TEDx Change and TEDx Auckland
On the 21st of September some of the yMedia crew joined TEDx participants at the Auckland business school at 2am to be part of TEDx Change. The pajama-wearing, bleary-eyed, kiwi’s were crossed to live from the main event in New York.
TEDx Change focused on checking in against the Millennium Development goals set in 2000, and was co-hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and TED in New York.
The following Sunday, after an eventful morning catching up with the beginning of Daylight Savings time, more of the yMedia crew went along to TEDx Auckland at Westlake Boys High School in Takapuna.
All of the speakers at TEDx shared plenty of inspiration; though for us, some standout speakers included:
Richard Loseby, who helped us to realise that in order to truly understand another person or culture, you have to leave yourself behind to some degree and really live like them to get the full story.
Ken Ring’s portrayal of his profession in weather prediction opened our eyes to how wildly different predictions of all kinds can be from day to day. His entertaining presentation showed us how to think a little more critically about the “facts” we are given, and to appreciate that a prediction is never wrong - it’s simply a prediction.
Julie Bartlett, founder of StarJam shared how her brother’s speech at her wedding inspired her to create opportunities for disabled children to participate in performance art as “jammers”. StarJam were one of the first community groups to participate in the yMedia challenge back in 2007, so we were really happy to hear Julie’s story and to see performances by some of the jammers - one girl’s solo song launched the audience into an emotional standing ovation.
Team OneBeep - a name familiar to us all since they won the Microsoft Imagine Cup New Zealand final earlier on in the year, the boys have since gone off to the international finals in Poland. Team One Beep won third place in the software design category at the Imagine Cup for their revolutionary technology innovation to transfer data via radio waves - particularly powerful when partnered with the One Laptop Per Child initiative to help deliver educational material to the world’s poorest children.
Of course, going along to TEDx isn’t only about the speakers on the day, it’s an opportunity to meet other change-makers and big-thinkers from industries different to our own, and we really enjoyed the chance to rub shoulders with such inspirational people.
TEDx Auckland is likely to be running again in 2011, you can find out more about TEDx Auckland on their website, or follow them on Twitter for the latest updates.
