VEACH AMONG AMAZING KIDS TO PRESENT AT MICROSOFT HEADQUARTERS FOR TEDx CONFERENCE

Racer Zach Veach will be featured along with other notable kids presenting including Jordan Romero, the youngest to climb Mt. Everest and Olivia Bouler, AOL Artist raising funds for the gulf

Redmond, WA. (Aug. 11, 2010) –Andretti Autosport USF2000 National Championship race car driver Zach Veach, 15, will be a featured presenter at the TEDxRedmond (where x = independently organized TED event) conference to be held Sept. 18th, 2010. Sponsored by Generation Yes and Bing, the event will take place on Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Washington. 

“I’m honored for the opportunity to speak at the upcoming TEDxRedmond conference,” said Veach, who is the featured kid celebrity in a video interview with CNN iReport's CelebBUZZZ this week on what he'd like to be when he grows up. “I’m such a technology person and to be part of a prestigious TED Conference is very humbling.  To boot, having the conference at Microsoft is going to be incredible.  I plan on taking my business card to Bill Gates’ office before I leave.”

Organized by kids, for kids, TEDxRedmond, helmed by 12-year-old internationally published author and child prodigy Adora Svitak, will feature speakers that include notable youth from around the globe. From CNN’s Intriguing People and Heroes to Guinness World Record holders, TEDxRedmond brings together inspiring individuals to disseminate ideas worth spreading.  Among those scheduled to presented include:

• Zach Veach, 15-year-old Andretti Autosport race car driver; spokesKID for Oprah Winfrey’s “No Phone Zone”; developer of urTXT Droid app; national spokesperson for FocusDriven
• Jordan Romero, 14-year-old mountaineer; youngest ever to climb Mt. Everest
• Olivia Bouler, 11-year-old AOL Artist and aspiring ornithologist, raising funding to preserve the Gulf of Mexico
• Jessica Markowitz, 15-year-old who founded her own charity to educate girls in Rwanda, sending 22 each year
• Sierra Alef, Kelsey Josund, and Maddy Berkman founded the Pink Polka Dots Guild, a charity which works to raise money for children’s cancer research
• Brennan LaBrie, 10-year-old TIME for Kids reporter; youngest journalist at Vancouver’s Winter Olympics
• Jason O’Neill, 14-year-old award-winning creator and founder of Pencil Bugs
• Adrianna Svitak, 14-year-old artist and musician with awards from organizations like the Music Teachers' National Association (MTNA) and the Northwest Chopin Festival.
• Alec Loorz, 15-year-old founder of Kids vs. Global Warming; invited by Al Gore to be formally trained with The Climate Project.
• Noah Andrade, an 11-year-old singer and guitarist

Combined, the speakers have been featured in a wealth of national media, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Gayle King Show, CNN, Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Early Show, Larry King Live, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, PBS’ Biz Kid$, Forbes, Parade Magazine, People Magazine and USA Today.

TEDxRedmond is open to participants ages 11-15 (grades 6-10) from around the world.
For more information, please visit www.tedxredmond.com.  Additionally, you can follow TEDxRedmond at www.twitter.com/tedxredmond. On Sept. 18th, 2010, a live webcast will be streaming from the event at www.ustream.tv/tedxredmond.

About TEDxRedmond:
TEDxRedmond is an independently organized TED-like event, made to inspire the new generation to do great things, organized by 12-year-old internationally published author and child prodigy Adora Svitak.  Live speakers mix with previously recorded TED talks to create an educational environment for spreading ideas and motivation. This is the perfect opportunity to spread creative, fresh ideas to the entire world.  For more information, please visit TEDxRedmond Conference online at, http://www.tedxredmond.com/. 

About TED:
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, California, with simulcast in Palm Springs; TEDGlobal is held each year in Oxford, UK. TED's media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily, and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action; TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self-organized events around the world, and the TEDFellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities. Follow TED on Twitter at twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at facebook.com/TED. TEDGlobal 2010, “And Now the Good News,” will be held July 13-16, 2010, in Oxford, UK. TED2011, “The Rediscovery of Wonder,” will be held February 21-25, 2011, in Long Beach, California, with the TEDActive simulcast in Palm Springs, California.  For more information, please visit TED Conference online at, www.TED.com. 

About Zach Veach
Zach Veach is a 15-year-old autoracing driver that competes in the Indy Racing League’s ‘Road to Indy’ USF2000 Championship Series for Andretti Autosport. Veach began his racing career at age 12 in go-karts. It was in 2007, where Veach caught the eye of Dave Fisher, father of IZOD IndyCar Series driver and team owner, Sarah Fisher. For the next two years Fisher [Dave] coached and developed Veach’s talent, as he did with Fisher [Sarah] in the early stages of her career. By the middle of 2009, in just 16 months, Veach had progressed from entry-level karting to Formula BMW. In late 2009, Veach signed with Jensen Motorsport to compete in the Atlantic Championship Series, before it folded in early 2010. Veach has created a safe-driving initiative: Ziggy’s Teen Safe Driving Campaign, with seminars and supportive school programs to be held in race markets where Veach competes in 2010. He’ll release his first published iPhone and Droid application, due out in mid-2010, to help consumers avoid dangerous text messaging while driving. Further, he’s set to author a book, due out on his 16th birthday, “99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Getting Your Drivers License,” which will serve as a supplemental read for driver’s educations programs across the country, set to be released Dec. 9, 2010. For more information, please visit www.zachveach.com.

About Andretti Autosport
Based in Indianapolis, Ind., Andretti Autosport is led by racing legend Michael Andretti. Andretti Autosport, which is the winningest team in Indy Racing League history, fields multiple entries in the IZOD IndyCar Series. Andretti Autosport also campaigns multiple cars in the Firestone Indy Lights series in a joint venture with AFS Racing and two cars in the USF2000 National Championship. The company boasts three IZOD IndyCar Series championships (2004, 2005 and 2007), two Firestone Indy Lights titles (2008 and 2009) and has won the Indianapolis 500 twice (2005 and 2007). For more information, please visit www.AndrettiAutosport.com.