TEDx

TEDxYouth@SanDiego — a TEDxYouthDay event — was stunning in all regards. Visually, a giant, shining blue “X” served as the centerpiece of the stage. Intellectually, the conference never failed to stimulate my mind, with so many inspiring ideas that made me want to go out and start contributing. But what affected me most were the performances.

The modern dance was outstanding. And Jake Shimabukuro’s wild ukulele skills blew me away. He concluded his performance with the concept, “Whether you know it or not, we are all musicians. We are one gigantic symphony orchestra playing together.” And so we were, every one of us strung together by strong ideas, with inspiration for future contributions to the world. And for me, there was another connection among us: the power of music that united us all.

As soon as singer and songwriter Lee Coulter stepped on stage, the simple strumming of his guitar relaxed the audience. His voice was beautiful — the honest lyrics a perfect complement to the fading chords. I listened in silence and I could feel the smiles spreading around the room. The breathtaking turn of melody gripped my heart, and with each word I began to see how perfectly the lyrics of Lee’s song “Ocean” captured the very essence of the conference. The song urged the audience to take care of planet earth and conveyed the electric energy of the youth. The young audience, a group of individuals ready to go forth and make a difference, really connected with the music. The crowd joined in and clapped to a rhythm. The enthusiasm of the audience was almost palpable — after Lee’s stunning performance, the audience erupted into wild applause.

Music is a powerfully uniting force. It shoves aside any boundaries or group judgments. For example, Danny Batimana’s riveting speech about his passion for dance and coming out as gay ended with him dancing to Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” and Diana Ross’ “I’m Coming Out,” in response to which the whole audience cheered enthusiastically. If any members of the audience held any prejudice against his story (which, hopefully, was not the case) the music and dance was able to push those sentiments away while the appreciation of art took over.

Written by Adrianna Svitak, a young speaker and official reporter at TEDxYouth@SanDiego.

It was more than a year back when browsing through TEDx videos brought me to a talk delivered at TEDxMFZU about sand painting. 

The talk left behind a deep inspiration for a TEDx design based on one of the most richest art & culture of the world: the art and culture of the Indian subcontinent. It was not long that the name TEDxAnarkali came into being.

After a lot of hard work, TEDxAnarkali was held on October 22, 2011 at the Wazir Khan Hamam, the only surviving public bath from the Mughal era. 

The event focused the old music culture of the Indian subcontinent and featured 4 speakers/performers who are still carrying the old legacy and are promoting the lost heritage. 

The decor of the venue was done by incorporating the traditional lamps known as “Diya”. The souvenirs presented to the speakers and partners were hand crafted on cloth with the traditional thread work known as “Karhai”.

Written by Rohan David Emmanuel, TEDxAnarkali Curator

Hundreds of talks from independently organized TEDx events around the world are published on the TEDxTalks website weekly.

Each Tuesday, we’ll choose four of our favorites, highlighting just a few of the enlightening talks from TEDx community, and its diverse constellation of ideas worth spreading. Browse all TEDxTalks here »

What does your favorite chair say about you? Sebastian Deterding analyzes how design decisions reflect our views of the life we’d like to live.

Imagine learning about yourself while playing a video game controlled by your mind. Ariel Garten uses new technologies and powerful visualizations to encourage people to think consciously about their state of mind.

Do monkeys have a moral code? Primatalogist Frans de Waal believes studying animal behavior is the key to understanding the origins of our morality.

Charles Hazlewood founded the world’s first para-orchestra — a performance ensemble for musicians of disabilities. Now he’s calling for every country to create one. Watch his talk and a moving performance by the British Paraorchestra.

The theme of TEDxYouth@Hewitt was “breakthrough.” So I asked myself: what is mybreakthrough?

Quite honestly, before 2011, I would have told you my breakthrough was finishing a cross country race, being allowed to take three AP courses, or moving to New York City. While yes, those are three obstacles that I’ve had to overcome, those can no longer be considered my breakthrough.

As of November 19th, my breakthrough is TEDxYouth@Hewitt — a TEDxYouthDay event. When co-curator for the event, high school junior Sofia Stafford, welcomed the audience to what I already knew would be an awe-inspiring day, she said, “By being here, you are part of a worldwide movement.” In the moment, I didn’t realize the significance of Sofia’s words. But it hit me at the first break, when I looked at the Twitter wall, which was filled with news from TEDxYouthDay events happening all around the globe!

In the morning, I was greeted by a group of students around my age on East 75th Street, signing their names with chalk on the sidewalk. I signed my name too. It felt significant, as though we were leaving something behind as tribute to the amazing day we were about to experience. 

