Amber Armstrong

I am a social business marketing leader for IBM by day and a self proclaimed food-nerd with a wicked travel addiction every other minute of the day. I grew up in small town South Carolina and have ventured through North Carolina, Hong Kong, New York City, and now Austin. Both personally and professionally, I am extremely passionate about making connections with people and watching the magic that ensues. That magic happens in businesses, when they truly allow human to human collaboration. At IBM, my mission is to show businesses the benefit of collaboration, empowerment, and trust. Everyday, my team wakes up thinking about how they can help customers leverage social, analytics, and cloud to improve the agility and innovation within their companies. That magic also happens in families and with friends when we step back from the daily onslaught of life and are vulnerable to ask for support and guidance. I spent 2013 mastering dishes from 38 countries, sharing those meals in 1:1 sit downs, and am now blogging about it in hopes that others will also become more connected to those they love. When I'm not marketing for IBM, traveling the globe, writing, or cooking up some unknown ethnic dish, you will find me open water swimming, running, or cycling - or perhaps coming up with some other new idea that I can't execute with the number of hours in the day.

I am passionate about learning - whether that be a lesson learned on an ice hike in Patagonia, in my kitchen knee deep in coq a vin, or at a social business conference.

Adventure Travel, Blogging - Life Style, Cooking (Multiple styles), Digital & Social Marketing, Marketing, Running & Swimming, Social Media & Technology, Traveling Abroad, Triathlete, Writing

This is my first time attending the TED conference. I look forward to meeting many creative, innovative souls over the coming week.

I'm just beginning to share my culinary skills outside of my family and friends - so hopefully more people will know about my abilities soon.