A wedding planner, marketing guru and founder of TEDxMaui, a spinoff of a global nonprofit that brings together inspiring speakers from the worlds of technology, entertainment and design, is now the Maui field representative for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii).
Kaie McMillan ran TEDxMaui for five years and produced three "successful" conferences that cultivated Maui's intellectual community and spread the perspective of the Hawaiian Islands to the global stage. Two of those conferences gained an Internet audience of potentially millions at TED.com.
TED is an international set of conferences run by the nonprofit Sapling Foundation under the slogan "Ideas Worth Spreading." Attendees pay thousands of dollars to listen to inspiring talks, which have been viewed more than 1 billion times on the Internet. The speakers have included Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Al Gore, Billy Graham, Bill Gates, Bono and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
McMillan bills herself as a "marketing and special events consultant with a knack for creating uplifting experiences through food, art and music." She recently spent two months as a field organizer for presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ahead of the Democratic Primary in Hawaii. Her new boss, Gabbard, resigned in February as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee to endorse Sanders over front-runner Hillary Clinton.
