This guy I met over the week, Alex, at the end of it he said “I’m ready. I’m ready to jump in, and do it!” I said “do what? The TEDx event you’ve been planning?” He said “No. Everything. I’m just gonna do it. Just do it!”
This my friends, is the poison of TED. He became an incurable optimist. I don’t know if he’ll stay that way, but that’s certainly a great feeling to have. And I was having it too.
First let me clarify. The TED event that I attended is called TEDActive, a gathering of TED Activists in Palm Springs, watching a simulcast of TED2010 in Long Beach. So, there were no live speakers (except for TEDYou speakers, but we’ll get to that later).
All there is, was a room filled with 500 people that consist of TEDx organizers, TED translators, and (lets be honest) people who couldn’t get tickets to the Long Beach one. But as I experienced it day by day, I hear stories about how some people (quite a lot actually), had the chance to go to Long Beach, but chose Palm Springs instead. “There’s an energy to it!” they would argue. I really wouldn’t know.
Tuesday was Pre-Conference activities. There were bike rides & city tours. I chose the TEDx workshop (as that’s really why I’m here for) and TEDYou.
At the TEDx workshop, TEDx organizers share their know-how to others. And they were invaluable! Some talked about how you build a team. Others talk about pricing, web streaming, etc. I talked about how the small things can create big impacts. I also recorded some surprises for my friends x). The common theme was that these people are passionate about spreading ideas!
The second event was TEDYou. TEDYou is TED’s way of facilitating the audience to create a TED moment for themselves (really cool right?). So, some people came up and had a 3-minute TED Talk. And if it were good, they might be uploaded as a TED Talk. You may have seen this video. In this remarkable session, I saw a lot of established names and unique story! There was the guy that ran OLPC (One Laptop Per Child); The former CEO of “Just for Laughs” (you know, the program you watch on airplanes when there’s nothing good); or a guy that burned his house down when he was 8 years old. And then there was a girl. She has short figure, short hair, seems young & innocent. That girl had wake brain surgery 3 months ago. She was diagnosed a couple of years ago with malignant brain cancer. The doctor gave her 3 years. He said “Enjoy the hell out of it!” And she did. She’s passionate about helping people so she is studying to become a nurse.
The last sentence that she delivered remains the most powerful sentence I have heard throughout the event, possibly ever.
“On Christmas eve 2011, I will be dead. What will you be doing?”
And that ended the TEDYou session. On the very last day of the event, that video was shown not only to the TEDYou attendees, but also the the audiences of Palm Springs, and Long Beach.
To end the day, Rives (one of the the host of TEDActive, also a TED speaker) said: “and TED hasn’t even started yet!” This surprised me a bit as I have gained so much that day, it didn’t even feel like 1 day.
