The Schwab Auditorium was lit red and pink and had a red carpet taped to the stage to highlight the TEDxPSU speakers who were there to inspire the audience.

On Sunday morning, TEDxPSU, the Penn State chapter of TED talks, one of the largest non-profit conferences in the country, welcomed 14 speakers to its “Go Further ” conference.

The event was hosted by Rob Andrejewski, who has been the TEDxPSU host for the last three years.

The conference was done in a series of three sessions and broke after session one for a lunch expo, during which Andrejewski urged attendees to discuss what they’d taken away from the event.

Between several of the talks, TEDxPSU also broadcasted TED talks from the past, including “Every Kid Needs a Champion”, a talk done by Rita Pierson in 2013 and “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie , from her 2009 talk.

Steve “Spud” Marshall

Chief Catalyst and CEO at the co.space

Marshall walked out onto the TEDxPSU red carpet wearing a red robe prepared to talk about bathrobes.

He asked the audience to imagine the most “important conversation they ever had,” and then asked it to think of where they were when it happened.

“[The conversations] always seem to be organic, spontaneous and seemingly unplanned,” he said. “The ironic thing is that the most important conversations happen in the most random of places.”

The co.space founder went on to talk about the in-person confidents that people have. He said he was beginning to wonder if people are starting to devalue in-person relationships.

“Over half of our country has hardly anyone with which to confide in on the most important issues in life,” Marshall said. “Sure this digital world has allowed us to grow in breadth, but have we begun to sacrifice depth.”

He talked about “three critical ingredients” to evoke conversation: space, tribe and intention. He said a space is just a shell and that the real creating is within the people.

He left the audience with a challenge to leave the “superman cape” way of thinking behind and to use authenticity and vulnerability of a bathrobe and said, “You’d be surprised what can change the world.”

Linda M. Collins

Professor of Human Development and family studies, Professor of statistics, Director of the methodology center at Penn State

Collins started her TEDxPSU talk with an anecdote about the first Surgeon General Report. She said her father was stunned and eventually quit smoking.

She went on to deliver facts about the problems that come along with smoking.

“The equivalent of the undergraduate population here at University Park dies every year as a result of breathing in passive smoke, these are nonsmokers dying of as a result of other people smoking,” she said.

She gave goals that the U.S. set for adult smoking and said they didn’t meet that goal. The same goal has been set for the year 2020, she said.

She said she was optimistic that the U.S. can accomplish that goal, but behavioral interventions are needed in order to make it we need more effective for smoking cessation.

“Our goal is to engineer a highly effective behavioral intervention that also costs a reasonable amount to implement,” she said. “We believe it is important that the intervention be not only highly effective but also practical to implement.”

Travis Tennessen

Department of Geography at Penn State

Tennessen opened his talk with his view on how technology is making us more anxious and distracted instead of helping us.

He said we need a technology that can bring people together and help people move forward. He said we need “a University of Life.”

“[A University of Life] is a place where people voluntarily share their time, labor, resources and knowledge for the collective good,” Tennessen said.

He said “we build the road, and the road builds us.” That it isn’t about getting the job done, it’s about teaching each other and working together.

The University of Life rejects the “individualistic philosophy” that says we have to compete with each other, Tennessen said.

“The good of every community is bound within the good of its nation and the good of every nation is bound within the good of the whole,” he said.

Susan Russell

Associate professor, School of Theatre at Penn State

Russell gave the audience an anecdote to begin her talk. She told the audience how she was standing in a group of unknown people when she sees something written on the wall that said, “This is happening now.”

She used that quote to explain how she lives on a moment to moment basis by living in the now.

She said by living in the now you not only get information, but you get experience. She follows three steps to remain fully “in the now”: simplify, clarify and focus.

With simplicity, Russell said to breathe, with clarity she said to dream and get what you want and with focus she said to believe in your stories.

Before she left she said, “Be strong, be powerful, be creative, be possible and simply clarify and focus.”

Seung “Slim” Chan Lim

Designer and Researcher at Realizing Empathy

Lim said he was researching for the past five years what it means to make something, how it works in the creative concepts and why it matters to our lives.

He talked about the youthful way of thinking and the humility that came along with producing a product.

“Making was going through a process with enough humility to admit that you do not know that having enough confidence to not let anyone convince you that you’re crazy,” Lim said.

He ended with telling the audience to challenge themselves by thinking about what “Going Further” means to them. He told the audience to remember humility when they are lost and to remember to have enough courage to tell their stories.

Matthew D. Lamb

Lecturer for the Department of Communication Arts & Sciences at Penn State

After a lunch expo, Matthew was the first speaker of the second TEDxPSU session.

Lamb’s TED speech was about his experience with parkour, a type of physical activity in which people utilize spaces to move throughout them differently.

“One of the things I’m really passionate about and love to learn about is the rules we learn and the expectations of behavior in a city space,” Lamb said. “And I think parkour really challenges that.”

Upon finishing his talk, Lamb challenged the audience members to change the expectations of how they use certain spaces and to take a closer look at the impact of “the art of movement”.

Liz Hajek

Assistant Professor for the Department of Geosciences at Penn State

Following Matthew Lamb was the speech of Liz Hajek, which focused on her work in geology using sedimentary rocks to reconstruct landscapes throughout the history of Earth.

Hajek said studying these patterns of rock and changing landscape can change the way we view the planet, and possibly alter the choices we make regarding it.

“The Earth is powerful, it’s dynamic, it’s constantly changing and it’s pretty exciting place to live,” Hajek said. “I want to share with you my perspective as a geologist about how understanding Earth’s past can help inform and guide decisions that we make today about how to sustainably live on Earth’s surface.”

