Jennafer Martin
Lead Organizer & Licensee | TEDxSaltLakeCity
Under Jennafer Martin’s leadership, TEDxSaltLakeCity hosted an issue-specific TED Countdown event focused on solutions to the climate crisis, marking it as one of only two U.S. cities to do so. To navigate fundraising and marketing challenges, Martin emphasized non-partisan, hopeful presentations that resonate with a shared love for the outdoors.
Jennafer Martin has been a self-proclaimed TED Talk “geek” for at least 20 years. In just her third year as the lead organizer and licensee of TEDxSaltLakeCity, she took on the extra challenge of hosting an issue-specific event — one of just two U.S. cities to do so.
In a typical year, Martin meets with an advisory board and the organizing committee to come up with a TEDx theme. But this year, the TED organization invited TEDxSLC to hold a Countdown event, a local extension of the international TED Countdown Summit.
TED Countdown is the TED organization’s first issue-specific initiative. Originally launched in 2019, the event’s purpose is “championing and accelerating solutions to the climate crisis.”
As home to the Great Salt Lake, five national parks, the aspen trees of Fishlake National Forest that make up the world’s largest living organism, and more, Utahns have a stake in environmental solutions, whether they want to be political about it or not.
Since the Great Salt Lake reached record-low levels in 2022, and evaporation of the lake due to climate change can contribute to harmful dust pollution, it makes sense to hold an environmentally focused event in Utah. But hosting such an event in a state that typically votes “red” brought its own set of challenges.
“A lot of people feel like environmental issues are partisan issues, and sometimes people equate environmental partisan issues with particular leanings,” Martin says. “So, things like fundraising were a little bit more challenging.”
Besides fundraising, Martin says that figuring out how to market the event also posed a challenge. TED rules prevent political opinions from being showcased during TED Talks, so presenters are always non-partisan. But Martin found that people tend to get “nervous” or “prickly” whenever they talk about environmental solutions. Focusing instead on a love for the outdoors helped.
“Everybody cares about the outdoors. Everybody is impacted by the environment,” Martin says. “But you have to be careful. The talk about it has been framed in ways that can be divisive.”
Despite the challenges, there are plenty of companies in Utah that are “ecologically leaning” or dedicated to preserving the outdoors that were eager to be part of the event. While finding sponsors was perhaps more challenging than it has been in years past, it worked out in the end.
For the event itself, Martin says she and her team aimed to have presenters who shared ideas that were hopeful.
“It’s not like we just get up there and start ringing the bell and start saying ‘we’re all doomed,’” Martin says. “A lot of people said that they felt like they learned things they didn’t know and that they felt really motivated to be able to go out into their lives or the community and be able to enact some of the solutions that were presented.”
It can be difficult to measure the real-world impact of an event like TEDx, or specifically TED Countdown. But ideas, Martin believes, can change the world.
“Ideas can take root and grow,” Martin says. “There’s something encouraging about thinking that what we’re doing is hopefully putting a ripple effect in Salt Lake, Utah, maybe the world.”