We are pleased to share thoughts from Kelly Mooney, President of Resource Interactive, who attended TED a few weeks ago.  Since she and Nancy Kramer are the only two Columbus-ites to attend TED, we know that you might enjoy her reflections.

TED 2010  REFLECTIONS

It’s been a week since Kramer and I returned from TED. Having experienced 3 ½ days of mind-blowing content, note-taking, networking and yes, a bit of stargazing, I wanted to share some themes that emerged for me. Many are things we all know, and some are simply good reminders of things to think about, since the routine course of business can easily cloud our perspective.

Here are my 11 takeaways (in no particular order…sit back, it’s a fairly long entry!):

1. Passion is contagious. There’s nothing more invigorating than talking with or listening to someone who absolutely loves what they do. Consider Cheryl Hayashi, a spider silk scientist. You got that right…she specializes in spider silk, not just spiders (as if that isn’t specialized enough!). And for 18 minutes, she oozed passion about how silk is created, how different spiders create different types of silk with varying measures of tensile strength. She convinced us why we should care, why she cares so deeply and why we should really think twice before mindlessly batting away a web that crosses our path as it has been so artfully created.

2. Be the CEO of something. It would be easy to assume that TED speakers are CEOs of companies. In fact, that’s rarely the case. Rather, they are CEOs of their ideas, of grand visions, and, most important, of themselves. One memorable TED presenter was a 28-year-old who lived out of his van in Maui, but he was armed with a compelling, groundbreaking challenge to string theory. Raghava KK, a once nameless teen artist from India, discovered his cartoon drawings could evoke emotion and political controversy around the world. And while many may have written off Temple Grandin at an early age, she embraced her autism and the unique strengths it provided her to become revered as an expert in animal behavior and a voice for the global autistic community. Perhaps their successes sound unlikely to us, but no doubt they believed in their own abilities and ideas all along, and their leadership started with themselves.

3. Persistence pays. While I was having lunch one day, Marc Koska rolled up on a skateboard and asked if he could join me in the adjacent empty chair. He was a casual middle-aged guy with long, tussled hair. As we spoke, I learned that he had invented a particular type of syringe that would prevent hepatitis and HIV from being spread via dirty needles. He invented it when he was 23—with no college education. He spent the next 17 years tweaking the product and convincing the government and other pharma companies to buy it from him—17 years before he got his first sale! Now, he is credited for saving more than 10 million lives. 10 million!!!

4. Fail forward. I had the chance to sit next to David Byrne during one of the sessions. He was a nervous wreck about his upcoming talk. He said he knew how to sing. He could sing with his eyes closed, in his sleep. But talking to this intelligent crowd intimidated him. When it was time for him to walk onto the stage, the audience cheered – it was David Byrne! But, the next 18 minutes were painful for everyone in the room. He bombed. But, he also stretched…in new ways, he allowed himself to be vulnerable, to get uncomfortable – and as a result, he later he confided this experience helped him to discover both an appreciation for the other presenters and a new path for personal growth. And, then there’s Mark Roth, a biochemist and cell biologist who told of his decade-long series of failed attempts and partial successes doing experiments with “suspended animation.” How can someone fail so many times and continue to keep looking for a solution? He’s simply convinced that one day his work will help critically ill trauma patients get the organs they need in time to save their lives. Mark would say it’s important to fail fast, and then keep on going, because time is the most precious currency we have.

5. Things are rarely as they seem. They are neither black or white or completely wrong or right. Maybe it’s the designer in me, but I’ve always subscribed to that theory. It was refreshing to listen to Sam Harris, a neuroscientist and philosopher challenging the audience to think about how we need to come together to define human values that can be shared in all cultures. And then there was a young provocateur who argued that choosing to be a vegetarian or carnivore was too extreme–why do we have to choose? Why not create a new option – “Weekday Veg” – where fruits and veggies are consumed throughout the week and meat options reserved for the weekend. William Li, a cancer researcher, on the cusp of major breakthroughs told the audience, “Discovery is seeing what everyone else has seen but thinking what no one has thought.” These presenters reminded me that there is always another perspective, another way, and many shades of gray.

