Tamsen Webster

Business adviser, Change Agent, Connector, Consultant, Educator/Teacher, Foodie, Global soul, Idea generator, Marketer, Parent, Performer, Producer, Promoter, Student, World traveler

Part "idea whisperer," part keynote speaker, and part message strategist, Tamsen Webster helps people and organizations like Verizon, State Street Bank, and Johnson & Johnson build the big ideas that bring big change. For four years, she was the Executive Producer of one of the largest locally organized “TED talk” events in the world. In former lives, she worked in both agencies and at nonprofits heading up brand, marketing, and fundraising communication strategy, along with a brief but enduring turn as a change management consultant. She was a reluctant marathoner...twice; is a winning ballroom dancer (in her mind); but everything she knows about people, speaking, and change, she learned at Weight Watchers. True story.

Building big ideas

You can't change what people do until you change how they see.

Branding, Change management, Idea articulation, Marketing, Messaging, Public speaking

Three years ago, I met a friend for lunch. We talked about the normal things -- work, life, new projects we were each working on. Not otherwise memorable, other than the elegance and wittiness of my friend. But after the bill was paid, for some reason, we kept talking. And then my friend asked a question: "What do you really wish you were doing right now? What do you really wish you were doing with your life?" My answer? "I want to be figuring out how to help people take what they love and find an audience for it." And then he told me he (Dmitri Gunn) was the Executive Director of TEDxCambridge. And then he said he was looking for a new Executive Producer -- the person who would select and coach all the speakers for the TEDxCambridge stage. I said yes. He told me to think about it. He even made me wait another couple of months before accepting my answer. I still said yes. Thankfully, so did he and the rest of the team. Now, two years later, we've tripled the size the audience for the event, and have had one speaker's video from each of our last two events promoted to TED.com. And I get to help people take what they love and find an audience for it -- twice a year.

Scoring baseball games.