Ocean City just had its most forward-looking weekend of the year. On Friday, September 18, TEDx Butterfish Cove, the first TEDx event ever held in Ocean City, filled the Performing Arts Center at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center with 19 speakers. The next morning the convention hall next door opened for E-Volution Expo 2026, a two-day show of electric vehicles, AI and robotics, health and wellness, and home technology. Citywide.TV was there for all three days. Here’s what we saw.
TEDx Butterfish Cove: Ocean City’s first TEDx
The theme was conversations on how to live better, healthier and smarter. TEDx Butterfish Cove is independently organized under a TED license, with Olivia White listed as organizer. The day ran from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and ended the way a first-year event should: every speaker called back to the stage together, taking questions from the audience about how the day went.
The lineup, as published by the organizers:
- Heather Chirtea, flying car pilot
- Mark Stross, technology and humanism
- Dr. Krishna Athal, leadership. His talk: “The Loneliness of Success”
- Dr. Kathleen Stross, physical therapy and holistic health
- Dr. Sunita Punjabi, neuroplasticity and brain optimization
- David Rothner, embracing discomfort and growth
- Kim Kelley, survival, advocacy and systemic change
- Eric Rittmeyer, mental toughness and women’s health
- John Huffington, wrongful conviction awareness
- Paula Morris, brain health education
- Tony Myers, sustainability and green skills
- Scott Rosenfeld, lighting and cultural heritage
- Chrissy Ehrhart, holistic wellness
- Jason Jurey, controlled environment agriculture and education
- Matthew Kern, chef, restaurateur and sustainable local food
- Mike Rucker, PhD, behavioral science and The Fun Habit
- Nick McNulty, EV charging infrastructure
- Kristen LaRose-Gaasrud, women’s health advocacy
- Marc Rohleder, wireless technology strategy
Two lines stayed with us. One speaker listed the stories we tell ourselves: “I’m not good enough. I’m not fast enough. I’m not smart enough.” Then he showed how rarely any of it is true. Another went back to Christmas 1979, when a neighbor told a 17-year-old that you can’t make it in this world without going to college. His answer then, and the point of the talk now: “Why not? Let’s figure it out.”
E-Volution Expo: the future on one convention floor
The expo ran Saturday, September 19 (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and Sunday, September 20 (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.). Its tagline was Experience the Future, and the floor delivered on it.
A flying car you could actually sit in
The star of the show was a Pivotal BlackFly, a single-seat electric aircraft that takes off vertically. Its owner and pilot, Heather Chirtea, was billed by the expo as the nation’s first female flying car pilot. She spoke at TEDx on Friday, then spent Saturday walking visitors through the controls. Two redundant joysticks steer it: forward, backwards, up, down, left, right and spin. She said the company has manufactured only five. She flies hers to farmers markets “because they have farmland and they don’t care,” and on her first flight a red-tailed hawk came and sat off her wing. Her advice to anyone nervous: “You’re only afraid because you haven’t done it.”
Our full clip with Heather:
Robots, EVs and home tech
RobotLAB Bethesda brought Pepper, the humanoid robot, and the temi personal robot, along with cleaning and delivery robots for businesses. Their banner read: Automate Today. Lead Tomorrow. Pepper held its own in conversation. Visitors asked what kind of cameras it has in its eyes, and it thanked them for stopping by.
Blue Whale EV, an advisory and service organization for the EV charging community, showed a Velion mobile DC fast charger built with Lincoln Electric. Tesla Owners of Maryland (MarylandTesla.com) staffed a booth and had a classic red Tesla Roadster on the floor. That night brought the Tesla light show, which the Town of Ocean City billed as more than 150 synchronized vehicles. Elite Home Entertainment (EHEservices.com) covered home theater, automation, lighting, security and networking. Spartan X was talking solar, with a sign warning Marylanders that 1:1 net metering ends July 1, 2027.
Health and wellness
LifeMed Institute had one of the busiest booths on the floor, running free InBody body-composition scans and showing its IV nutrient infusion menu. SEAL Hemostatic Wound Spray demonstrated its Stop the Bleed product. YogaVibez, a hot yoga studio in Ocean City, also led the community beach yoga session. Bad Bish Fitness brought mirrors, disco balls and pink hoodies. Pure Family Fitness was in the house, and Foot MGMT Inc. fitted custom insoles, a company that says it has been making them since 1978.
Local makers and food
Makers Woodshop (MakersWoodshop.com) showed live-edge slab tables and glowing resin river pieces. Ocean City Organics, the town’s organic grocer since 1989, set up next to OMG! Pretzels (“Born in Pretzelvania”). EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System, was there for business owners, and the Ocean City Surf Club had a table too.
The sponsors who made it happen
Thanks to the E-Volution Expo’s partners, as listed on the event’s sponsor wall:
- LifeMed Institute
- Town of Ocean City
- Pohanka Automotive Group of Salisbury
- Schell Brothers
- Irie Ocean FM 98.1 Radio
- OCMD Chamber
- Quest Diagnostics
- Blue Whale EV
- Lincoln Electric
- Volvo Cars Annapolis
- TidalHealth
- Go Green OC
- FLC Energy
- Crawl Space Ninja
- The SOAR Tour
- LiveWire Media & Events
- Tesla Owners Maryland
- Whits Services Corporation
Worth coming back for
A first-year TEDx and a first-year tech expo in one weekend is a big swing for a beach town in September. It worked. The talks were personal, the expo floor was hands-on, and the crowd was a real mix of families, business owners and people who just wanted to see a flying car. If they do it again in 2027, block the weekend.
Planning around Ocean City events? Start with our E-Volution Expo 2026 guide and the Ocean City & Berlin live music calendar.
Photos and video: Citywide.TV. Speaker lineup via TED. Event schedule via the Town of Ocean City.