Tickets will go on sale March 25 for this year's version of TEDxPortland – a day of talks about "ideas worth spreading."

This year's event – the third annual – will be April 27 at the Portland Art Museum. The University of Oregon is a presenting sponsor of TEDxPortland.

Tickets have sold out the first day they became available for the first two years of TEDxPortland. Ticket prices for this year's event will be announced next week. 

Speakers and performers have been announced on a rolling schedule and will incorporate the theme "What If?"

This year's lineup includes Ben Huh, founder and CEO of Cheezburger Networks; Jonathan Krisel, director of "Portlandia;" Top Chef Naomi Pomeroy; and poet Asia Greene.

Additional speakers and performers will be announced on Monday.

TEDxPortland is an independently organized TED event. For more information is available on the event's website.

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) was founded in 1984 as a one-off event, but has evolved into a global set of conferences owned by the private, non-profit Sapling Foundation. Its events are held each year in Long Beach and Palm Springs in the U.S., as well as in Europe and Asia, and conference talks are live-streamed worldwide.

The talks address a broad spectrum of science and culture topics, with speakers given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can. Past presenters include Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Malcolm Gladwell, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Richard Dawkins, Bill Gates, educator Salman Khan and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

TED now also grants licenses to third-party organizations for TEDx events in cities around the world. The licenses are free, but organizers must be TED-approved and adhere to the parent organization’s format.

The TEDx program is intended to bring TED-like experiences to the local level. More than 5,000 TEDx events have taken place in 1,200 cities and around the world.

- from UO Portland