Bringing a global nonprofit organization to a campus like Fresno State is not always an easy task.

This did not stop communication professor Marnel Niles Goins and 14 Fresno State students from pursuing such an opportunity.

On Monday, the Satellite Student Union will be home to TEDxFresnoState, a TED event. The theme is­ “Exposing Ideas to Inspire.”

There will be two sessions. These will feature a wide variety of video and live speakers, as well as performers, who will be sharing their perspectives.

Session 1 will be from 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. and will include Matthew Ari Jendian, the chair of the sociology department at Fresno State, and Deby Hergenrader, founder of Break the Barriers, a performing arts studio organization. Her organization offers the opportunity for people of all levels of physical and mental capabilities to participate in dance, performance and

Session 2 take place from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Registrants will hear different presentations. These include singer-songwriter Rashandra Brown and Donna Hostein, the CEO of Quality Home Services, a Fresno water treatment company that has expanded since its birth in 1985.

Interested parties have until this afternoon to register online. While pre-registration is recommended, Niles Goins said many people procrastinate and will want to register the day of the event. Because of this, on-site registration will be available, but only until each of the sessions has reached its 100-person capacity.

“It was a great opportunity for me to get to know the students better because we’re all working together,” Niles Goins said.

She also organized TEDxSacramento last year. Last semester, she brought up the idea to have a TEDx event at Fresno State and was excited to start the planning process in January. Once she had her team assembled, the brainstorming process to choose the theme took about two weeks.

“We chose ‘Exposing Ideas to Inspire’ because it seemed the best fit because the event is all about sharing ways to connect with the community and to not only make a difference in Fresno, but also to change the world,” Niles Goins said.

Many may wonder, “What is TED?”

TED began 25 years ago as a four-day conference in California and grew to support ideas with multiple initiatives that are meant to change the world. The annual TED conference, according to the TEDxFresnoState website, invites those in leadership to speak for 18 minutes on whatever they like, as long as the ideas they present are related to “ideas worth spreading.” All of the presentations at TED talks are made available for free on the organization’s website, www.ted.com.

The annual TED conference takes place each spring in Long Beach, Calif., and speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore and Gordon Brown, former prime minster of the United Kingdom.

Amanda Schreiber, a communication student, explained that the “x” in TEDxFresnoState represents an independently organized TED event and the name that follows describes the location. Fresno is an ideal location for a conference such as this because the community presents opportunities for individuals to make something ordinary into extraordinary, she added.

“TED is not something that can really be explained ”” It must be experienced,” she said.

Schreiber served on the stage-design team, as well as speaker liaison and a contact for one of the conference’s performers. Other students were assigned to teams of registration, finance, social media and video management.

What drew senior Deniaelle Hoppe to the class and working the event was not only the opportunity to work under Niles Goins but also the opportunity to utilize her public speaking skills and enjoyed the idea of influencing and inspiring through communication.

Diego Rodriguez Garcia, also a senior communications student, said he thoroughly enjoyed working with Niles Goins and was excited to be a part of the event.

“I appreciate that [Niles Goins] allows for us to be proactive and have a significant say in how TEDxFresnoState will be,” Garcia said.

Garcia’s prior knowledge of TED and everything it represents assisted him in working as the social media manager, which required that he create and maintain TEDxFresnoState’s Facebook, Twitter and Fresno State web page. He also was given the responsibility of making sure the event and its organization process followed the procedure established.

Garcia, much like Hoppe and Schreiber, counted this as a learning experience.

“I learned what is required in order to run a successful online campaign when starting from nothing,” he said.

He used other TEDx sites as examples to see how they operated and the amount of dedication and time required in order to have other people take interest in what is being done.

Those who would like to learn more about TEDxFresnoState can do so by visiting the event’s Fresno State page, fresnostate.edu/TEDxFresnoState, as well as liking its Facebook page and becoming a Twitter follower.