A TEDxChange With Koz Khosravani: It’s Global. It’s Local. It’s Santa Monica!
By The PAAIA Team
Sept., 2010, Santa Monica, CA – PAAIA is sponsoring a TEDxChange at the Sheraton Delfina (530 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405) on Mon, Sept 20, 8am-12 noon PST. As with all TED conferences, this live webcast promises to be on the cutting edge of “ideas worth spreading”. Come join us, enrich your mind, and check out the PAAIA table. It’s free!
Koz Khosravani who is hosting the event is a leader in online educational course development, an acclaimed public speaker, and a specialist in Internet promotion and marketing. We asked him to tell us more about the purpose of the event and its audience, as well as his role in hosting it.
Please tell us a little more about Monday’s event and the purpose you hope it will serve?
On September 20, 2010, more than 150 of the world’s leading thinkers and doers will come together in New York for TEDxChange. Convened by Melinda French Gates on the 10th anniversary of the Millennium Development Goals, and hosted by TED curator Chris Anderson, this event, which will be webcast live around the world, will explore what the future holds for health and development around the world and what needs be done to ensure the well-being of future generations.
TEDxSantaMonica and other TEDx communities around the world will host local events around the live webcast, with selected local speakers. The event in Santa Monica will focus on the theme of “education” at both a local and a global level. As an example, we will hear from a former resident of a refugee camp who came to America, and later on opened the first-ever high school for girls in the middle of refugee camp in Sudan against all odds. To learn about all topics, you can visit www.TEDxSantaMonica.org. People who wish to attend our event at Sheraton Delfina on 9/20/10 can RSVP online.
What is your role in hosting this event?
I was selected as the official strategic partner of both TEDx and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to hold the only TEDxChange event in the Southern California. We will also host TEDxWomen in Dec. 2010 for the empowerment of women throughout the world.
You’ve been an integral part of program development at Harvard, UCLA, UCSD and UCI. You’ve also worked with Microsoft, Boeing, Raytheon, Unisys, Edison, McDonnell Douglas, Trump University and other industry leaders. Tell us about your work and how you help revolutionize online teaching. In your opinion what was its impact on the students and professionals involved?
I was on the board that developed the initial online courses in educational technology for the UCLA Extension program to show teachers how to utilize technology in the classroom. The success of that program led me to develop the initial online program in Information Technology at UC-Irvine Extension. It was quite fulfilling to see that we could reach students throughout the nation and even overseas. I then developed online courses in technology and e-Business for UCLA, UCI and UCSD Custom Corporate Programs where we trained scientists and engineers at top US corporations such as Raytheon, Boeing, and Edison, among others. Last year, Donald Trump hired me to develop and teach a variety of seminars, webinars and coaching programs in Internet marketing for his new Trump Entrepreneurial Initiative. It is interesting to see the evolution of original online teaching software such as “Blackboard” into current state-of-the-art webinar technologies such as “GoToWebinar”. In today’s webinars, students can see me, raise their “virtual” hands to ask questions, collaborate with other students and much more, while living almost anywhere in the world. In my opinion, face-to-face teaching and online training complement each other. It is the combination that allows us to facilitate learning for millions of bright minds throughout the world. I can’t wait to see every student in Africa and the developing world have access to computers and the Internet (we are not there yet, but close). That is when we can truly bridge the gap and provide solid education to anyone anywhere.
You’ve shared the stage with Allen Greenspan, Donald Trump, and former President Bill Clinton. I’m curious to know how you got started. What was the path going from a technology background to becoming a credited public speaker?
Well, I believe that university teaching is a great preparation for public speaking. Through public speaking, we can reach out to a much larger audience to educate and facilitate both traditional and online learning. I began my public speaking career by hosting large events and then, added myself to the lineup of famous speakers! That was the only way I could get on the stage with top speakers. That kind of exposure really helped me to be booked by larger events, which in turn enabled agents to approach me for speaking engagements.
Today I speak about a variety of topics such as “localized online marketing”, “anti-social media marketing (the topic of my speech at TEDx,)” “internet marketing for non-profit institutes,” and “overseas online marketing” which aims to tap over ½ billion online users outside North America. I believe the most important skills that helped my career were oral communication and public speaking. There is nothing more fulfilling for me than to use my public speaking and event promotion skills to bring the members of the community together in events like TEDx in order to further the cause of equality and justice for all in the world.
Thank you for taking the time to speak with us. We’re looking forward to Monday’s event! For those of you who won’t be able to join on us in person, you can watch the live broadcast on September 20 at 8am PST.
