STILLWATER — Billionaire alumnus T. Boone Pickens will headline an event at Oklahoma State University designed to spark conversation about social issues and challenges.
Pickens is scheduled to speak at TEDxOStateU, an independent conference affiliated with TED, a nonprofit organization that holds similar talks each year in Long Beach, Calif., and Palm Springs, Calif. OSU's conference is scheduled for Nov. 1.
The name “TED” is an acronym for Technology, Entertainment and Design — three areas on which the conference focuses.
The OSU conference will last about 4 ½ hours, and will feature a series of about 18 segments in which speakers will discuss challenges facing the state, nation and world. Those conversations will focus in particular on areas in which OSU has a role to play, said Jim Berscheidt, associate vice president at the OSU Foundation.
Pickens has given a number of so-called TED talks at the California conference, including one earlier this year. During that lecture, Pickens spoke about the need for increasing use of domestic energy rather than oil imported from OPEC nations.
During the talk, Pickens described natural gas as a cleaner, domestic “bridge fuel” that would carry the nation until cleaner alternatives could be found.
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