6. Dare to be bold. By now, you’ve watched Kramer’s video about our commitment to Jamie Oliver’s bold quest to change the food habits of Americans. If not, check it out on The Green Room and go to Ted.com <http://Ted.com>  to see Jamie’s TED wish. One might wonder how a young Brit could dare to be so bold in confronting American moms, school administrators, fast food companies, government official among others. Armed with facts, passion and a vision for a better way, Jamie is determined to change our grocery lists, our school lunches, our fast food options, and our relationship with food. His bold vision enraptured the audience, causing everyone including the likes of Google execs and documentarian Morgan Spurlock to lean forward and offer support. We are thrilled to be part of enabling Jamie’s bold dream. Dare you join us? ; )

7. Have a sense of urgency. Kevin Bales can’t sleep. And now that I know that the world has 27 million slaves TODAY, I can’t either. Bales wakes up everyday knowing that time is ticking. What can he do to end this? Not to curtail it but to END it? He’s busy getting the word out, giving speeches, writing books, negotiating with governments, petitioning the UN and other groups that will get involved and take action. Even though our daily agenda isn’t nearly as ambitious as this, it makes me reconsider how I spend time – do the big things get enough time? Do the little things get less time? Probably not often enough. So, here’s my plan – half the meetings, half the time. Maybe this simple gesture will free up more energy for ideas that can impact our clients, our future, and our range of philanthropic efforts. How can we have more urgency for things that matter?

8. Gamers just may change the world. It’s easy to write-off gaming as a consummate time suck – especially knowing that gaming consumes more than 3 BILLION hours each week. Yep, 3 billion. Jane McGonigal argues that we need to be playing MORE games – as much as 21 billion hours per week? Why? She believes that gamers are most equipped to change the world: 1.) they have an urgent sense of optimism; 2.) they have a strong sense of the social fabric; 3.) they are blissfully productive; 4.) they seek epic wins and meaning. Imagine all the gamers in the world helping to figure out how to cool the planet or solve world hunger. Forget work…let’s play!

9. Power of simplicity. It’s easy to make relatively simple things complex. It’s extraordinarily difficult to make the complex simple. Bill Gates showed us how to do just that. He had a total of 18 minutes to frame the implications of global warming and proposed a logical formula for solving the problem. He identified 5 key carbon dioxide-reducing ideas and new energy solutions we need to invest in to “innovate to zero.” He helped us to understand that we have 20 years to test and learn and 20 years to implement the solution in order to save the planet. Simple as that….and everyone was ready to jump onboard. All that brilliance was shared in the amount of time it takes to eat a packed lunch.

10. Execution matters. TED is most known for its provocative content. But perhaps the thing that really makes TED the best conference around is the execution of ….well, everything. With TED, details are essential. From the seamless, speedy registration process to its stunning visual materials to the set décor, to the design-forward meeting spaces throughout the venue, to the healthy food and extraordinary coffee to the breathtaking entertainment to the swag bag – it’s a totally, well-conceived, orchestrated experience. Without the brilliant execution, it might just become an alternative to academia. TED has reminded me that great ideas matter most when they’re executed (with excellence).

11. Compassion as a compass. I never saw the direct connection between these two words before – now I do. The spark was initiated for me by a grassroots effort atwww.charterforcompassion.org <http://www.charterforcompassion.org> . Then, Sheryl Crow brought this sentiment to life by reminding us all to “get out of our heads and into our hearts.”  Natalie Merchant, spent the last 6 years pouring through the works of deceased poets and resurrected their musings in her latest album. She shared a few of these new songs and her sincerity and heartfelt compassion enthralled the audience in a quiet, serene sort of way. Then, unexpectedly, she changed the tempo, closing the session with her infamous and apropos rendition of Thank you – a lovely, spirited reminder that those two little words simply aren’t spoken often enough.

