A couple of weeks ago I went to an event called TEDx Brighton – an independently organised TED event. Never heard of TED? Well, to quote their website:
TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.
TED brings together today’s amazing thinkers, leaders and teachers to talk about their inspiring and innovative ideas – in eighteen minutes. And the best thing about it is that since 2007, TED have made these talks freely available online – no membership fee, no elitist market. They have taken people that might be well known by the people in their field, but not by those beyond it, and have put them in the spotlight, so that their ideas can be shared with everyone. TED has now expanded to include TEDGlobal, TEDActive, TEDIndia, TEDWomen, and TEDx. They’ve also expanded their subject matter, so that it covers science, business, the arts, global issues, and shorter presentations about music, performance and comedy.
Thanks to tedxbrighton on Flickr
TEDx Brighton was a great experience. There were twelve speakers, with their talks ranging from business, to life drawing (which we all had to do right there and then – draw a nakee lady), from ocean rowing, to technology – it was a mixed bag of inspiration, emotion, humour, and motivation. Videos from the event aren’t up yet, but in the meantime you can check out the TEDx Brighton website for more about the speakers, and the videos should be up soon.
A requirement of being part of TEDx is to show some videos of previous TED talks. I am so glad that this was a requirement, as it introduced me to probably my favourite TED talk yet – Jill Taylor’s ‘Stroke of insight’, which you can watch below, along with my other favourite TED talks. I know that yes, we’re all busy people and yes, eighteen minutes may seem like a long time, but I really do urge you to watch Jill Taylor’s talk – it’s awesome.
‘Jill Taylor’s stroke of insight.’ Truly amazing – there’s really nothing else to say (apart from watch it!). The TED video wasn’t working so have grabbed it from YouTube instead.
‘Johnny Lee demos Wii Remote hacks.’ Getting around having to buy really expensive equipment with a simple Wii remote. Really neat techie stuff.
‘Jake Shimabukuro plays “Bohemian Rhapsody”.’ This is so cool – I literally couldn’t stop smiling throughout the whole thing.
http://ted.com/talks/view/id/1063
‘Hans Rosling shows the best stats you’ve ever seen.’ This is his original talk – since then he’s redone it with newer software and up-to-date data, but this is still the classic (and it has really cool action replays).
I hope that these videos inspire you as much as they’ve inspired me. Check out the TED website for loads more talks about all sorts of things – you won’t be disappointed.
A.x
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