Every single speaker and performer was able to captivate the audience in a way that I had yet to see before. During the first break, students swarmed around all the speakers and performers to express their gratitude and talk about their stories and breakthroughs. One particular highlight came from Marc Elliot, who concluded his mind-blowing speech by encouraging us to “live and let live,” to tolerate others, and to never let ourselves take action based off of our assumptions.

Before the event, I wondered how the organizers thought they were going to keep an audience full of teenagers engaged and interested for a full five hours. However, once I was there, I realized that it was the speakers’ inspiring words that kept this lively group interested. When the students weren’t introducing themselves to the speakers or to fellow audience members (or eating delicious chocolate chip cookies), students could be seen writing their thoughts on a big idea board.

I was amazed when I saw these boards and what had been written on them. When asked, “What is your breakthrough?”, some students wrote: “Realizing perfection is highly overrated,” “Helping others, which in turn helps me,” and “Quitting gymnastics.”

When the third session ended, I walked around the auditorium looking for someone who could sum up her experience of the day in 140 characters. Not surprisingly, no one was able to accomplish the task. When I asked a student from the St. Luke’s School, she was silent for two minutes, trying to draw all her thoughts from the day into a cohesive sentence. Once she did that, she quite simply told me, “I need a lot more than 140 characters to truly express how this day has inspired me.” I told her not to worry, because I felt the same way. And here I am, having typed up over 2,000 characters, knowing that I could go on for 2,000 more.

I left TEDxYouth@Hewitt feeling motivated about the future, ready to embrace my failures, more tolerant and willing to “live and let live,” wanting to change the world (because yes, it is a sexy idea), knowing that age is but a number, accepting myself exactly as I am, and excited to doodle in class on Monday. The list could go on and on and on. TEDxYouth@Hewitt stimulated my mind in a way that I had never before experienced.

Congratulations to the TEDxYouth@Hewitt Organizers!

Written by Isabella Santandreu, an official TEDxYouth@Hewitt reporter.

The TEDxSummit 2012 in Doha, Qatar next April will be an incredible program of collaboration and workshops exclusively for TEDx Organizers.  

As the week-long summit draws closer, there will be more details of the schedule and content, but in the meantime we wanted to share some of the event’s amazing activities TEDx’ers can take part in.

These activities are scheduled for April 15th and April 16th, with TEDxSummit 2012 kicking off the evening of Monday, April 16 and are subject to change: 

• Private tours of the incredible Museum of Islamic Art (www.mia.org.qa/english) and Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art (www.mathaf.org.qa) 
• Visit to Sheikh Faisal Museum, one of the most interesting collection of objects in the world 
• Experience camel racing up close 
• Visit multi-million dollar Arabian horses at the Qatar Equestrian Club 
• Visit to Al Khor to see country boats built by craftsmen 
• Private tour of the Al Zubara fort in northern Qatar by archaeologists working on the site 
• Dune bashing in the desert with trained 4x4 drivers flying off 130- foot sand dunes 
• Swim in the Inland Sea, an incredible site poised for UNESCO World Heritage Status 
• Ride speed boats, jet ski and other activities in the Arabian Sea 
• Behind the scenes tour of a natural gas plant — see where all the energy comes from 
• Stop by the Qatar MotoGP track for some high-speed fun 
• Tour the incredible Souq Waqif in Doha, an old-style Arabian market 
• Ride classic dhow fishing boats around the Doha waterfront 

Written by the TEDx team in Doha, Qatar.

Early on Saturday morning, November 19th, I drove to the TEDxYouth@Monterey event that I’d been looking forward to for months. I approached the auditorium with anticipation and excitement, and was pleasantly surprised by an amazing graffiti art mural scrawling out “TEDx.” Something about this edgy, artsy welcome, made for and by youth, made me know right away that a great day was ahead.

The finished mural with artists Esteban Sanchez and Nurihan Park.

And it absolutely was an incredible TEDxYouthDay event. We heard from veteran inspirational speakers, young people with fresh new ideas, adults with sincere advice, and most importantly, we heard ideas worth spreading. 

I had gotten involved as a volunteer for TEDxYouth@Monterey a few months prior to the event. I was present for a brainstorming meeting during which the event’s organizers put quite some time into the question of how we were going to adopt the global theme for TEDxYouthDay: “Play, Learn, Build & Share.” The theme encompassed everything, but also seemed so open — almost vague. But on TEDxYouthDay, “Play, Learn, Build & Share”came to life.

PLAY

The day was full of play. Some of the more memorable moments from the day occurred when the audience erupted in simultaneous laughter. Our speakers’ funny stories, pictures, and ideas produced energy that fueled us throughout the day. The amazing thing about these playful instances, however, is that they were often followed by very powerful messages. The speakers got us laughing, and then led us into silence as we savored a heartfelt idea.

