJ dance parties or by diving deeper into the speakers’ stories during speaker panel discussions. Stay connected with other attendees by creating and exchanging virtual business cards.

“These individuals are not just dedicated to telling their story, they’re dedicated to taking action and making an impact,” said Sunil Prashara, President and CEO of PMI. “It’s people like this - those not afraid to turn an idea into reality - who solve our world’s biggest problems.”

The 12 TED@PMI speakers hail from around the world, representing PMI’s global footprint. From trauma and healing, to communication and community, to project management and social change, these speakers tell their boldest and most inspiring stories.

• Chiwuike Amaechi (Lagos, Nigeria): Storytelling as tradition and transformation that connects us all
• Khulan Batkhuyag (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia): Permanent life-lessons from the nomadic life of Mongolians
• Wale Elegbede (Rochester, N.Y., U.S.): Stop seeing discrimination as “their” problem and see it as “our problem” — all of us
• Kristin Jones (Springfield, Pa., U.S.): How to talk with your kids about sexual assault, without spreading shame
• Betsy Kauffman (Charlotte, N.C., U.S.): My son with autism is really blunt — and we should all be more like him
• Dinae Knox (Chicago, Ill., U.S.): How to turn life’s depleted soil into rich compost
• YeYoon Kim (Singapore): What kindergarteners taught me about the gift of asking for help
• Kathy Mendias (Bonita, Calif., U.S.): The case for crying — a lot
• Billy Samuel Mwape (Lusaka, Zambia): What if we saw kids with special needs not as problems, but projects
• Danielle Torley (Destin, Fla., U.S.): One woman’s journey from losing a family member in a fire to… becoming a fire dancer?!?
• Mounina Tounkara (Nice, France): The immigrant experience of racism and confronting outsider/insider bias
• Jess Woods (Tucson, Ariz., U.S.): Avoiding the prickly cactuses of life — literally and figuratively

The TED@PMI partnership is all about identifying thought-leaders and unearthing the best ideas from the project management community. Every year, the TED Institute works with a group of carefully selected organizations like PMI to identify their best inventors, connectors, and creators.

To register for free today or to learn more about the speakers, visit: TED.PMI.org.

About Project Management Institute (PMI)
Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world's leading association for those who consider project, program or portfolio management their profession. Through global advocacy, collaboration, education and research, we work to prepare more than three million professionals around the world for The Project Economy: the coming economy in which work, and individuals, are organized around projects, products, programs and value streams Now 50 years in the making, we work in nearly every country around the world to advance careers, improve organizational success and further mature the project management profession through globally-recognized standards, certifications, communities, resources, tools, academic research, publications, professional development courses and networking opportunities. As part of the PMI family, ProjectManagement.com creates online global communities that deliver more resources, better tools, larger networks and broader perspectives. Visit us at www.PMI.org, www.projectmanagement.com, www.facebook.com/PMInstitute and on Twitter @PMInstitute.

About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, often in the form of short talks delivered by leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED conferences, intimate TED Salons, and thousands of independently organized TEDx events around the world. Videos of these talks are made available, free, on TED.com and other platforms. Audio versions of TED Talks are published to TED Talks Daily, available on all podcast platforms.

TED's open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; TEDx, which licenses thousands of individuals and groups to host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities; The Audacious Project, which surfaces and funds critical ideas that have the potential to impact millions of lives; TED Translate, which crowdsources the subtitling of TED Talks so that big ideas can spread across languages and borders; and the educational initiative TED-Ed. TED also has a growing library of original podcasts, including The TED Interview with Chris Anderson, WorkLife with Adam Grant, Pindrop and TEDxSHORTS.

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