Apr. 26—Colorado's first TEDxYouth event is being held at Legacy High School in Broomfield, thanks to the work of local entrepreneur and Legacy High junior Jack Bonneau.
Bonneau, 16, who has spoken at two TEDx events in the past, reached out to TEDxCherryCreek with the idea of having a youth event at Legacy to give local high schoolers a chance to have a TEDx experience like his.
Bonneau has started two companies. He was featured on "Shark Tank" in 2016 when he was 10 years old, pitching his first company that he started with a lemonade stand to raise money for a Lego set, which he then turned into an online marketplace and support for other young entrepreneurs. His second company, Teen Hustl, a teen-ran delivery service, was a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Young Entrepreneur Dream Big Award winner.
"My mission with the two companies I've started, as well as TEDxYouth@CherryCreek, is to provide young people with unique opportunities to learn about entrepreneurship, financial literacy and more," Bonneau said. "I just did my second Tedx Talk last month and I wanted to give other teens the opportunity to do this."
The TEDxYouth event will be held at the Legacy High School Auditorium on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., where 17 teens selected in an application process from high schools across the metro area will speak on varying topics such as happiness as a service, the future of artificial intelligence, pronouns in today's society and more.
"We had over 50 applications from high school students across the state," Bonneau said. "We've started speaker training for all the selected speakers. The theme for the event is 'What's your Legacy,' so the speakers will be talking about what they want to leave behind and make better as their legacy."
Tickets are currently on sale for the event at tedxcherrycreek.com. Bonneau will be the MC for the event. A full list of speakers is also available on the TEDxCherryCreek website.