ANDREA DRIESSEN

Change agent, Consultant, Educator/Teacher, Entrepreneur, Global soul, Idea generator, Marketer, World traveler, Writer/Editor

Applying a long career in speaking and event design, I present interactive workshop experiences to organizations around the world to help participants use Gracenotes to foster more meaning, mattering and inclusion. And as a hospice volunteer, I have seen the profound power of open communication between those who are dying and their loved ones. And I've devoted my career to helping others communicate their ideas more clearly. Whether via Gracenotes, through messaging that drives business results or by helping thought leaders amplify their genius, I'm a communication professional who knows in my BONES that the right word at the right time can foster enormous change -- in our hearts, relationships and organizations. I am the author of the 3x award-winning book, The Non-Obvious Guide to Event Planning....which I've dedicated to my parents for showing what full-on engagement with life looks like until the very end of it.

Lifelong learning, helping others communicate their ideas more clearly, the positive death movement, reading, presenting, world travel, Chinese dumplings, classic cocktails, working and adventuring.

If you're going to doubt anything, doubt your limits.

Adult Learning, Communicating ideas, Communications Technology, Consultative problem solving, Content - Development, event design, speaking

I am most *alive* when attending or planning a TED event. I think of TED as thought leadership for thought leaders, and an unending stream of inspiration for the power of ideas to change and improve the world. From 2011-2018, I was an organizer with TEDxSeattle, most recently focusing on partnership acquisition and the audience experience. I then gave a TEDx Talk in 2019 on eulogies for the living, and a second talk at TEDxSeattleWomen in 2021.

being present to those who are dying, improv games, turning ideas into reality