When Ted goes South! – Part I
For the first time since its creation in 1984, TED left the Northern hemisphere to establish its famous conference in one of the most vibrant cities on earth: Rio de Janeiro!
Given our interest in social initiatives and innovation coming from the south, we couldn’t miss it!
After our first storytelling workshop organized successfully in the southern hemisphere on 2nd and 3rd of October, I joined the crowd of the other 150 TEDx organizers from all over the world that were about to attend the conference.
The TEDx workshop, run by Jay Herratti and Salome Heusel, heads of TEDx in New York, was the occasion to learn from the new features prepared for the TEDx community.
After 5 years of existence and more than 10.000 events organized, it was time for some upgrade!
Good news: TEDx will soon provide to its local organizers a common event management tool including a registration page, TED attend and TED connect application to improve the experience of its attendees. And TEDx awards will soon celebrate the most innovative and best curated events!
June Cohen, the executive director of TED, then gave us a few tips to coach the speakers and explained why some videos did not make it to the TED website.
As she said, “a talk is not just a personal story, it is not only an issue which exposes a problem. It is an idea which proposes a solution, clearly articulated, focused and authentic.”
We then shared experiences with Andres, who will launch soon the TEDxHavana, the first one in Cuba and needed feedback on how to run a TEDx in complex political environments. Folks from TEDxShanghai, TEDxBlackrockcity (Burning Man) or TEDxMogadiscio offered him precious tips for his upcoming conference.
Mohamed Dalwa – Source TED Global
The next day was dedicated to the TED Fellows talks. Young people from all over the globe with powerful
projects, Scientists, Filmmakers, Artists, crazy people like:
- Mohamed Dalwa and his Open Medicine Project in South Africa who
invented a new mobile application to improve the triage of the patients and save thousands of lives in emergency wards.
- Joe Landolina who created the revolutionary Veti-gel, a plant polymer based gel that stops traumatic bleeding when applied to wounds…
Mundano – Source TED Global
- Mundano, a Brazilian Graffiti artist, who raises awareness and respect on South America recyclable material collectors.
- Or Bassam Tariq, who is both a filmmaker and… a butcher, with his movie These birds walk and his new halal meat chain in New York J
But that was only the first course… Since Chris Anderson and Bruno Giussani waited for Tuesday to pronounce the mythical words « It’s time for TED! »
At this moment, more than 1.000 people from 69 countries gathered in a huge tent, specially built for the event on the Copacabana beach itself, just in front of the famous Copacabana palace.
To make it accessible to Rio’s inhabitants, TED has been setting up for months the project TED para todos, where the livestream was freely available in different coworking spaces, libraries and public viewings.
Our friend Emmanuelle from TEDx Bordeaux shared with us her experience of this journey through Rio’s innovation centers. Check her post!
