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TEDxLaSierraUniversity is back May 8, 2026 Tickets Available Now!
Every TEDxLaSierraUniversity event has a theme. Our theme for our upcoming event is "True Possible," a search for and revelation of undiscovered ideas and worlds that go on behind the scenes and beneath the surface. Our speaker team has been curating ideas that will inspire our audience, tap into their curiosity with a visit behind the scenes about how things work, or reveal powerful examples of new approaches. Our most recent past event was themed "Through it All," and was a search for the victories, humanity, and lessons that can be found when we push through to the other side of fear, destruction, apathy, and pain. Our event themes have been visioned within a seven-part series, and our live audience will feel a forward progression into our newest theme.
Each of our events feature a diverse range of talks and topics, but all are unified in some way by the theme for our event. Our one-day conference experience in 2026 will divide our talks and activities into three sessions, each with a subtheme (1) Behind-the-Scenes, (2) Beneath the Surface, (3) Revelation. Get excited - this one is going to be epic!
Tickets Now Available!
Our organizing team at TEDxLaSierraU has been hard at work behind the scenes to make our upcoming event our best yet! Tickets are now available for our upcoming Friday, May 8 event. Register and get your ticket(s) at https://www.universe.com/truepossible today. Our last five events sold out, so we recommend getting your tickets soon.
Thank you to our incredible local community who have been part of our journey and continuing thematic story since 2014!
Event Day Info Tickets, Parking, Preparing
Where is the event? What time should I show up?
TEDxLaSierraUniversity's True Possible one-day conference event will take place inside of the Tom and Vi Zapara School of Business at La Sierra University. The main entrance to the university is located at 4500 Riverwalk Pkwy, Riverside California 92505. The friendly staff in the security kiosk at the front entrance of the university will also be happy to direct you to the correct location. See our map for venue and free parking information. Check-in starts at 8am (get your badge, swag bag, program booklet, and t-shirt!), and our first session of talks will begin at 9:15am with a welcome to our attendees. The full day includes three sessions of multiple live talks (with lunch in-between session two and session three), and we will conclude the day by about 4:00pm.
Do I need to register to attend?
Yes, this is a ticketed event that requires registration. Please visit our universe (managed by Ticketmaster) ticket site at https://www.universe.com/truepossible to purchase ticket(s) and register to attend. On the day of the event, check-in at the venue will open starting at 8am. Registered attendees will receive a conference badge for session access and lunch, and a tote bag of exclusive TEDxLaSierraUniversity swag. If you are attending as part of a special group, such as a local high school group joining us for the day, check with our team (or your teacher/employer) for information about discounted tickets.
Who is the audience for this event? Is it university-only?
Our TEDxLaSierraUniversity team hosts TED-licensed TEDx events at the venue location of La Sierra University in Riverside, California. Our live audience largely comes from the Inland Empire and surrounding areas of Southern California, and reflects our diverse community. We recommend this event for anyone ages 14 and up who is interested in hearing from local voices and ideas they may not have heard before. This is not a university-managed event, university administrators do not choose the theme or speakers, and it is not designed for a sole internal audience of its faculty and students. Our planning team, speakers, and live audience come from all over our local community. All talks taking place at the event will be recorded on-stage in front of our live audience and shared about a month later to TED for our global audience.
What do I wear?
Casual to business-casual is perfectly appropriate for an event like this. The day will include three sessions of talks in our main conference center space, breaks to engage and network in our atrium lounge space, an outdoor space with food vendors serving lunch, and optional engagement in classroom spaces for short workshops/activities during the lunch break. And if you want to wear your event t-shirt right away, you will receive it during check-in at the start of the day!
Do you have an idea worth spreading? Speaking at TEDxLaSierraUniversity
Our call for speakers response form is now available here. Our team encourages you to review the guidelines information below and theme information in the form before submitting your idea.
Speaking at TEDxLaSierraUniversity
TED recommends to our organizing team that it’s actually not the person we should be searching for, but the person’s idea or innovation. This is a great way to decipher between a TEDx speaker, and an interesting person with an “okay” idea. What will the audience walk away knowing – that this person exists, or a new idea? For example, if you were to describe a potential talk to a stranger and say more about the speaker (“this lady who runs that local charity,” “this guy who made this film”) than a specific idea, that's a clue that you need to go back to that speaker and find their idea, not their identity.
So, what ideas are we looking for?
- We look for new ideas that originate in our local community but are widely relatable
- We look for ideas that need to be defended – not something self-evident, but an interesting argument, perhaps with an antagonist.
- We look for an idea the TED world hasn't heard before (In other words, not a copy of a TED Talk you like!).
- We look for ideas that change perceptions (e.g., a scientific discovery that changes how you think about frogs).
If you are interested in speaking at a TEDxLaSierraUniversity event, it is highly recommended that, before applying, you review the resources and guidelines outlined here, content rules here, and in particular download and view the speaker guide here. If you plan to deliver a talk on a scientific topic, please review TED's science standards for speakers.
As you complete our speaker response form, please know that a local voice with an idea worth spreading is preferred by our speaker committee over professional speakers seeking a new venue for a message they share regularly. And demonstrating that you are willing to take the time to understand our theme and goals to help us better understand the authentic you who is interested in this opportunity will have an important impact on our consideration.
TEDx Program
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxLaSierraUniversity, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxLaSierraUniversity event, TEDTalks content and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized. Learn more about the global TEDx program at https://www.ted.com/about/programs-initiatives/tedx-program
TEDx, x = independently organized event
This independent TEDx event is operated under license from TED. For information about the global TEDx program, click here.
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