Speakers Announced for TED@DestinationCanada

Destination Canada and TED are collaborating to create TED@DestinationCanada, producing 14 TED Talks from the brightest speakers and biggest changemakers connected to Canada.

We are proud to announce the list of inspiring individuals who will be taking the stage on February 23, 2023.

The speakers represent all regions of our country, a span of generations, a wealth of backgrounds and a diversity of perspectives. We know their ideas will spark conversations that will help drive our country and our global community forward.

Their talks will be available for viewing on TED.com starting in the spring. Stay tuned for dates when you can watch these remarkable speakers.

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Three of the Speakers are:

Kris Alexander

Kris Alexander - Video game wizard

Location: Toronto, Ontario

Since the age of eight, Kris Alexander has spent two to four hours a day playing video games—while working a full-time job, being a present father and husband and running a successful business. Known as “the professor of video games,” Alexander teaches media production at Toronto Metropolitan University, where he received his BA and MA. For his PhD at Concordia University, he wrote his thesis on video game design in education. He is also a two-time globally ranked video game player.

As an educator, Alexander teaches video game design, virtual production and esports broadcasting (the core ingredients of the metaverse). He strives to show that the power of video games extends behind and beyond the controller, offering what many of the 2 billion gamers on Earth see and enjoy when playing video games: a new perspective.

Matricia Bauer - Mountain mover

Location: Jasper, Alberta

Matricia Bauer’s traditional name is: Isko-achitaw waciy / ᐃᐢᑯ ᐃᐦᒋᑕ ᐘᒋᕀ, which translates to “she who moves mountains.” She is a tour guide, singer, drummer, speaker and artist who has shared her culture in hundreds of schools across Alberta. She has also lectured at several domestic and international conferences.

Bauer leads Warrior Women Inc., a collective of Indigenous women who drum, sing and seek to educate others about the beauty of their culture. Her crafts, such as mitts, moccasins, earrings and drums, infuse traditional styles with a modern twist, and she recently also launched a herbology business, Wisakipakos Indigenous Bitters.

Paul Bloom

Paul Bloom - Psychology pioneer

Location: Toronto, Ontario

Paul Bloom’s research examines how children and adults make sense of the world, with a particular focus on pleasure, morality, religion, fiction and art. Born in Montréal, he completed his undergraduate work at McGill and graduate studies at MIT. After teaching at the University of Arizona for 10 years, he spent nearly 20 years at Yale, serving as the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor Emeritus of psychology. In 2021, he returned to the University of Toronto as a professor of psychology.

Bloom has won numerous awards, including the $1 million 2017 Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize. He has written for scientific journals such as Nature and Science and for outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker and The Atlantic. His seventh book, Psych: The Story of the Mind, will be published in February 2023.

*Source: Destination Canada