Jason Flom interviews Fernando Bermudez at 2016’s Edison Talks (Lois Bernstein/Chicago Ideas Week)

We don’t know about you, but waiting for a work holiday between Labor Day and Thanksgiving is rough. Give your mind a staycation on October 20 by attending Edison Talks, our premier daylong event that’s open to the public for the first time ever.

What is Edison Talks? It’s a full day of incredible speakers, surprising performances and networking over an included lunch and dedicated breaks. If you have personal days to use, here’s why you should consider taking off work to attend:

1. The speakers. At Edison Talks, hear from astronauts, deep sea explorers, global activists, entrepreneurs and more…at work, hear from Gary in HR about how people need to stop using so many paper towels.
2. The performances. At work, the best performance you’ll see is the fight in the kitchenette over who’s been microwaving fish. At Edison Talks, you’ll experience original, never-before-seen work from a jazz vocalist, dance troupes and even a trapeze artist.
3. Random surprises. Instead of having to hear your boss’s celebrity impressions, see Ross Marquand from The Walking Dead perform his infamous casting remix impersonations (see below).
4. “Interactive food.” We don’t want to give away too much, but let’s just say we’ll have a kiddie pool filled with Swedish Fish that you can actually “fish” from. Your workplace definitely doesn’t have that.
5. Moving scenery. Instead of listening to Hamilton at your desk, take in our opening number, which we’ve been working on as if it’s Broadway.
6. Great networking! At Edison Talks, you’ll meet like-minded Chicagoans interested in having real conversations. At work, all you’ll have is a Slack conversation about the last night’s reality show.

For more information or to buy tickets, head over to our Edison Talks event page, and in the meantime, enjoy some of Marquand’s best celebrity impressions below.