TED 2010: Ideas Worth Living. Personalizing a Global Movement. - By Jack Myers

But TED is no longer just an experience either It has transcended the event and become a global movement TED is more than 100 speakers over a five day period and an audience of 1400 gathered in Long Beach It39s also a satellite event in Palm Springs and thousands of online simulcast viewers around the world It39s the several million video downloads just during the conference itself and more than the 200 million video views of TED Talks httpwwwtedcomtalks in the past two years And it39s more than 40 independently organized TEDx events that have sprung up organically around the world in the past few months with hundreds more planned But mostly TED has evolved into a platform for recognizing achievement sharing visions for the future and engaging with a global community of uncommon interests needs and hopeMy promise to subscribers is that they have exclusive access to my commentaries research and economic analyses In the spirit of TED which makes all of its content available online free and underwritten by TED members I hope my underwriters will approve my making this commentary on TED available to all and also available online at wwwjackmyersthinktankcom Almost every conference you and I attend concentrates on common interests amp8211 whether they be common business focus common passions or common causes TED is all of these plus a cognitive overload of the unexpected and the uncommon From a high point of Sir Ken Robinson39s call for a shift from an industrial model of education to an agricultural one creating an environment and circumstances that allow people to flourish to a low albeit funny point of Sarah Silverman39s plan to adopt quotretardedquot children who are terminally ill to avoid for the need to arrange for their care when she dies TED is a gestalt that cannot be evaluated based on its individual piecesRobinson pointed out that human talent is incredibly diverse and so are the speakers and attendees at TED Epidemiologist and AIDS expert Elizabeth Pisani brings insight and relevance to how real world behavior is impacting AIDS prevention as she tosses condoms into the audience Games designer Jane McGonigal points out we spend 3 million hours a week playing online games and that 693 million years have been spent playing World of Warcraft alone Biochemist Mark Roth explains how suspended animation has become a medical reality and has advanced to human testing Bill Gates tells us that his single most important wish for the future is his vision for an enhanced nuclear solution to the world39s energy crisis David Rockwell shares how his father39s untimely death in an airplane crash and his mother39s suicide were formative in his architectural vision and brilliance Songwriter Natalie Merchant brings forgotten nineteenth century poetry to life with songs from her first album in six years Mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot completely befuddles me with his explanation of fractals and forms of roughness yet receives a standing ovation from audience members who apparently understand him Legal activist Philip Howard challenges the US legal system and offers practical solutions that make us wonder why the system is not acting on them 12year old Adora Stivak challenges teachers to learn from their students Joie de Vivre Hospitality CEO Chip Conley reimagines Maslow39s hierarchy of needs into a new hierarchy of survival success and transformation Sarah Silverman shocks many but is beloved by many more for staying true to her own brand of comedy Google39s Sergei Brin speaks about Google39s challenges in China and also delivers a new Nexus One phone to every TEDsterThe TED experience and my memories from TED 2010 are a composite of the main stage speakers who each have either 18 or three minutes the TEDU speakers who have sixtonine minutes each the many entertainers Natalie Merchant Sheryl Crow David Byrne Andrew Bird ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuru ETHEL Thomas Dolby Legion of Extraordinary Dancers the offstage activities and the attendees From 730 AM to 1 AM there is not a moment that cannot be occupied with official and unofficial TED experiences More than any past TED the advertising and media community was well represented this year with several marketer and media agency executives joining for a single introductory oneday experience as TED reaches out to attract new partnerships and marketing relationships Contact Ronda Carnegie at rondatedcomWhat none of these executives could expect amp8211 or comprehend without actually being there amp8211 is that TED is far more than the sum of its parts It is simply not sufficient to view TED Talks read blogs and stories about TED review TED speaker and attendee lists or to understand the impact of TED Prizes this year presented to chef Jamie Oliver httpwwwtedcomtalksjamieoliverhtml I may incorporate the cancer research learnings of William Li into my own research on the media and advertising business and I may comprehend his work on the relevance of inhibitors and stimulators to my own work But I39m unable to explain it coherently I may apply Chip Conley39s observations on self actualization social belonging and physiological safety to my consulting work with companies that are seeking to better monetize their relationships and the emotional connections of audiences but I can39t fully describe how or why it appliesMy memories of TED will ultimately emerge into a composite of its 2010 theme quotwhat the world needs nowquot But the experience cannot be fairly represented in any description Each year I leave TED spiritually uplifted emotionally and physically exhausted intellectually challenged and with many new friends A few years ago at TED Tony Robbins taught me that I should focus not on achieving success but on how I would use and apply my success once I achieved it It changed my professional and life focus Last year after flying home on a redeye in the middle of TED for my grandson39s bris and then immediately returning TED became for me a symbol of hope and promise for future generations This year I came to understand that my lifetime work which has always seemed fractionated and disconnected has been singularly and consistently focused on the economics of relationships At first I credited this to Chip Conley39s 18minute talk but after reviewing my notes and my memories I now recognize the epiphany was a culmination of multiple talks experiences and conversations That Conley was scheduled on the finalday was simply good fortune Or was it Chris Anderson39s planned curation I expect many others who lived the full five days of TED also experienced life impacting visionI expect all those who consider TED to be a part of their life whether they have attended all 26 conferences or just this one came way with a new understanding of both themselves and the world in which they live Like anything and everything in which we immerse ourselves we have our experiences and our memories With TED we not only learn others39 quotideas worth sharingquot amp8211 we also discover our own ideas worth living

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