Keynote #1 – Simon Tam
Simon Tam spent eight years fighting the United States government — and won. In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in his favor in Matal v. Tam, a landmark First Amendment case that began with a simple question: who gets to decide what a community calls itself?
As the founder and bassist of The Slants, one of the first all-Asian American dance rock bands in the world, Simon turned a fight over a trademark application into a Supreme Court case that’s now taught in classrooms across the country. He is the recipient of the Mark T. Banner Award from the American Bar Association and the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award, and his case was named Milestone Case of the Year by Managing IP Magazine.
His memoir, Slanted: How an Asian American Troublemaker Took on the Supreme Court, was named one of the Best Books on the Constitution of All Time by BookAuthority and won the Independent Publisher Book Award for Best Autobiography/Memoir. Simon’s story has been featured in thousands of media outlets across 150 countries, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, NPR, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
He is also co-founder of The Slants Foundation, a nonprofit supporting civil liberties, the arts, and civic engagement — and his work is now part of the permanent collections at the First Amendment Museum, the National Constitution Center, the Wing Luke Museum, the Songbirds Museum, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Keynote #2 – Melissa Ruiz
From community theatre and competitive dance to first runner up at Miss New Jersey and the TEDx stage, Melissa Ruiz knows the value of connecting with an audience. She has her Master’s in Social Work from Rutgers University and worked in higher education for almost 10 years before transitioning to public speaking. Now, she helps leaders in their fields get over their fear of public speaking to create a bigger impact through her signature online course Show and Tell with Mel. She lives in NYC with her husband, son, and her 100 pound dog, Gus. Please welcome Melissa!
Keynote #3 – Tom Krieglstein
Tom wasn’t the best student. He graduated high school with a “C” grade point average and got rejected from almost every four-year college he applied to.
He did, however, turn his academics around through a series of specific strategies and ended up graduating college with straight As, was named valedictorian, and was honored as an All-USA Academic First Team member which is given to only 20 students in the U.S. each year.
While still in college, he launched his first business and grew it to over $1.5 million in annual revenue.
Since then, he’s spoken to nearly one million people across the globe, trained teams at places like Coca-Cola, Apple, and Nike, and won seven national speaking titles.
And he wrote not one, but two best-selling books on college success.
Now, that’s impressive, but let’s get to the odd stuff.
He was named after a cat.
Tom lives just down the street from the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
He’s been on a reality show on NBC.
Gave a TEDx talk at UCLA.
Has a Youtube video with 18 million views.
Got featured on the Tofurky (TOE-FUR-KEY) box.
Has a record of doing 100 pushups in a row,
and was on the Oprah Winfrey show… but then got edited off the show.
With that, please welcome Tom!