This pattern happened countless times at TEDxYouth@Monterey, but I’d like to share one particular message from our first speaker, Johan Khalilian. After many good laughs, Johan reminded us that advice will come from everywhere, but you need to carefully sieve out the good from the bad. Pick the advice that will help you create the possibility, not just your reality. Whether or not our brilliant TEDxYouth@Monterey Organizers planned for this piece of inspirational advice to kick off our day, it was an amazingly timed lesson for us to hear.

LEARN

Clearly, we learned a lot that day — each of the 17 speakers had valuable knowledge to share with us. Some highlights:

Ray Ricafort shared the story of a transformative road trip, about getting great advice from amazing people, and inspired us to know the power of our own stories.

- Student speaker Richie Senegor experimented with science on stage, reminding us how exciting learning is in itself.

Richie Senegor teaching us about “The Science of Science.”

BUILD

In addition to building an amazing mural, TEDxYouth@Monterey also built a community of passionate people — a foundation for the coming TEDxYouth@Monterey teams to build on. I was amazed by the level of post-event energy. Facebook activity, blog posts, tweets, and face-to-face conversations made it clear that next year’s event will be even better than the last.

I walked away from the event still thinking about our first speaker’s message: that we need to sift out the good advice from the bad, and then we must evaluate our reality and envision a better one. And I thought of all the young people who spoke on stage that day, and how they all had such great ideas.

But I also thought about the fact that each of them, in their talks, expressed that they had been pushed down, written off, or bullied at some point in their young lives. Kendall Ronzano, founder of Nerd Girl Homes was laughed at by a contractor and warned that she might lose a finger in her building process. Shandra Benito, founder of Reach Out, an organization that provides mentorship to youth through the creation of summer camps in local non-profits, was made fun of as a child in school because she was hard of hearing.

But the key thing to remember is that our TEDxYouth@Monterey speakers were on stage that day thanks to their own ability to throw out the discouragement they received. Instead, they listened to the people who supported them with care — the people who empowered them to follow their passions and guided them well.

Kendall Ronzano, founder of Nerd Girl Homes, perched atop a house she is building. No fingers lost.

SHARE

To me, this is what the TEDxYouth platform is all about. How do we young people find individuals who are going to encourage us — people who will tell us that they believe we can write a book, build a home, or start a nonprofit? Well, try attending a TEDxYouth event, where ideas are shared among speakers, organizers, and attendees. Participating in TEDxYouth@Monterey was truly inspiring and empowering.

Written by Kimberly Ang, an official TEDxYouth@Monterey reporter.

Hundreds of talks from independently organized TEDx events around the world are published on the TEDxTalks website weekly.

Each Tuesday, we’ll choose four of our favorites, highlighting just a few of the enlightening talks from TEDx community, and its diverse constellation of ideas worth spreading. Browse all TEDxTalks here »

Is there an alternate financial model for pharmaceuticals? Thomas Pogge proposes the Health Impact Fund, a plan that will incentivize companies to provide high-impact, low-cost medicine.

Does a doctor need a literature degree? Dr. Rita Charon shows how the ability to tell a great story and strong listening skills can revolutionize how doctors interact with patients.

One flash of light with the potential to save lives: Dr. Reis Robinson shows how light technology could change how we screen for diabetes, and prevent drunk driving.

Cooking is healthy, rewarding, and better for the environment than pre-packaged meals, so why doesn’t everyone do it? Ken Albala discusses the decline of the home cooked meal and why we should bring it back.

Education is a very important aspect of our life, engaging most of us throughout our childhood and beyond. What we learn in school plays a big role in how our personalities, minds, and ways of thought develop when we are young. In many parts of the world, I believe that education must be reformed in a way that teaches creativity and builds creative minds, because education and creativity complement and depend on one another. That’s how the theme “Educativity” at TEDxYouth@Amman — a TEDxYouthDay event — was thought up.

When I first heard about TEDxYouth@Amman, I was very excited. I wanted to attend the event so that I could share creative ideas with creative minds, and I also wanted to play a role in organizing the event. So I volunteered to help out at the event, which had a big and positive impact on me.

The event had around 27 speakers and performers. There were inventors, entrepreneurs, musicians, dancers and more. All of the presenters had their own stories to share about how they reached their dreams, how creativity helped them, and why it is important to teach creativity through education. The event was a full day experience, and as volunteers we had a lot of interesting and great work to do. I had a great experience guiding and helping attendees and guests, sharing information about the event, and live reporting throughout the event on Twitter and Facebook.

Written by Abdallah Alashqar, an official TEDxYouth@Amman reporter.