Started as a four-day gathering in California 25 years ago, TED is a non-profit organization devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading," and TED's presentations and lectures -- with their signature 18-minute time limit -- have become an online sensation.

In the spirit of ideas worth sharing, TED has created TEDx: a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share what the organization calls a "TED-like experience," of brief talks, videos and discussions.

TEDx is coming to the University of Vermont.

On Monday, July 19, from 3-6 p.m., the University of Vermont's Institute for Global Sustainability will host a TEDx event on campus focused on the theme "leading and managing for sustainability."

Admission will be $19 per person, which includes the talks, refreshments and a chance to meet the presenters. The event is open to the public. It will be held in North Lounge, Billings.

At TEDxUVM, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark discussion in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but the UVM event is self-organized.

Some of the national speakers coming to TEDxUVM include Robert Egger, social entrepreneur and founder of the DC Central Kitchen and Michael Shuman, an economist, attorney, and author of Going Local.

"We're very pleased to have been selected by TED and to be collaborating with them," said Matt Sayre, Director of the UVM Institute for Global Sustainability. "TEDx is a creative way for the university to support the creation and sharing of knowledge which is central to our mission."

"And UVM has a great faculty of deep thinkers and practical visionaries who have wonderful ideas worth sharing," says Sayre.

Some of the Vermont-based sustainability leaders who will speak at the event include these UVM professors: network expert Chris Koliba, engineer Jane Hill, environmental visionary Saleem Ali, plant biologist Deb Neher, business expert Rocki-Lee Dewitt and ecological economist Robert Costanza. UVM students and other local leaders will also speak.

Novelist and UVM professor of English Philip Baruth will serve as moderator.

For more information, visit http://tedxuvm.com or contact the University of Vermont's Department of Continuing Education at (802)656-2085.