TED is an invitation-only event where the world’s leading thinkers and doers gather to find inspiration.
First off, if you’ve never heard of TED, go to ted.com now and watch some of the videos. My favorites:
- William Kamkwamba – How I Harnessed The Wind
- Hans Rosling – New Insights on Poverty
- Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry – SixthSense Demo
Captivated TEDxSMU Audience
You’ll find yourself thinking, “Man, if I could just be around deep thinkers like that more often, who knows what I could accomplish!” So that’s also how I was introduced to the event: through the online videos. And when I heard a locally-organized TED was coming to Dallas, my eyes grew wide and I jumped at the opportunity to apply! But… I didn’t get accepted initially. Fortunately, a pleasantly written email just days before the event convinced Sharon Lyle, the spectacular event organizer from SMU, to let me join in. TEDxSMU proved to be an absolutely incredible experience.
After seeing the schedule I was even more pumped to meet Jill Sobule, the premier folk-pop singer of Silicon Valley, and Anousheh Ansari, the first female space tourist. Both were just as original and genuine in real life as they had been in the videos on the internet, and it was an honor to speak with them both at lunch.
Anousheh Ansari and Me
The conference is a great place for networking, and not only did I meet some smart people working on big things in technology, but also a blues-playing corn farmer from Iowa, a wine marketer, a pastor, a philanthropist, amongst many others. The diversity of intelligence was unrivaled.
Besides the great networking though there were also fantastic speakers that make you really feel their passion. Mrs. Ansari showed a video of a floating, spinning tour through the International Space Station. She demonstrated how, without gravity, there is no up and down and whichever orientation you currently have is as good as any because there are tools and supplies secured to every wall. She closed with an inspired poem by Karen Ravn:
Anousheh Ansari Speaking
only as high as I reach can I grow,
only as far as I seek can I go,
only as deep as I look can I see,
only as much as I dream can I be.
JFK's Moon Podium
And speaking of space, we also had the honor to see the wooden podium John F. Kennedy used to deliver his famous, “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not only because they are easy, but because they are hard” speech. The podium is justifiably a national treasure, illustrated by the fact that this is the first time it has ever been loaned for an event, it came with its own body guard, and arrived just 5 minutes before the conference started!
Some other interesting tidbits I picked up were, that all the humans in the world can fit into a 1 cubic mile box, which makes the (negative) impact that we have on our planet all the more remarkable. Another was a quote by Marshall McLuhan, “Only puny secrets need protection. Big discoveries are protected by public incredulity.” Amory Lovins used this to show that the really great solutions are beyond the average person’s imagination and so are protected by their own superiority over the status quo. His reference: he grows bananas in Aspen, Colorado without a electrical heating system and helped build a home in Arizona that didn’t need an air conditioner even in 115 degree weather. His contention was that good engineering has the potential to increase effieciency and save money without making any great sacrifice. In fact, he completed a study called Winning the Oil Endgame. The one line executive summary: “By 2040, oil imports could be gone. By 2050, the U.S. economy should be flourishing with no oil at all.”
We need more people like this working to solve our most pressing problems. This group brainstorming can spark a better, more enjoyable future for us all.
