Kelly Stoetzel

Activist, Change Agent, Connector, Environmentalist, Foodie, Global soul, Idea generator, Parent

If there’s one thing I love, it’s being in the room when an idea changes how someone sees the world. I’m the founder of Orkney Projects, a consulting practice built around the things I care about most — finding remarkable thinkers, storytellers, and changemakers, helping them share what they know in ways that connect, and helping organizations build the kinds of communities where those ideas can take root and grow. Speaker curation and talk development is at the heart of what I do, which means I get to spend a lot of time in conversations with fascinating people, asking the kinds of questions that surface the talk only they could give. But equally, I love the work of cultivating the communities, networks, and spaces that make those conversations matter. I’ve been lucky to get to do this work across the TED ecosystem for many years. Most recently, I led the TED Global Idea Search, a collaboration between TED and 9 TEDx teams around the world to bring a few wonderful humans to share their ideas in Session 8 of this conference. We made a series about the search, hosted on YouTube. Currently, I’m working on TED Democracy in partnership with Visit Philadelphia, bringing together voices that speak to the health, fragility, and future of democracy. It’s happening on June 13 in Philadelphia. You should come! The very best part of all of this is the opportunity to connect with good people around shared curiosity, and ideas that can help move the world forward. Come say hi.

music, science, contemporary art, great ideas, and preserving the imaginations of our little ones so they can grow up to be strong independent thinkers.

Art, Design, Music

My dad, Jim Young, started attending TED in the mid-90s and convinced me to give it a try (it wasn't hard). I was fortunate enough to be able to make it a part of my everyday life for 17+ years. Even though I no longer work there, TED will remain in my heart forever. I'm so grateful to continue my engagement with TED as a member of the community. And now, I get to help lead a science museum (opening soon) and founded by TED speaker, Dr. Kenneth Lacovara, which I'm pretty sure wouldn't exist without his TED talk from 2016.