Ian Murphy

Brainstormer, Business adviser, Change Agent, Connector, Consultant, Event planner, Idea generator, Producer, Promoter, Technologist

Ian Murphy has more than a decade of experience as a senior manager in marketing, communications and public relations. During this time, he designed and managed a diverse portfolio of projects and promotions for companies ranging from Fortune 100 corporations to entrepreneurial start-ups, small businesses and non-profit organizations. His experience includes a very strong record of innovative marketing and awareness campaigns and the generation of billions of positive media impressions for clients and employers. He began his career at a boutique PR firm in Washington D.C. specializing in congressional relations, aerospace and non-profit media and event management. His duties included media relations, building press lists, writing press releases and compiling and editing the 1998 & 1999 Who's Who in Congress and Who's Who in the Pentagon directories for Army Times Publishing Company. He moved on to manage and train direct sales teams for two direct promotions and sales companies in Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD. He returned to Federal City Communications in November of 2001 as a media relations account manager and later VP of Media Relations representing a handful of well-known commercial aerospace companies. In 2004, he publicized the first private flights to space for the X PRIZE Foundation. Reuters News Service reported as the 2nd most reported story that year. In January of 2005, as Director of Communications for the X PRIZE Foundation, he helped design, produce and promote the first two Wirefly X PRIZE Cup events and the $2.5M Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. In addition to events and public relations, his duties included producing and editing all video material, podcasts and websites, as well as, conducting research for new X Prizes for fuel efficiency, genomics, nanotechnology, education and the environment. In late 2006, he successfully publicized the largest medical prize in history -- the $10 million Archon X PRIZE for Genomics. He moved on from the X PRIZE Foundation in 2007 to start his own consulting firm and spent the next three years building events and managing communications for a variety of advanced technology companies, non-profits, and government agencies. During this time he produced a large public Air Show for NASA, a ground-breaking event for Space X at KSC Space Launch Complex 40, and a conference on commercial spaceflight for the State of Florida. He was recruited back to LA in 2010 to serve as the Director of Communications for the Stevens Center for Innovation at the University of Southern California and the Executive Producer of TEDxUSC. USC Stevens is a university wide resource that helps USC innovators make maximum impact with their idea beyond traditional academic means. At USC, he produced student focused interdisciplinary innovation programs, technology showcase events, seminar and speaker series events and investor pitch events. He also managed the innovation brand for USC, as well as created strategic communications plans for dozens of spinout technology companies. He left USC in 2013 to start Lucidity, a PR, marketing and event production firm that specializes in advanced technology and innovation development. In this role he works with Universities, non-profits, and advanced technology startups to help organizations make a significant global impact with their innovative ideas. He also serves as the Lead Organizer and Executive Producer for TEDxVeniceBeach, which is an invite only, progressive ideas conference that is focused on culture and community in the bay cities.

Helping brilliant people articulate their ideas

1) We don't build, grow, create and design as much as we used to. Somehow we went from the source of new ideas products and innovations to the consumer of these things. A nation of buying, trading and selling is not sustainable and we MUST get back to an economy driven by creation. 2) There is a psychological phenomenon that every single person who has traveled to space has independently reported experiencing (even the first Russian cosmonauts). It's called the Overview Effect, coined by Frank White in 1987. Simply put, by seeing the earth from space a person's attitude is fundamentally changed into one that ceases to see cultural, national or racial boundaries or classifications. This overriding feeling of universal connection altered the way they live their lives forever. Private space tourism is the pathway to this euphoric enlightenment and imagine a day when just about anyone on the planet has a chance to experience the overview effect for themselves.

Aerospace, Alternate Energy Solutions, Event Planning & Organizing, Innovation, Public Relatiions and Communication

I was introduced to TED by Peter Diamandis in 2004 when he was working on his talk for the X PRIZE. I watched and enjoyed the talks once they began going online a few years ago. In 2010, I was recruited by USC to run TEDxUSC, which was the first TEDx event ever held. I've been fully immersed in the TEDx world ever since. I helped start the TEDxSoCal Organizers network in 2011 and I sit on the advisory board of more than a dozen TEDx events. In December of 2012, I was the MC for TEDxSantaMonica Youth, which was one of the more fun experiences of my life. In September 2013, I produced TEDxVeniceBeach, which is a 300 person, invite only TEDx focused on community and culture in the bay cities. In October of 2013, I co-hosted TEDxPCC in Pasadena with fellow TEDster John Bates.

Impressions, Cooking and Cutting Hair