Thanks to a signficant effort by Andy Brush and Paul Milligan from Best Light Video, the videos from TEDxColumbus are now live.  You can access them via this site and each speaker page (through www.tedxcolumbus.com/speakersperformers) or on the TEDx YouTube channel (keyword: tedxcolumbus).  We hope if you weren’t able to come you take some time to enjoy the presentations and if you did come, perhaps these will refresh your mind of how great the evening was.

Special thanks to Andy and Paul along with the good folks at LIVE! Technologies for thier on-site production assistance and to the Strategy Team for Media for assistance in video transfers.

Here’s a summary of each speaker’s talk from October 20, courtesy of bloggers Amy Sharp and Angela Condon:

Matt Slaybaugh opened the evening with spoken word poetry.

He gave us a spark of creativity and lit up the stage with his passion.

He made the audience laugh and sigh with perfect sentences like this:

Pick something that you love, and do it like a bad habit for ten years.

Ann Pendleton-Jullian began her talk by discussing Pacariqtambo, an Incan site built around a clan structure. Each clan was responsible for creating a different part of the wall, and the different personalities of the clans are visible in the types of walls they designed. For her, this highlights the notion of an indivisible ecosystem, in which every bit of work that happens goes back into the system to (hopefully) improve it. She also discussed her extensive travels throughout South America and Asia, studying complex systems with numerous interdependent parts.

Games—and their ability to help us see the relationships between all parts of an ecosystem—are also a topic she is passionate about. She has incorporated game design, analysis and play into the architectural curriculum to help students learn new ways to approach architectural design. Games allow us to bring the real world into the imagined world. She feels that designing and analyzing games helps students actually change the way they think about architecture.

Finally, she used an inverted triangle diagram to highlight the point that that Homo sapien (“human who knows,” the left point of triangle) and Homo faber (“human who makes,” the right point of the triangle) need to be combined with Homo ludens (“human who plays,” the middle point of the triangle) in order to bring imagination into the 21st century.

The first TED talk shown was the delightful Jacek Utko who spoke about the impact of design on newspapers.

Norah Zuniga Shaw wants us to understand the concept of “counterpoint”—things that don’t seem to have structure really do under the surface. In her “Synchronous Objects” choreographic visualization project (“If you don’t know what that means, that’s OK. We sort of made it up.”), she and her colleagues worked with William Forsythe to deconstruct once of his dances—One Flat Thing, reproduced—to see what physical thinking might look like displayed visually. His dance incorporates a high degree of difference, with the “dancers constructing a cacophonous structure.”

So how does this relate to everyday life? According to Zuniga Shaw, the concepts learned from her project can help us learn many good ways to work in groups. She highlighted the differences between a marching band and counterpoint. When you look at a marching band, you see unity and uniformity, with each member marching in step with the others. There is diversity in a marching band, but it is under the surface—the different instruments played, the different parts of the same song played by different sections. Counterpoint is the inverse, where the primary visual effect is different. Uniformity exists, but at a deep, structural layer.

Through her project, we see how something artistic, like a dance, can demonstrate concretely the fact that there are various ways to move together as people through this world.

John Mueller opened the evening with his promise of a cheerful talk of nuclear weapons. The crowd laughed and immediately we were taken into Mueller’s work of obsession and weapons with ease.

The talk of weapons of mass destruction seemed less intense as he reminded us that, throughout history, they have been mostly sources of anxiety. We were reminded that, although there is a sad past tied to nuclear weapons in places like Hiroshima, nuclear weapons will never destroy the earth like in the movies.

The roles of nuclear weapons were discussed, and Mueller explained that these weapons are useless in military, a massive waste of money, and sadly take away brilliant minds in science. We were reminded that the people of the planet are highly stressed and anxiety-ridden when faced with the concept of nuclear weapons. We were able to rationalize–at least for a moment, as a whole audience–that the obsession truly is a bit out of reach for us.

