Richard Averitt

Activist, Artist, Change Agent, Idea generator, Parent, Photographer, Social entrepreneur, World traveler

I am an artist by training and at heart. These days my medium of choice is businesses and products rather than canvas and paper. I spent the past 20 years as an entrepreneur building and leading teams on new projects, products and services from the most early stage ideas to a finished consumer experience. I have worked in a broad range of industries including advertising, restaurants, real estate development, luxury accommodations, content management, translation and globalization technologies, retail, fundraising, and even a global innovative non-profit working on HIV and AIDS. I entered the technology space in 2003 working with Documentum on a global health care initiative for women with AIDS called The Well Project. I have been either CEO or COO for three technology Startups since - including Jawfish Games and now as the leader of Digital ReLab. I can't wait to learn and be inspired by my TED colleagues once again!

The future of Digital Media and disintermediation! Sheer possibility, the consideration of positive intent, the difference between our personal truths and truth with a capital T, Optimism

Education is not the filing of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. -Yeats

Building a Team, Digital Media', Mentoring, Sheer Possibility', Start-up Biz Dev

I have been blessed to be a part of this community for the better part of 10 years now and have co-founded and hosted TEDxCharlottesville since 2013. As always, I am here to listen and to learn and to be inspired by the people I meet on and off the stage.

Making killer pate and homemade shrubs. I once knitted a sweater.