It all started with a phone call. 

Lee Simmons applied to be a speaker at a local TEDx organization, but when he didn’t get a reply, he decided to create his own. He knew he needed a strong partner to achieve this goal. So he called his friend Laura Dinan Haber.

Since the application to organize TEDxHartford was yet to be approved, he couldn’t tell Laura anything about it. All he could share was that he had a great idea and that it would be awesome. With slight hesitation, Laura said yes, and the rest is history.

With each year that passes, the TEDxHartford event and its respective team continue to grow.