Sabeen Perwaiz knows the power of TEDxJacksonville.
It made her fall in love with the city.
Perwaiz moved here from her beloved New York City after her husband proposed.
“Initially, I was not excited,” she said.
But getting involved with TEDxJacksonville opened her eyes to what her new Southern home was really about. It made her embrace Jacksonville and become a cheerleader for the city.
Perwaiz is executive producer of TEDxJacksonville, whose events give speakers a platform to share their ideas, their passions and their solutions.
The group started in 2012, after Doug Coleman saw a TEDx program in Muskegon, Mich. It originally was TEDxRiversideAvondale.
There are 25 volunteers who typically work full-time schedules to organize events such as the Oct. 24 conference, “Into the Machine.”
Perwaiz’s real full-time job is project manager of Earn Up, a JAXUSA Partnership program to increase the percentage of adults with higher education degrees.
The nearly sold-out TEDx event at WJCT will have a much bigger audience than those in the studio or at two library branches where it will be broadcast, as well.
It was announced Friday the Jacksonville conference in October will be the first TEDx event to be streamed live on the TEDx YouTube channel.
Earning that distinction was a matter of timing, Perwaiz said. TED officials had been working with YouTube for a while and were able to get everything set for a fall presentation.
And, she said, it also was a matter of TED leaders being familiar with the high-caliber conferences and other public events the Jacksonville group had produced over the years.
In addition to watching TEDxJacksonville videos, a TED staff member has attended each conference here, Perwaiz said.
“They’ve seen our work and were willing to let us be the first pilot,” she said.
Speakers this year include:
• Attorney Kevin Hyde, who will talk about the benefits to a community for helping provide job opportunities to ex-offenders.
• Rick DuCharme, founder of First Coast No More Homeless Pets, who will share a strategy of having fewer animals taken in to shelters and allowing more to leave facilities alive.
• John Phillips, a Jacksonville attorney who will challenge whether the phrase “all men are created equal” from the Declaration of Independence is true in practice.
This year, 122 people from across the country applied to speak at the Jacksonville conference; 13 were chosen. In 2012, there were 25 applicants.
Another sign of the local group’s growth is the increase in programs: from three in 2012 to about 10 this year.
Recent community forums have included mental health issues, excellence in governance and “The Power of Uniqueness: How Art, Architecture, Culture, and the Environment Create Economic Value.”
Perwaiz’s time with TEDxJacksonville has taught her many things, she said, both about the city and about herself.
It’s made her devoted to Jacksonville.
She loved being a New Yorker, but didn’t do a lot of volunteering there.
“Maybe the soup kitchen on Sunday,” she said.
But here, she has really gotten involved in the city she wasn’t thrilled about moving to, but now loves being a part of.
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