Buckminster Fuller believed that power and potential came from opposing forces. Fuller’s geodesic dome, an enclosed space with no need for interior supports, made use of this principle. But Fuller felt that the clash of opposites could do much more than keep buildings aloft. He saw in these forces the potential to end world hunger.
And so it is with TED. The annual Technology, Entertainment, Design conference bills itself as a symposium on “Ideas Worth Spreading.” And yet attendance at TED is either by application or invitation. TED talks are now shared freely with the world on the TED website. The TED experience, on the other hand is very exclusive. Opposing ideas these – exclusivity coupled with the idea of being all-inclusive.
TEDxConejo is an independently organized event in the pattern of the “Big TED” conference. The aim is to bring the TED experience to people like you and me. Well, people like me anyway. There is an application process in order to get tickets. The conference theme is “What’s the Big Idea?” and sessions will be grouped around the themes “Thinking,” “Doing,” and “Seeing.”
The first announcement of thinkers, doers and seers include the executive editor of Wired Magazine, Thomas Goetz who looks to be all of twelve years old. On his heels is Scott Patterson, Ph.D. head of Medical Sciences at Amgen Inc. Finally there is a seer, Mark Robert Waldman author of How God Changes Your Brain.
What I’m really excited about however, is not the talks – although anything that can inspire such fervent note-taking as in the example above must be truly inspiring (I wonder if Nina is aware that her notes bear an eery resemblance to the work of Dan O’Neill?)…no. What I’m excited about is the possibility of connecting with people who are focused on work that matters. More than 50% of the seats at TEDxConejo will be set aside for students and educators. The rest will presumably be filled with local doers, thinkers and visionaries. I really hope this event will touch off some vibrant conversation space, meet-ups and hot tubs for the brain on a local level.
I’ll be there, doing what I can. As my friend Howard Rheingold says, What It Is–>Is Up to Us.
