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Jung-Suk (JS) Ryu was appointed the founding President and CEO of the National accessArts Centre (NaAC) in November 2020, after serving as CEO of the organization formerly known as the Indefinite Arts Centre since 2017. Under his leadership, the NaAC has grown to become Canada’s largest disability arts organization, more than doubling in size and proactively showcasing Canadian artists with disabilities on the global stage.

In February 2021, he unveiled plans to construct North America’s first multidisciplinary accessible arts hub, beginning with the revitalization of the old Scouts Hall in central Calgary that will house the NaAC’s visual arts studios – made possible by a multimillion dollar investment form the City of Calgary. In 2023, the NaAC will begin plans to develop the Won Lee Community Arts Hub in Toronto, activating a $2.5 million gallery space that once belonged to the late Canadian sculptor Won Lee.

Prior to this appointment, JS held senior roles across a broad range of sectors including: Director, External Relations at The Banff Centre; Director, Public Affairs with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind; Senior Consultant with the Alberta Medical Association; and Principal Speechwriter to His Excellency Kaoru Ishikawa, Ambassador of Japan. His career began in federal politics, where he was a senior-level campaign director and political aide to one of Canada’s most prominent politicians.

In 2017, JS was named one of five fellows from Canada – one in 50 globally – to participate in the Salzburg Global Seminar’s Forum for Young Cultural Innovators. He was named one of Calgary’s Top 40 Under 40 by Avenue Magazine in 2019. In 2022, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal. The same year, he was an invited delegate to the Banff Forum.

JS serves or has served on the following boards: US-based National Arts Strategies, the Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations, Family and Community Support Services – Rocky View County, the Banff Heritage Corporation, Creative Calgary, the Alberta Health Coalition, and the Canadian Mountain Arts Foundation.

Alex Sarian is the President & CEO of Arts Commons, the largest arts center in western Canada and the nation's third largest arts facility. Appointed in January 2020, Alex became one of the youngest CEOs to oversee a major performing arts center in North America, including its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the half-billion-dollar Arts Commons Transformation (ACT) project—the largest cultural infrastructure project in Canada, scheduled to break ground in downtown Calgary in 2024.

Prior to his current appointment, he spent 18 years in New York City, the last seven at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where he served as the senior executive responsible for the organization’s portfolio of regranting initiatives, global consulting, community engagement, arts education, and artistic programming for young audiences and families.

As a recognized authority on the civic role of arts institutions, Alex has worked on cultural projects in 15 countries spanning 5 continents. As a professor, he has taught at New York University, Pace University, and City College of New York.

Alex has served on governing boards and special advisory committees for institutions including the Calgary Downtown Association, SXSW, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, and the Varkey Foundation’s Global Teacher Prize.

He received undergraduate and graduate degrees from New York University, is a graduate of the CommunityShift program at Western University's Ivey School of Business, and was an inaugural graduate of the Impact Program for Arts Leaders at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Alex is proud to have been named to the 2022 class of Calgary's Top 40 Under 40.

Anna Murphy is a woman fiercely passionate to call the communities of Calgary her home, she is a community-minded and engaged advocate for 2SLGBTQIA+ and Women’s Issues, while striving to be a champion for equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility within her community.

In addition to her role as Visitor Engagement and Volunteer Coordinator with Contemporary Calgary, Anna has the profound honour and remarkable privilege of serving a city of trailblazers in a voluntary capacity as a University of Calgary Senator, Chair of the Senate EDI Working Group, Member of the O’Brien Institute of Public Health, Vice-Chair of the Gender Equity Diversity Inclusion Subcommittee of the City of Calgary Social Wellbeing Advisory Committee, Member of the Council Behaviour Working Group, Member of the Community Connections Subcommittee of the Calgary Stampede Agriculture and Western Events Committee, Member of the Calgary Foundation SAM Centre Community Advisory, and Member of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs National 2SLGBTQIA+ Advisory Council.

Anna was named the 2022 Calgary Stampede Western Trailblazer for her community activism related towards 2SLGBTQIA+ issues, as well as being a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal in recognition of her ongoing volunteerism and significant contributions to the province of Alberta.

Committed to giving her time to inspire even the smallest of change, Anna gives back in an effort to foster safe and affirming communities where all can see themselves and know their future as being an achievable reality - further, Anna recognizes that community building requires active and ongoing involvement, leading from her lived experience as a transgender woman who continues to navigate the realities which come from adversity and barriers created as a result of ongoing cultural and systemic inequity, along with lack of representation.

