The annual TEDxABQ event returned to the recently renovated Albuquerque Railyards on Saturday, Aug. 29, bringing together creative minds from all over the state to share ideas and sit in to listen to scientists, researchers, musicians, local business owners and many more to discuss their interests.
TEDx events are locally organized events for the TED company, which hosts the well-known “TED Talks” featuring researchers, professors, storytellers and others who have ideas they want to share. The TEDxABQ event featured a variety of speakers who are from, have lived in, or have connections to New Mexico.
This year’s event, with a “Reframe” theme, featured 19 speakers and a variety of local businesses and vendors, and a collaboration with the New Mexico Fashion Council.
The formal TED Talks were held in the Railyards’ Flue Shop, while vendors, interviews and a workshop to teach attendees how to walk a runway took place in the Blacksmith Shop.
Local businesses including Aisle Twelve and Enchanted Farms Mushrooms had the chance to hold pop-ups for attendees to visit during session breaks between talks.
To gather speakers for the event every year, TEDxABQ conducts a curation process and reaches out to people in New Mexico who they think would be a great fit to give a TED Talk, and they also hold open calls for anyone interested in being a speaker, according to Alex Adams, the curator and organizer of TEDxABQ and CEO of Curiosity Inc., a nonprofit which collaborates with TEDxABQ to support local economic development.
Adams, a University of New Mexico alum, has been volunteering with TEDxABQ since 2014 and took the lead on organizing the event in 2023.
“Before COVID, the focus was more on the actual talks and getting the ideas spread, but now it’s more, and what we as TEDxABQ have decided to focus on is more about starting conversations in our local community,” Adams told the Daily Lobo. “So it’s more about connecting, collaborating and being a catalyst.”
Adams added that “Curiosity, Connection, and Catalyst” became the new slogan for TEDxABQ because of the event’s expansion into helping people talk about ideas and put them into practice.
Adams highlighted Lush Cosmetics and Libre Hair Studio as businesses that are putting effort into supporting the community and elevating New Mexico, while also encouraging people to keep their talents in local communities.
“Every single one of the businesses that we had in that Blacksmith Shop is trying to do something that’s in alignment with that curiosity vision. Like, just trying to elevate New Mexico, trying to support our community. They’re just absolutely amazing,” Adams said. “If you come to TEDxABQ, you’re going to meet a local artist. You’re going to meet a hairstylist. You’re gonna meet a renowned scientist. You’re gonna meet a professor at UNM. You’re going to meet a really cool business owner. You’re going to meet a billionaire who’s investing in Albuquerque. The gamut is just so huge.”
For Adams, the experience of working with TEDxABQ has not only been an enlightening experience, but helped her make connections with people who share her values and are curious, which she says is also the truth for the speakers and other attendees of the TEDxABQ events.
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“The connections that I have made, and just being a part of this organization, the mentorship, the openness to teach me new things, the exposure to different industries, and different parts of New Mexico, and Albuquerque, and different perspectives on stuff, I just find that incredibly invaluable, and that’s really why I even put this whole thing on,” Adams said.
Hillary Zinks is the owner of Zinks Town in Albuquerque, a plant bar with a twist, which served as one of this year’s TEDxABQ sponsors.
“At Zinks Town, you make a wish, then when you pick your magical ingredients, you get to pick them one by one by one, because we have a menu of crystals and flowers that all mean different things and have different powers,” Zinks said.
Zinks offered a shorter version of the process at TEDxABQ, giving attendees the ability to create their own plants and self-curated manifestation tools based on the energy they want to surround themselves with.
“You want love? Here’s a hodgepodge of these crystals. You want protection from negative injury? Here’s a hodgepodge,” Adams said, “When they care for their plant, when they pass by it, they take a moment to manifest and remember their wish.”
Zinks and her mother originally founded Zinks Town as an art gallery before transitioning the space into a plant bar.
“Amazon was putting out so many small businesses, and I thought to myself, ‘We have to have an experience, because if we don’t have experience, nobody’s had to come to us.’ So I started a plant bar, and I thought, also, ‘wow, there’s probably plant bars that exist. Can I make mine special?’ So then I put wishes in, and that’s what happens,” Zinks said.
Reflecting on this year’s event, Adams said she was proud of how well everything went.
“This event was absolutely amazing. This year was such an incredible jumping off point. I feel like we really proved ourselves, and we learned a lot from last year’s events, and the vision just really came to life.” Adams said. “We finally have proven that TEDxABQ is back, that our vision is strong, and I’m just so excited to take this team and just continuing to build for Albuquerque, so I could not be more proud of what we did.”
Maria Fernandez is the copy editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at copy@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
