Overview: TEDx Workshop at TEDGlobal 2011

On Sunday, July 10th, almost 100 TEDx Organizers gathered at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh for the TEDx Workshop at TEDGlobal 2011. TED Translators at TEDGlobal also joined the workshop.

Virtually, around 130 other TEDx’ers were “in attendance”, watching the Livestream of the workshop, and commenting and asking questions via a live chat.

TEDx Licensing Director Lara Stein kicked off the workshop, welcoming both those in the theater — who hailed from 43 countries, and speak 35 languages — and those viewing online.

Stein introduced TED Curator Chris Anderson, who took to the stage for a short talk on TED, and the TEDx phenomenon. He applauded Organizers for their amazing work, and noted how TEDx has become a “global laboratory of ideas” for both TED, and the world at large.

Kelly and Rives — hosts of TEDActive - hosted the workshop, proclaiming their credo of transparency: if anything goes wrong, they’ll let the audience know.

Luckily, the day went smoothly, starting with Kelly and Rives introducing a few TEDx Organizers, who presented for three minutes each on what they’d learned from their TEDx event:

Julianne Wurm — Organizer of TEDxEast — spoke on the beauty of a small event, and of her recent trip to TEDxMedellin in Colombia.

TEDxWaterloo Organizer Ramy Nasser spoke on the explosive growth of the event, and how he and his team dealt with that growth.

John Werner of TEDxBoston spoke on his TEDxBoston “Adventures” — pre and post event activities that have helped to nurture the TEDxBoston community.

Pat Mitchell — host of TEDWomen — took to the stage to announce TEDxWomen, a TEDx event happening on December 1st at the Paley Centers in NY and LA, to continue the conversation that began at TEDWomen. Mitchell invited Organizers to host a TEDx event in collaboration with TEDxWomen, and to incorporate the event’s livestream into their local programming.

Ahmad Coucha — TEDxCairo Organizer — spoke about how to manage volunteers who want to get involved in a TEDx event.

Houssem Aoudi of TEDxCarthage spoke about hosting a TEDx event amidst political unrest in his country of Tunisia, and of their inspiring theme — “Imagining our Future” — which allowed Tunisians to envision the future of their country that was of their own creation.

Anwar Dafa-Alla of TEDxKhartoum, a TEDx event in Sudan, spoke on the unique issues with organizing a TEDx event in a country where TED and TEDx aren’t very well known.

From TEDxAveiro, Andre Costa spoke on the team’s inspiring Inside Out project — inspired by TED Prize winner JR’s 2011 wish — to paste Aveiro with images of the cities oldest residents.

Vlad Fiscutean of TEDxTimisoara presented on the unique qualities — passion at the very top — that TEDx Organizers posses.

Corrie Frasier and Lacey Price of TEDxChange announced their next TEDxChange event — to take place in China in March 2012 —and called out to their fellow Organizers to get involved.

Veteran TEDx Organizer Nate Mook — who also hosted TEDxOilSpill and TEDxMidAtlantic — spoke on his adventure of organizing TEDxEverest, a TEDx event at the top of Mount Everest, which didn’t go quite how he had planned.

After a short break, virtual and Edinburgh attendees returned for presentations from TED staff:

June Cohen — Executive Producer of TED Media — spoke on preparing speakers and TED.com Editor Emily McManus spoke on the editorial process of TEDx Talks that go on TED.com.

TED’s Director of Film + Video Jason Wishnow presented on filming best practices for TEDTalks, and Film + Video Editor Kari Mullholland delighted the audience with a presentation on bringing KAZAM! to video editing. KAZAM! quickly became a meme on the TEDx Workshop Livestream chat: a TEDx’er in Brazil even requested that she speak at her upcoming event.

Ronda Carnegie — TED’s Head of Global Partnerships — spoke on the uniqueness of sponsoring TED, and a TEDx event, and presented a few innovative examples of how TEDx’ers have incorporated sponsors into their events.

Lastly Amanda Palmer — Executive Director of the Doha Film Institute (DFI), and Organizer of TEDxDoha — took to the stage for a huge announcement: TEDxWWW, a worldwide TEDx workshop hosted by DFI to occur in Doha, Qatar in April 2012. Immediately following will be TEDxDoha, curated by TED, DFI and the TEDx global community.

On the ground in Edinburgh, attendees took a lunch break and the Livestream of the Workshop went dark, although TEDx’ers continued their chat and own brainstorming session on the stream well after.

After lunch, TEDx’ers in Edinburgh reconvened at the Sheraton for three 30 minute unconference sessions where individuals could choose their own topics to lead a brainstorm on, and discuss.

Topics included: How to attract brilliant speakers; TEDx Exchanges (where TEDx’ers would stay at each others’ homes, and attend each others’ events); Beyond the Simulcast: How to engage the broader community; How do you grow?; TEDx Adventures; Harness Volunteers for your Event; and TED on TV.