Matthew Hamilton

Athlete, Change Agent, Concerned citizen, Connector, Engineer, Event planner, Foodie, Parent, Social entrepreneur

Developing leaders, organizations, & community

Analytics, Business Development, Business Writing, Event Management, Executive Coaching, Leadership Development, Learning & Development, Operations Management, Process Improvement, Program/Project Management, Strategic Planning, Systems Engineering

I was introduced to TED Talks like many people probably are: following a link on social media to a talk, and becoming instantly hooked. At the time I lived in North Carolina, but my wife and I were planning to move to Alabama to be closer to family. Shortly before we moved at the end of 2012, I saw that there was going to be a TEDx event in Birmingham and thought "cool, maybe I could attend it." Unfortunately shortly after we arrived I learned that the event had been cancelled, although the organizers hoped to reschedule it. I thought I could possibly help out, so reached out over Twitter and quickly found myself having coffee with the organizer. I learned that unfortunately the team was stretched too thin, and he was actually moving out of state the following week. Well the writing was on the wall. I figured if it was going to happen in Birmingham, I guess I was going to have to step up to the plate. At about the same time, I was introduced to a local professor, Sarah Parcak (a TED Fellow and who has since won the 2016 TED Prize!). Sarah and I hit it off right away, and teamed up to make TEDxBirmingham a reality again. More than six years later, we're still going strong!