Dr. Mahoney is a translational scientist at Cumming School of Medicine in the University of Calgary with 20+ years of experience studying human health and disease.

Over the past 15 years, his research has made important contributions to the development of numerous cancer immunotherapies that have been commercialized and/or tested in human clinical trials. Currently his lab is focused on engineering “designer cells and viruses” to treat various forms of cancer in children, adolescents, and adults.

Dr. Mahoney is the founder and Scientific Director of a research initiative called ACTION (Alberta Cellular Therapy and Immune Oncology), which seeks to develop innovative next generation engineered immune cell therapies and deliver them to cancer patients in Alberta and beyond.

Outside the lab, Doug spends his time with his wife and three children, mostly enjoying the Alberta/BC wilderness.

Associate Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Infectious Disease
Associate Director of the Charbonneau Cancer Institute
Scientific Director of the Alberta Cellular Therapy and Immune Oncology Initiative

Using the Arts as a thread to sew people and thoughts together, Jessica Théroux is a painter, writer, sculptor, and textiles artist. She makes a living as a teacher and runs an artist collective in her home town of Calgary, Alberta with her husband, Rich Theroux.

Over the past 10 years she has co-hosted over 500 weekly live art events that bring hundreds of artists and art consumers together. She has co-written several books, co-created a feature length film (puppets), and is a singer, entertainer, and explorer. She is also a published poet. Her first solo publication will be later this year.

Too often, our most vocal and destructive critic is our inner self-bullying voice.

Kalyani Pardeshi is a multiple award-winning author who teaches anti-bullying techniques based on the science of how our brains work, focusing on the intangible cause of bullying instead of the tangible effects.

Despite having a successful career in finance and holding two professional designations, Kalyani felt something was amiss. She tried her hand at entrepreneurship and ran a successful online fitness business for two years, yet felt a continuing void that seemingly couldn’t be filled. The answer came when she volunteered at an anti-bullying workshop at her daughter’s school. She had an entire lifetime of experiences, learning and tools she had developed and made the choice to share her experience with others through her book Unbullied - 14 Techniques to Silence the Critics, Externally and Internally.

Her book has been recognized internationally through three awards: The Skipping Stones Honour Award, The Book Excellence Finalist Award and The Maincrest Media Winners Award. She has been interviewed by many media outlets including CTV Morning Live for Pink Shirt Day, Hollywood Times, Women’s Radio and Daughters of Change. 

Recently, we had another of our more than 150 speakers pass away. That reminds us that we, as humans, have a finite amount of time on this earth. But our ideas can continue living on, influencing others.

Does the world today feel like a bit of an improv experiment?

We live in some very volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous times (V.U.C.A. as the term was coined in the 1980s by leadership and strategy experts and subsequently adopted by the U.S. military), and that makes it exceptionally difficult to get traction on many of the very important but intractable issues in our midst. From the places where we live and work, to the political and social realm in the countries and territories we inhabit, the nature of a post-COVID VUCA world has made a mockery of countless well-laid plans.

New connections. Deep conversations.

It's a volatile, complex world out there, full of ambiguity and divisiveness. How do we work together to nurture a culture of civil, foward-looking conversation?

For us, we start with "Yes," when someone shares a long-cherished idea with us. That simple word acknowledges their courage in sharing with us, and opens up the space for us to take those ideas to a new level with our contribution of "and..." as we add our own insights and perspectives.

Over 350 participants joined our group of amazing speakers in the beautifully-remodelled Ampersand building in downtown Calgary as they shared their ideas to start the conversation rolling.

Starting in Fall 2022, Aspen Properties is providing TEDxCalgary with event and office space in The Ampersand and other buildings within its Calgary-based portfolio for the coming couple of years. This provides the TEDxCalgary team with a beautiful community space within a world-class building and business hub.

Aspen Properties is a privately-held, boutique real estate company that owns and manages commercial office space in downtown Calgary and Edmonton. Aspen focuses on creating welcoming work spaces where people feel connected, get inspired, and know they belong.

​Together with their investment partners, Aspen Properties owns and manages approximately 3.8 million square feet of office space in Calgary and Edmonton (plus nearly 3,500 highly sought-after parking spaces in downtown Calgary and Edmonton). Their current assets comprise 14 buildings—eleven in Calgary, three in Edmonton and development sites in each city.