Lesley Brock hopped down and sat on the edge of the stage in Ruby Hall at Common House, having just finished the final dress rehearsal of her TED talk. She questioned Maggie Carruth O’Connor about time constraints, wondering if 20 minutes was a hard limit or if running under time would be a big deal.
Brock, a policy analyst and founder of Chattanooga-based Smartt Strategies, is scheduled to appear after lunch Wednesday at the TEDxChattanooga conference at the Walker Theatre. She’s just one of the speakers on the conference’s lineup curated by O’Connor, the director, producer and license holder of TEDxChattanooga.
“I really wanted to focus on all local,” O’Connor said. “There’s just so much talent and thought leadership in Chattanooga, and people here deserve to be on the TEDxChattanooga stage. That’s who we should be really focusing on.”
O’Connor acquired the license for TEDxChattanooga, a locally organized TED event, and held her first event in November 2020.
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