Getting excited for TEDx Navesink tomorrow

Tomorrow I'm staying local and going to TEDx Navesink, where I will hear people like Audible founder and CEO Don Katz (and we know how huge an impact Audible has played in my career), who recently said in a Q&A:

To have well-composed words professionally intoned and interpreted by a skilled actor adds an intellectual and emotional dimension that actually enhances the experience of a text. Scientific research we commissioned two years ago to gauge the neurocognitive and behavioral characteristics of listening to words indicated that subjects obtain an equivalent, if not superior, level of comprehension through listening to a book versus reading it. This has huge implications for learning at all levels of the spectrum, and beyond our Immersion Reading product, which synchronizes text and audio on Kindle tablets and has been roundly embraced by parents and educators, we have only begun to crack the surface of the potential here.

The other person I'm excited to hear speak is Abby Daly, Founder and Executive Director of nonprofit Bridge of Books Foundation. Here's info on their mission from their site:

Bridge of Books’ mission is to provide an ongoing source of books to underprivileged and at-risk children throughout New Jersey in order to support literacy skills and to encourage a love of reading.

Our goal is to get as many books as possible into the hands of New Jersey’s at-risk and underserved children. We generally acquire books through book drives and individual donations.

You can donate to them from their site.

What's especially of interest to me is that the theme for tomorrow is "Accelerators," and I've actually slowed my life down a lot since moving from Brooklyn to New Jersey, while trying to accelerate what was a stagnating career. I can safely say that the professional opportunities that have come my way in the last two years of living in Monmouth County have proven it is a much better fit for my work life, not to mention my personal life, both of which have thrived here where they floundered in New York. So I look forward to listening and learning. I'm not necessarily going to live here forever, but I am proud to be a Jersey girl, and even though I'm largely a homebody, I want to get more involved in my local community, so I'm starting tomorrow.