TEDX Bountiful
A nonprofit from Bountiful, Utah dedicated to ideas worth spreading.
Edoardo Battaglia
Edoardo Battaglia is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Center at the University of Utah, where he leads research in haptics, robotics, and physical human–robot interaction. His work explores how touch shapes trust, learning, and user experience in emerging technologies, with applications ranging from prosthetics and rehabilitation to virtual reality and mental health. He is especially interested in designing technology that is not only functional, but genuinely human-centered.
The Science of Touch
In his upcoming presentation, Dr. Battaglia will explore the fundamental disconnect between our increasingly capable technologies and our very human need for physical connection. As robotics and AI become more powerful, they are often designed around speed, efficiency, and capability, with less attention paid to how people actually experience them. Drawing on his work in haptics and human–robot interaction, Dr. Battaglia will argue that the next frontier of innovation must prioritize human experience and trust alongside technical performance. He will examine why advanced systems can fail to feel natural or reliable in practice, and how the science of touch can help bridge this gap. This talk will point toward a more human-centered approach, one in which these systems can be designed to be more adaptive, supportive, and meaningfully connected to the people they are meant to serve.
Ann Pells
Ann Pells is a certified Wealth Strategist who helps people create greater financial freedom through practical, long-term strategies for debt reduction, passive income, and retirement planning. Through her Three Steps to Financial Freedom framework, she encourages individuals and families to build financial confidence, simplify their choices, and create a legacy that can last for generations.
In this talk, Ann explores how a season of job loss and financial uncertainty led her to rethink the assumptions she had carried for years. She shares how one question — “How can I?” — opened the door to a new sense of agency and a practical framework for change: Mindset, Accelerate Payoff, and Passive Income.
Rather than offering a story only about money, Ann invites the audience to consider how new questions can reshape the way we face fear, make decisions, and imagine what is possible. Her talk is ultimately about moving from uncertainty to intention — and about how one person’s courage can create momentum for others.
Joe Allen
Dr. Joseph A. Allen is a Professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology at the University of Utah and director of the Center for Meeting Effectiveness. A leading expert on workplace meetings, he studies how the ways we gather, communicate, and collaborate shape performance, well-being, and organizational life more broadly. He has published more than 300 works, written books including Running Effective Meetings for Dummies, Suddenly Virtual, and Suddenly Hybrid, and has helped more than 500 organizations improve how their people work together. At the heart of his work is a simple idea: meetings are not inherently broken, most of us have just never been taught how to make them work.
In his upcoming talk “Meetings Aren’t Bad,” Joe challenges one of the most common frustrations of modern work. Meetings often feel draining, unproductive, and overwhelming, but the problem is not meetings themselves. The problem is that most of us have never been taught how to do them well. Drawing on decades of research, Joe will explore the “meeting load paradox”: meetings can increase engagement, creativity, and participation, but only to a point. When they become too frequent, unfocused, or poorly run, they create frustration and burnout instead. Through humor, research, and a timely story about predicting the rise of video meetings in March 2020, Joe will offer practical ways to make meetings more purposeful, energizing, and effective.
Kimball H. Clark
Kimball Clark is a designer, entrepreneur, and pollinator innovator whose interest in native bees began with a backyard lesson for his young son. That early curiosity grew into a years-long effort to better understand solitary bees and their potential to strengthen both local ecosystems and agriculture.
Since 2007, Clark has refined nesting solutions for native bees and worked alongside entomologists, scientists, students, and entrepreneurs worldwide. His efforts have contributed to the development of six supplemental or alternative pollinators beyond honey bees, helping expand how farms and communities think about pollination.
Life Lessons from Bees
At a time when technology, modern routines, and even fear can keep us isolated indoors, Kimball Clark argues that one of the most meaningful ways to reconnect with the world is to engage with the nature closest to us. In this talk, he explores how studying and shaping the small ecosystems in our own backyards can spark curiosity, strengthen local relationships, and deepen our sense of connection to the wider living world.
Through the lens of native bees and everyday observation, Kimball offers a practical vision of how ordinary people can participate in nature in ways that are inexpensive, accessible, and quietly transformative.
Bryan Hughes
Dr. Bryan Hughes is a leadership and organizational culture consultant, facilitator, and author, and is an adjunct professor at Cornell University. With nearly three decades of operational leadership experience, he combines science-backed research in how leadership influences culture, with practical application techniques that can be applied in any organization. These behaviors and practices focus on building resiliency against toxicity and associate turnover. Dr. Hughes holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from Bellevue University, an MBA and a Bachelors of Accounting from Western Governors University, and a Bachelors of Music from Berklee College of Music. He resides in Bountiful, UT with his wife, and has four grown children.