John Mueller took this provocative subject matter and filtered it through his engaging and intelligent mind. He reminded us of what Einstein said about the nuclear bomb: “[It] has changed everything except our way of thinking.”

Muller is working on changing the way we think about nuclear weapons with a smile.

Before the break, Ken Robinson’s talk on creativity from TED was shown.  It was, of course, a huge crowd pleaser.

John Glenn is concerned for our children’s education (and future). How will we be compared to other nations in 80 years? Glenn, who spoke with Mike Curtin, Associate Publisher Emeritus of The Columbus Dispatch, focused much of his discussion on this topic. He is concerned about how our educational system will compare to that of other countries going forward. One of his main points was that young people can aspire to do whatever they want to do. The audience obviously relished in being in the presence of such a national icon. My colleague, Amy, and I were fortunate enough to have dinner with Glenn and his wife of 66 years, Annie. They are a wonderful couple (and, FYI, John Glenn has an iPhone).

The power to change the world? What would you do?

Reade Harpham knows technology and design.

Tonight Harpham spoke to us not as a Battelle employee, but as a visionary.

Harpham is working with the OneLab Initiative and creating pearl millet threshers for the people of Malawi, where malnutrition is widespread. Harpham spoke to us about pearl millet and its high protein content, as well as how the millet is nutritionally superior to wheat and rice. He also told us about how the people of Malawi worked manually to process pearl millet with only a 30% yield. Harpham and his crew think this can be done better. He is working on the creation of a portable millet thresher that can fit into a suitcase and fly to a faraway place to help feed people. The new thresher can increase the yield two-to-three times over; even with the issues that will arise in places like Malawi  (There is no Home Depot and will people accept change?), it is incredible to think that Harpham and others have found the “physical manifestation of a what if question.”

Harpham asked us to harness our own power to change the world. He asked us what we would do to change the world. I think we all thought hard after hearing his inspirational talk–I know I did.

Chrystie Hill grew up in the Pacific Northwest in a small, very controlled religious community. However, the day she first visited the Kitsap Regional Library, she felt the world opened up for her. The first book she discovered to have a profound impact on her life was The Thoughts of Thoreau (which she ended up stealing in the end—“I couldn’t bear to let it go!”).

In 1999, while attending library school, libraries were rethinking access based on technological advancements. In thinking of the library, she felt there was a disconnect between the community aspect and the reference desk—which she saw as a barrier between herself and the people she wanted to serve. She set out to change this by incorporating community features into the library’s role.

According to Hill, “Libraries should be about people, not about books.” When librarians pay attention to their patrons, they learn about their needs and how they can serve them better. In other words, it’s about human interaction and a desire to connect with other people in the community.

She highlighted the recently revamped Seattle Public Library, which looks spectacular—both visually and in terms of the services it offers. Hopefully, Hill’s research—featured in her new book, Inside, Outside, and Online: Building Your Library Community—will help revolutionize the way libraries interact with their patrons and provide essential services to their communities.

Arthur Epstein loves plastic. He believes in it. Epstein spoke about plastics and the new amazing science that is happening with polymers. He opened with a clip of “The Graduate,” with a young Dustin Hoffman being given advice from an older man. “One Word: Plastics.”

Epstein told us stories about his segue into the world of plastics via metals in graduate school.  He talked to us about the merging of plastics with technology, biomedical fields, physics, and chemistry. It is a new frontier for plastics as we learned about great advances in the medical field, including a new glucose sensor Epstein and his colleagues are creating.

I enjoyed hearing about how science is “being with people,” as Epstein says.

I liked hearing about his passionate work with plastics.

For those of you that joined us last night, share with the larger Columbus community…what did you share from TEDxColumbus? What idea resonated and got repeated?

So, TEDxColumbus is over. At least the first one.  We did it!  Let me emphasize the WE part….

