Theater News

TEDx Broadway Conference Comes to New World Stages on February 24

Diane Paulus, Lea DeLaria, Mark Fisher, and more will speak at the third annual Broadway event.

Tony-winning director Diane Paulus will speak at this year's TEDx Broadway conference at New World Stages on February 24.
Tony-winning director Diane Paulus will speak at this year's TEDx Broadway conference at New World Stages on February 24.
(© Jimmy Ryan)

The TEDx Broadway conference is now making final preparations for its third annual event, which will take place at New World Stages on Monday, February 24.

Founders Damian Bazadona (president of the digital marketing agency Situation Interactive), Ken Davenport (Tony-winning Broadway producer), and Jim McCarthy (CEO of the ticket discounting company Goldstar) began organizing the annual conference for theater professionals to discuss current issues facing the Broadway community. Speakers from different fields are invited to contribute their perspectives regarding how to make Broadway the best it can be in all respects, from artistic to financial.

Among last year's invited speakers were George Takei (actor and activist), Daryl Roth (Tony Award-winning producer), Terry Teachout (drama critic of The Wall Street Journal), Christine Jones (Tony Award-winning scenic designer), Thomas Schumacher (Tony Award-winning producer), Susan Reilly Salgado (managing director of Hospitality Quotient), Kristoffer Diaz (playwright), Erin Hoover (vice president of design for Starwood Hotels), Seth Pinksy (president of NYC Economic Development Corporation), Ellen Isaacs (user experience designer at PARC), David Sabel (head of digital media at The National Theatre), and Randi Zuckerberg (founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media).

This year's guests will include Mark Fisher and Michael Keeler (founders of Mark Fisher Fitness), Robert Lopez (Tony Award-winning composer of The Book of Mormon and Avenue Q), Jonathan Mann (songwriter), Gabe Zichermann (gamification expert), David Drake (founder and chairman of LDJ Capital), Diane Paulus (Tony-winning director of Pippin), Lea DeLaria (star of Orange Is the New Black), and Sree Sreenivasan (chief Digital officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art).