The Most Human Skill in the Age of AI
In his upcoming presentation, Dr. Hughes will discuss how artificial intelligence is transforming the workplace, driving efficiency, speed, and data-driven decision-making. Yet as organizations become more productive, many people feel increasingly disconnected. This talk explores that tension through the concept of the “Invisible Workplace,” where individuals perform and deliver results, but feel unseen and disengaged. It highlights how AI can unintentionally amplify leadership behaviors that prioritize metrics over meaning. The future of work will not be defined by technology alone, but by what remains uniquely human. Three capabilities emerge as essential: presence, moral courage, and meaning. As AI accelerates faster than culture adapts, the organizations that thrive will be those that leverage technology without losing their humanity.
In his upcoming presentation, Dr. Hughes will discuss how artificial intelligence is transforming the workplace, driving efficiency, speed, and data-driven decision-making. Yet as organizations become more productive, many people feel increasingly disconnected. This talk explores that tension through the concept of the “Invisible Workplace,” where individuals perform and deliver results, but feel unseen and disengaged. It highlights how AI can unintentionally amplify leadership behaviors that prioritize metrics over meaning. The future of work will not be defined by technology alone, but by what remains uniquely human. Three capabilities emerge as essential: presence, moral courage, and meaning. As AI accelerates faster than culture adapts, the organizations that thrive will be those that leverage technology without losing their humanity.
Jared Haddock
Jared Haddock is a marketing expert focused on building brands, teams, and ideas centered around one core belief: humans are wired for connection, and we find it through shared effort.
As Chief Marketing Officer of the viral brands Keto Chow and SALTT, he leads marketing strategy focused not just on growth, but on creating communities around active, meaningful living. His work sits at the intersection of business, culture, and human behavior-exploring how products can serve as tools for deeper experiences with others.
Jared has also created, directed, and produced live theatrical productions seen by millions across the nation-from Hawaii to Las Vegas to New York-and broadcast on PBS. Combined with his work as a youth football coach and trainer of champion working dogs, he has seen firsthand how challenge transforms groups into teams.
He lives in Utah with his family, where he continues to explore, build, and think about how to design a life-and a world-that brings people closer together. Designing for Comfort, Designing for Loneliness In this talk, Jared Haddock explores a paradox of modern life: as technology and design make daily living more efficient, comfortable, and frictionless, they may also be stripping away many of the shared struggles that have historically created human connection. Drawing on stories from sports, leadership, and brand-building, he argues that some of the most meaningful communities are not formed through ease, but through challenge, cooperation, and shared effort. His central idea is both personal and timely: if we design every part of life for comfort alone, we may unintentionally design a world that leaves people more isolated — and the future will belong not just to those who make life easier, but to those who create experiences that help us need one another again.
As Chief Marketing Officer of the viral brands Keto Chow and SALTT, he leads marketing strategy focused not just on growth, but on creating communities around active, meaningful living. His work sits at the intersection of business, culture, and human behavior-exploring how products can serve as tools for deeper experiences with others.
Jared has also created, directed, and produced live theatrical productions seen by millions across the nation-from Hawaii to Las Vegas to New York-and broadcast on PBS. Combined with his work as a youth football coach and trainer of champion working dogs, he has seen firsthand how challenge transforms groups into teams.
He lives in Utah with his family, where he continues to explore, build, and think about how to design a life-and a world-that brings people closer together. Designing for Comfort, Designing for Loneliness In this talk, Jared Haddock explores a paradox of modern life: as technology and design make daily living more efficient, comfortable, and frictionless, they may also be stripping away many of the shared struggles that have historically created human connection. Drawing on stories from sports, leadership, and brand-building, he argues that some of the most meaningful communities are not formed through ease, but through challenge, cooperation, and shared effort. His central idea is both personal and timely: if we design every part of life for comfort alone, we may unintentionally design a world that leaves people more isolated — and the future will belong not just to those who make life easier, but to those who create experiences that help us need one another again.
What is TED?
Join us as we connect and invigorate our community in this TEDx event in Bountiful.
ABOUT TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 30 years ago, TED has grown to support its mission with multiple initiatives. The two annual TED Conferences invite the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes or less. Many of these talks are then made available free at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.
The annual TED Conference takes place each spring in Vancouver, British Columbia. TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TED Talks are posted daily; TED Translators, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed. TED has established The Audacious Project that takes a collaborative approach to funding ideas with the potential to create change at thrilling scale; TEDx, which supports individuals or groups in hosting local, self- organized TED-style events around the world, and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.
The annual TED Conference takes place each spring in Vancouver, British Columbia. TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TED Talks are posted daily; TED Translators, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed. TED has established The Audacious Project that takes a collaborative approach to funding ideas with the potential to create change at thrilling scale; TEDx, which supports individuals or groups in hosting local, self- organized TED-style events around the world, and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.
About TEDx, x = independently organized event
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.) Get more information on the TedX website.
Be a Sponsor
We’re looking for like-minded entities who share a passion for excellence. If you’re one of these groups, we want to connect with you and explore how we might work together. Partners of many varieties make this event a reality. In addition to financial partnerships ($250 – $12,000 sponsorships), we love working with organizations to feature their impressive products and services in mutually beneficial ways.
Contact us at info@tedxbountiful.com and let’s chat about how we can join efforts.