Hajek then presented the audience with several graphs and charts regarding the way that interactions of rock and bodies of water can shape the way we view the planet and the way land has changed and evolved over billions of years.

John M. Jordan

Clinical Professor, Department of Supply Chain and Management and Information Systems at Penn State

Jordan came onto the stage and discussed robots in today’s terms. He told the audience to forget the mass market science fiction thinking and realize what a robot truly is.

“Everybody knows what a robot is, but nobody can define it, including computer scientists,” Jordan said.

He told the audience to get informed and “go further” in their understanding and get informed. He urged the audience to let go of the stereotypes and the fantasies and to begin to have intelligent conversations about what robots will do in the future.

Rick Miller

CEO of Being Chief and businessman with 35 years of experience

The ninth speaker of the day was Rick Miller, who centered his talk on what it means to be a ‘chief’, and his experiences with the way most people perceive what a chief is.

When people hear the word “chief”, Miller said they make three assumptions; chiefs are special, chiefs are chosen and chiefs have titles. Miller said he found out the truth about what being a chief means by climbing the career ladder through luck and hard work, and meeting “real” chiefs, which he said can qualify making the choice to be a chief.

Miller said in actuality, the most important qualities real chiefs should possess are that they serve others, work hard, create fully, are present, are accepting, are grateful, are generous and can be still.

“Being a real chief is a choice,” Miller said. “My question to all of you; do you have an opportunity to serve others, to work hard, to create fully, totally consistent with your values and who you are? The world is changing; power is shifting, and you all have a wonderful opportunity to step up.”

Jim Hogan

Actor, singer and musician

Hogan, who just graduated from Penn State, was joined on stage with Dr. Beverly A. Patton who played the piano for the singer.

Hogan decided he wanted his TEDxPSU talk to be a description of his regular Tuesday, a day in the life of what it’s like to audition in New York.

He sang four different songs, each decreasing in measure with a new audition. He sang “Love Can’t Happen” from Grand Hotel, “Tonight” from West Side Story, “Take on Me” by Aha and the shortest was a high-pitched introduction.

He said a lot of times he doesn’t get a phone call from the part, but he said he has learned to believe in himself and the arts.

Robert Davis

John and Clare Bertucci Disinguished Professor of Materials Science & Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University

Davis discussed the amount of artificial lighting the world’s population uses every day, different types of artificial lighting and potential alternatives for artificial lighting used in today’s world.

David Puts

Penn State’s Associate Professor at the Department of Anthropology

Puts’s talk revolved around the evolution of human mating and the ways that the patterns of sexual attraction and attractive qualities in humans has progressed.

“Thinking like an evolutionist can enable us to predict things about ourselves that we did not already know,” Puts said.

Natalie Dell O’Brien

Penn State alumnus, Social Marketing Strategist, and 2012 Olympic Medalist in Rowing

Although Dell O’Brien and her rowing team won bronze for the United States team in 2012, her talk was about what it feels like to “lose”, why losing is an important aspect of life.

Dell O’Brien said although she has given many speeches and lectures following her Olympic career, she considers the TED talk to be entirely different than talks she’s given in the past.

She also said she came up with the idea for her talk based on the idea that TED speakers are considered experts in their field.

“They had told us that when you give the TED talk, you’re supposed to be an expert in whatever you’re talking about,” Dell O’Brien said. “When they tell you that, you think, ‘What am I an expert in?’ and really, I didn’t row for that long, so I’m not really an expert in my sport. But, I’ve spent a lot of time losing in my career, so I decided to talk about it because it’s something I know a lot about.”

Janelle Applequist

Ph. D. Candidate and Instructor for the College of Communications at Penn State

Applequist took the stage, and led a talk revolving around head trauma she experienced when she was 13-years old.

Applequist said although the trauma was difficult for her, she did not let it run her life or affect her future, and telling her story has changed her life for the better.

“What’s most important is that you begin by sharing your story,” Applequist said. “If we show each other more emotion, more empathy and lend a listening ear, I think we would be in much better shape.”

Jeanine Staples

Associate Professor of Literacy and Language and Associate Professor of African American Studies at Penn State

Staples engaged the crowd in a talk about death, the different kinds of death experienced by people and how to “die” peacefully.

Staples also said there are four types of ways to “die”; everyday, someday, any day and one day.

“All of these deaths trigger our dilemma. They are never going to stop, we will never stop dying as we live,” Staples said. “So what are we going to do? The key is to die peacefully.”

After the speakers finished, TEDxPSU invited New York Band “City of the Sun ” to play for the attendees.

Director of Community Relations Lauren Matakas said though the event was free, those who wished to attend had to fill out an application to get tickets for the talks.

Over 1,000 people filled out an application in the hopes of getting a chance to see the event.

Student attendee Katie Gnatt said she was drawn to the event because she’s seen TED talks online before, and was excited to be given the opportunity to see different perspectives from members of the Penn State community on the variety of subjects discussed at the event.

“I love the idea of promoting dialogue, and I love the idea of thinking forward,” Gnatt said.

Gnatt also said she particularly enjoyed Marshall’s speech on “pivot conversations.”

“I really connect with the idea that interesting conversations and important conversations happen in more natural ways and in contexts that you wouldn’t expect, like in your bathrobe,” Gnatt said. “When you have those conversations, you really don’t notice that they are happening in weird contexts, they just sort of happen.”

Overall, Matakas said she hopes attendees left the conference inspired to ‘go further’ in their own lives and communities.

“There are so many different ways to go further,” Matakas said. “It’s not just a specific sets of goals that you have you meet. It’s your own goals, it’s your own ideas, it’s your own passions, and those are the things you can go further in to make a difference in your life or to make a difference in someone else’s life.”