Ideas Worth Spreading

If you’ve ever been moved or inspired by any of the freely available TED videos you might be surprised that you can attend a TED style event near you. Based on TED’s “ideas worth spreading” concept, the TEDx program gives communities and organizations a way to host their own TED formatted event.

The presentations are a mix of talks, demonstrations, performances, and at least two TEDTalks videos. All free of any commercial, religious or political agendas. There’s also a great chance for networking with the other attendees.

TEDxNaperville was hosted by Arthur Zards and was held at the Grounds for Hope Cafe. This was the perfect venue for an an event like this with a great sound system and huge video screens on each wall.

Overall the presentations were informative and inspiring, with a just a couple weak spots. This was the first TEDx even I’ve attended so I shut off the cell phone and tried to just take it all in.

Here is my take on each of the presentations:

Justin Ahrens – See Different, Do Different

(@justinahrens) Justin shared details of his rough childhood and how a grade school teacher took the time to reach him through his desire to just draw during class. When he reconnected with his old teacher as an adult, he realized he wasn’t the only one that made an impact. After exchanging addresses teh teacher sent some drawing of Justin’s he had kept over all those years.

Later in life, Justin toured some of the poorest areas in Africa and showed some amazing pictures of his trips. He made a disctinction between “looking” at the world and really “seeing” what is going on around you.

 

Todd Kelsey – Nonprofit Exchange

Todd has worked with several notable charity organizations like One Laptop Per Child and Teachers Without Borders. He spoke about the possibilities of a Nonprofit “stock” exchange and how organizations would be valued and invested in.

 

Tracey Hosey – Foximus Prime

(@Giftedgal4kids) When Tracey’s son was in school she realized that he was a gifted child (as in actually gifted, not just “my kid is so smart”). After a lot of hard days and crying she discovered that there were painfully few programs for gifted students. She then took it upon herself to learn all she could about how to educate a gifted child.

When she found out about the US First Robotics program she went to the school board and got permission to create a robotics team. A few members of her team rolled out their Foximus Prime Robot that took fourth in their class at a national competition. The best part was the first team had 17 students, the next year over 60 kids applied to be part of the team.

A real negative about her talk was pointed out by attendee Eric Danley. Her presentation borrowed a little too heavily from the Did You Know 3.0 video including some bogus “facts” such as the top 10 jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.

 

Mark Mattas – Architech the Future

(@mhattas) Geneca chairman Mark Hattas spoke about his Architect the Future movement. He shared a very personal story about his battles with bi-polar disorder and how the lessons he learned from that episode could be applied to the problems facing the world today.

If you’ve done public speaking you know how nerve-wracking this can be, and Mark got off to a very rocky start. I started to think we were about to witness a train wreck but he threw out his “speech” and definitely pulled it off after that.

 

Othar Lawrence – Redefining Risk

(@othar_lawrence) Othar is a member of the Red Bull Air Force Team and spoke about risk management or taking risks or insurance or underwriting… or something. Honestly, the guy with one of the most exciting jobs in the world (jumping off things) gave a pretty boring talk. He finished with a few minutes of pictures of his base-jumping. If they had been a part of his talk it would have been a lot more interesting.

 

Richard Hill – Consecrate the Madness

The Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, is challenging enough, but imagine running it with a broken big toe. That is exactly what Richard did. He recounted how he learned to listen to the “four narratives” we all have ongoing in our heads: Mind, Body, Emotion and Spirit.

His talk was titled after a lyric from Christine Kane’s “Overjoyed”.

It used to be a race to see
Just who’d get there the fastest
But this frozen night it’s only right
To consecrate the madness

His point was to that we can find clarity, even in the face of chaos, by “consecrating the madness”. When his body told him to quit, his mind told him about the danger, and his emotions told him to be afraid, he focused on his calm spirit, enjoyed the scenery and finished within his target time.

 

Thomas Negovan – By Popular Demand

(@ThomasNegovan) The highlight of the entire day for me, by far, was a performance and demonstration by musician Thomas Negovan. He recorded an album without the aid of any computer. He used a wax phonograph cylinder.

I’ve always been interested in musical nostalgia and bizarre outsider music. Seeing a wax cylinder being recorded onstage, and hearing it played back in all its tinny, crackly goodness is something you have to experience to believe!

Since this method of recording hasn’t been done in about 90 years, you can’t just go out and find wax cylinder blanks. Luckily, Thomas found a modern day mad scientist to recreate them for him. It can take up to an hour to prepare for a two minute recording, and you only get one take. Once the wax cylinders were recorded they were transferred to tape and pressed to vinyl.

This was a big hit too with the other attendees judging by the swarm around the recording machine on display in the lobby afterwards.

 

Jill Salzman – Entrepreneurial Mothership

(@foundingmom) Jill is a very well known “mompreneur” that started Founding Moms.  She gave a very entertaining talk, starting with the story of how she faked press credentials with the hope of meeting Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder (which she did) to how she serendipitously met Meetup.com founder Scott Heiferman.

 

Richard Godwin – The Next Space Journey

(@GRSG) As the son of a self-proclaimed “space nut” I’ve been around NASA and space travel stuff my entire life. Richard and my dad would definitely get along!

Richard spoke about today’s space program, and how despite what some people may say it is anything but dead. Projects like Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and others will make commercial space travel possible in the future. This is an “only in America” moment where we have the desire, funds, and ability to make this possible.

 

Elizabeth Lombardo – The Skill of Happiness

(@DrELombardo) The day ended with Dr. Lombardo’s presentation on happiness. Money and material things won’t make us truly happy unless we practice the skills required for being happy. Her talk was very polished, but to me, a little too polished and seemed a better fit for a self-help seminar.

 

My TEDxNaperville Experience

Overall I was very impressed and entertained by the speakers and met some interesting people during the breaks. A broad range of ages and personalities made up the crowd. It was great to be at an event that wasn’t focused on technical topics or with a heavy commercial push either.

If you get a chance to attend, or even better, have something to talk about at a TEDx event I’d highly recommend it. I may not have left feeling inspired to great things, but I got thought provoking takeaways and a new sense of enthusiasm.

If you’ve attended a TEDx event or have a favorite TEDtalks video, share it in the comments!