Eight amazing speakers and performers.  A sold-out crowd of 300 at the Wexner Center.  Energy, thought-provoking topics and eager listeners made for an electric evening.

First, if you missed it, visit any of the speaker’s pages for the our live-blogging comments.  You can reach them through www.tedxcolumbus.com/speakersperformers.

I owe huge debt of gratitude to a number of people that helped to make this evening  success:

- Of course, the speakers.  WOW!  That is no small feat they achieved individually and collectively last night.  We hope that you will post comments on their respective pages and let them know your thoughts.  Their diverse perspectives, content, presentation styles and spirits lended for what I thought was the best part of the night.  An amazing array of talent all in one place, showing that knowledge is connected even if at first glance, you don’t think it is.

- Wexner Center staff – Jack Jackson got the official request in April to donate the space.   They readily agreed and he participated and stuck with our process with great support and enthusiasm.  From Sherri to every staffer that we worked with (EVERY ONE) were amazing.  John, Bruce, Scott, Mark, Joanna, Claudia, Michelle, Jennifer, Tim, Jerry, Karen and probably others we never met!

- FOR – Friends of Ruth – Including but not limited to Bryan Huber, Dave Culbertson, Susan Weil, Jennifer Kerns, Kacey Campbell, Jennifer Lange,  Alex Thompson, Brad Spencer, Dave Ungar, Paul Milligan, Andy Brush and most importantly my husband, Dave, who put up with literally 5 months of conversation, late nights and endless emails!  These folks each contributed in their own way to supporting me personally through this process.  I am humbled by their unconditional support.

- Kramer & Co. (aka Resource Interactive) – Had it not been for Nancy, we would have been just a mish-mash of talks trying to be TED-like.  Nancy brought the true spirit of TED – the nuances in the program, aspiration for great speakers, tweaks about the flow, and countless other amazing supportive ways she found to help and truly be a co-collaborator.  Her staff, Holly, Sara, Jackie, Mike and others I probably never met were amazing in their help with the program, graphics and overall planning.

- The Curatorial Volunteer Team – in addition to Jack and Nancy, we engaged Mike Curtin, Doug Kridler and Dave Ungar to help set the criteria and winnow down the nominees.  This was a difficult challenge since we were looking for ideas that have or could touch the globe from compelling speakers and those who could be in town for our event. We appreciate Mike facilitating the invitation and interview with Senator Glenn,  and Dave faciliating the speaker presentations and especially helping Chrystie prep for her fabulous talk.

- Our technical team at Live! Technologies was amazing, as always.  I show my bias here over 20 years of working with Shawn and now Rob and their highly talented and caring team of professionals.   TEDxColumbus’ videos that we’ll post online will be a result of their expertise and planning.

- We had a team of unsung heroes that helped last night – Susan Weil, Carri Jackson, Allyson Kuentz at the registration desk;  Amy Sharp and Angela Condon, pro-bloggers; Holly Davis, tweeterextraordinaire; Paul Milligan and Andy Brush, my personal tech backup for all things computer and photography related (and a great off stage announcement or two).

-And speaking of Allyson.  She supported me as the TEDxColumbus intern and sent out several thousand emails to applicants, inquiries, attendees, speakers, and more to facilitate the people moving aspects of this event.   We did everything together and she was tenacious in being with me every step of the way.  Kudos to Allyson for an amazing job!

We’ll be staying active on this site, on Twitter and Facebook to continue the dialogue and engagement in TEDxColumbus.  We welcome you to join the community toward the sharing of more innovative, inspirational and memorable ideas.

Tired but inspired,

Ruth Milligan

October 21, 2009

Today, we still had about 10 seats left to be sold so we’ve opened the tickets up to anyone to buy without having to go through the application process.  Simply call 688-3162 as soon as possible (Wexner Center opens at 9am).   We hope if you want to still come you can get a seat.  We look forward to seeing you!

