Jane Goodall is my hero. I love her compassion and dedication in working with chimpanzees in Tanzania. In this TED Talk, she describes how her team’s community projects for humans are helping the struggling people surrounding the chimpanzee’s habitat with clean water, farming techniques, and unexpectedly, a growing interest in conservation. Her commitment to both people and animals is creating an environment of peaceful coexistence for both.
Kate Storm
COSI
Director of Strategic Initiatives & Artist
Deciding on which TED speech is my favorite and why is tough because anybody invited to speak at a TED conference is already a great speaker and authority in their specific field. The thing that separates a TED conference is to learn about something you wouldn’t otherwise be taking the time to learn about. It is this gift of human imagination that TED celebrates and why I chose the speech that I did. Sir Ken Robinson’s 2006 speech on how schools kill creativity, and the most downloaded TED video on YouTube, is at the core of everything I believe in as the son of a retired high school social studies teacher. It is subject matter that affects every single human being living on this planet today and in the very near future, yet most of us take for granted. “Everybody has an interest in education, and it goes deep with people like we do religion, and money. Creativity is important to everything we do. Education is meant to take us into this future that we can’t grasp.”
Christian Adams
Principal & Chief Creative Officer
Sigma Creative
Why do people vote against their own self-interests? Maybe we aren’t taking enough time to understand that other people’s interests are not always what WE think is best for them. Right and left have gotten farther and farther apart and dialog has gotten more and more disingenuous. Jonathan Haidt’s talk probably won’t cause any of us to change sides, but it may allow us to take a step back and begin asking better questions to engage in real debate.
Dave Ungar
OCLC
Portfolio Operations Manager
I saw this talk in person, and it was one of those situations where I thought, is this for REAL? I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears!!! My brain could barely comprehend the presentation!! It was MIRACULOUS! Check out Anthony Atala printing a human kidney!
Guest blogger: Nancy Kramer
Founder and Chief Culture Officer
Resource Interactive
A unique public art project is emerging in Columbus…
Columbus: Inside Out. Inspired by worldwide public artist and photographer JR, Columbus is adapting its own version of this provocative initiative showcasing distinctive portraits of local citizens.
If you’d like to be featured in Columbus: Inside Out, join us on for a 10 minute photo session September 17 anytime from 10am – 12pm at COSI. Seven local photographers organized by George C. Anderson will be taking portraits of up to 150 Columbus residents to be included in the project. The city-wide installation of the project is being coordinated by Wonderland and will be unveiled in early November.
For more information, email tedxcolumbus@gmail.com. No pre-registration is necessary to participate in the photo session; a release will need be signed at the time of photography. All ages are welcome.
For more information:
I use TED talks as teaching tools for my classes at Ohio State, as “intellectual background noise” when I am working in my office, and as food for my brain on a regular basis so choosing my favorite was tough.
Truth be told, the favorite I chose today would probably be different on another day, in another mood, with other things going on in my life, but that’s the beauty of TED. On this day, in this mood, and with what is going on in my life now, I chose Emily Pilloton’s talk Teaching Design for Change.
I totally love her story about how education is being used as “a vehicle for community change” in the small rural towns of Bertie County, North Carolina. I love the systems thinking throughout this whole talk and I so agree with what she calls “the power of a small story.” I love how this talk gets my students, most of whom are planning to be teachers, excited about the possibilities of that profession. But mostly I love this talk because it gives me hope for a different kind of education system in this country, one that puts learning and children at the forefront instead of teaching and testing.
Guest blogger: Kimberlee L. Kiehl, Ph.D.
COSI
Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy & Operations Officer
Tis the season to coordinate the curation of the third TEDxColumbus event. We’ve been overhwelmed with speaker nominations, much to our delight.
We thought we’d share the main factors in how we sort, debate and choose the speakers as we head into the final inning of this process.
1. Chosen speakers generally fall into one of 3 categories:
A. Primary researcher or original artist/author
B. Primary observer of other people’s data from a unique lens
C. Primary experiencer (our word) of a once in a lifetime event
2. Topics and ideas they speak on can be widely varying against our theme, but we aim for:
A. Big and mind-bending
B. Provocative and emotional
C. Story/anecdote rich
3. Nominations not considered are:
A. Anything remotely self promotional
B. Policy talks – they are usually important but dry and often politically charged.
C. Riffs – ie one sided, research-lacking, opinionated rants.
D. Leadership and motivational talks
E. Speakers who do not have an intrinsic tie to Columbus
Once we have vetted through if a speaker and topic are a potential fit, we look at the entire list altogether. This allows us to achieve balance in narrative style, native / foreign speakers, topic, gender and ethnic diversity. This is the tough part of the process as we always end up leaving a good speaker or idea behind. But the audience (you), would not appreciate only talks on education, or only talks by people who have overcome a life-threatening, heart-tugging obstacle. The beauty of a live TEDx event is the connectivity one finds between diverse topics.
We don’t have an exact statistic on how long speakers take to prepare, but our rule of thumb is at least one hour per minute of presentation, particularly if it is a new talk (even on an old idea). The first year we had one speaker leave town from his family for 3 days to work on his 12 minute talk. Let’s say it’s a notable commitment.
But the payoff if significant. Speakers know the audience is seeking new ideas and has a wide-open mind, the shared experience with the other speakers is quite amazing, and last but not least, the value of having a TEDx video online is a fairly huge perk.
We welcome your questions and suggestions as we continue to refine and improve our process. But we ask that you only give feedback if you have attended a live TEDx event. Watching individual talks online is not an adequate judge of the wholistic experience we work to achieve for our audience every fall.
Speaker nominations are now closed! We have received a wonderful list of potential presenters for this year’s event. We would like to thank everyone who took the time to nominate someone.
Now, it is the difficult job of our selection committee to gather and comb through the list and narrow down the prospects into an unparalleled mix of speakers that will create a unique “Moment in Time” on 11.11.11.
Keep checking back for more information on “A Moment in Time” and other TEDxColumbus events.
We have decided to extend our speaker nominations through Friday, August 12! This allows all of you one more week to get your nominations in. We want to make sure we have a strong pool of talented speakers and performers from a variety of fields to choose from, so please keep the nominations coming!
We are working closely with our host, COSI, to create a memorable day of mind-bending talks and experiences that will be a moment in time you will never forget!
Keep checking back for the latest information about “A Moment in Time” on 11.11.11.
We are still accepting speaker nominations for our “A Moment in Time” event on 11.11.11. Nominations are open through the end of next week (August 5). If you know anyone with an idea worth spreading, please let us know.
To view past speakers, click here.
We’ve got a riveting mix coming together with lots of surprises to create “A Moment in Time” you will never forget!