If you’ve ever wanted to attend a TED talk but don’t want to pay $8,500 a year to become a member, Ignite Grand Junction makes it easy, and free, to attend what speaker organizer Rebecca Mullen calls a mini-TED talk.

TED, which stands for technology, entertainment and design, began in 1984 as a one-off conference that melded the three disciplines. In the TED forum, speakers have 18 minutes or less to convey their thoughts on everything from teaching to writing to bionoics to well, you name it.

The format for Ignite is a bit different. Up to 12 speakers each get five minutes and 20 slides to present their ideas. According to Mullen, this local, non-political mini-TED event hopes to paint the community purple with stories of unity.

“I find that when we can hear others’ stories, we realize that the essences of our stories is that we all want the same thing,” Mullen said, “and so differences disappear.”

Ignite began in Seattle in 2006, and its mission is “Everyone Speaks.” Since then Ignite events have become an international phenomenon, with experiences happening in Helsinki, Tunisia, Paris, New York City and over 350 other locations in between.

Specifically, Ignite hopes to gather the community to tell the Grand Valley story since it’s the people who fill the valley with adventure, compassion, wisdom and curiosity.

Last year’s event featured speakers like Home Loan Chairman and CEO Jamie Hamilton, who talked about how baseball unifies the valley into a family, and flight nurse Kelly Thompson, who showed slides of her mission trip to South America.

This year, Ignite Grand Junction hopes to address topics as wide ranging as teen suicide and how the drought has impacted ranchers.

Other topics include biking and wine making in the Grand Valley.

Grand Junction Toastmasters sponsors this year’s event, which takes place at the Warehouse 25Sixty-Five, 2565 American Way, in Grand Junction, on November 13 at 6 p.m.

If enough people express interest in presenting, Mullen said she’d consider hosting the event twice a year.

For information about presenting at a future meeting, email [email protected].