We are thrilled you will be joining us on Tuesday night.  The speakers have worked terribly hard to assure they have a great presentation.   Here are a some helpful points and reminders to make your (and our) first TEDxColumbus experience a great one.

For those attending TEDxColumbus on Tuesday, October 20, here are specifics for the evening:

THE SCHEDULE: Opening reception starts at 5:30pm (see below for food/drink details).  Doors to the theater open at 6:15pm and remember, seating is open.  We will begin the program promptly at 6:45pm.  An intermission reception will take place around 8:15pm (or so), and dare we say that we’d like to have you on the road home by 10:15pm, but don’t hold us to it.

DIRECTIONS: In case you haven’t been to the Wexner Center before, here’s the official Google map.

PARKING: If you would like to have your parking reimbursed, please park in an OSU garage.   There’s one just north and another one just south of the Wexner Center off of High Street. We will give you a voucher to exit the garage.

THE BUS: If you ride COTA, we will give you a voucher for a day pass which will cover your trip home or your next trip on COTA.

TWO WHEELERS: There is ample bike parking on the plaza in front of the Wexner Center.

WILL CALL: If you don’t have your ticket yet, please plan to arrive a bit early to collect it from will call.

ATTIRE: Casual.  It will be a long night, we want you to be comfortable!

HAND-SHAKING: Optional.  The Red Cross would say forbidden.

BUFFET DINNER: It won’t be terribly fancy, but it will be delicious, healthy and filling (and it is included in your ticket price).  And plenty of options for vegetarians.   Food and drink are not allowed in the theater.

DRINKS: Soda, water and coffee are gratis; there will be a cash bar for beer and wine.

CELL PHONES: They won’t work in the theater, only in the cafe during reception times.

LAPTOPS: if you bring one, we’ll ask that you sit in a designated row as to not disrupt those who aren’t using one.  The wi-fi is free but we also aren’t exactly sure what will happen if all 300 people login at once.  There’s a first for everything, right?  And lastly, there will not be any plugs available so please charge those batteries.

TWITTER: The hashtag is #tedxcbus.  And remember, you can’t tweet from your phone while in the theater since you can’t get a cell signal (but you can in the cafe).

VIDEOS: The program will be videotaped so that we may post them online and for consideration for TED.com.   Once a speaker starts we ask that you stay seated through that presentation as we’ll be taping from three different cameras.  We will have summaries of each talk posted by Wednesday (October 21) morning.  When will videos be posted?  Well,  it just depends on how well things go on Tuesday!

FEEDBACK: After the event, we will send attendees a link to a post-event survey administered by TED.  We appreciate your honest feedback through this survey, through this web site or to our email address, tedxcolumbus@gmail.com.

If there is something that we missed, please let us know.  We look forward to seeing you Tuesday!

We are thrilled to announce the speakers for October 20.

And in short they are: John, Art, Reade, John, Ann, Norah, Chrystie and Matt.

This group is bound to inspire, intrigue, challenge and mystify you!   For their last names, topics and bios, click here.

Now go and apply as seats won’t be lasting much longer!

Huber & Co, a local interactive agency,  has agreed to offer up 4 student scholarships for current students (college or high school) to attend TEDxColumbus.  Any students who want to attend but can’t afford to do so, can apply through the normal application – and identify themselves in the narrative question (why do you want to attend TED) that you are a student desiring to be put in the lottery for the scholarship.   Please let us know what school you attend and your level.

Huber & Co will pick four random names from those who have applied and let the lucky winners know on October 16 who will be attending.

Other companies that wish to underwrite scholarship seats may also do so.  Please email tedxcolumbus@gmail.com.  We will keep this option open until we have filled the general admission seats for the evening.

Thanks Bryan and co!

TEDx Columbus attendee applications now available

For those wishing to attend the event on October 20, please click here for the application form. Applications will be ranked in order of first come first served basis; those whose applications have been accepted will be notified directly how to purchase their ticket which is required for admission.