TEDx

Youssef Chaker on the challenges and rewards of TEDxBeirut

TEDxBeirut, unlike other events, wasn’t about the speakers and the big names featured on the program. The theme for TEDxBeirut 2011 was “From Limitation to Inspiration.” What people outside of the TEDxBeirut organizing team didn’t realize is that the theme wasn’t as much a theme for the talks, as it was a theme for the journey the team went through.

TEDx events are special no matter where they are held in the world but in a country like Lebanon, organizing such an event comes with its own set of difficulties. Unless you are a well-known group or company backed by some good contacts, getting past the paperwork alone is an overreaching goal. When Patsy thought out loud about organizing a TEDx event in Beirut, she was merely expressing a wish — maybe some event company would make it happen. Little did she know that she was going to be the one spearheading the effort to see her dream go from idea to reality. And this is why I say it was an event of a different caliber. It wasn’t the major players and usual suspects who were behind the event, but it was, according to many attendee testimonials, one of the best organized and professional events that people in Beirut have ever experienced.

Now why am I talking about an event that’s several months old? I promise you it will all come together at the end of this post. Bear with me as I take you through parts of the journey that will explain to you why if we ever talk about Lebanon I might say something along the lines of, “I live in a different Lebanon than you do!”

What I experienced during the days leading up to TEDxBeirut was only a fraction of what some people went through before I had joined. But I got the opportunity on many occasions to sit back and take a distant view of the behavior of the team members. It’s important to mention the HUGE differences on all levels between the people involved. The interests, skills, personalities, backgrounds, education — all of it was different. A typical Lebanese blend, “makhlouta” (mixed nuts) as we say in Arabic.

But the situation was atypical. There was a common goal. No really, there was. The entire team was working on a single goal, with no personal interest at all. We were all volunteers. None of us was gaining anything from participating in this effort on a personal level. I saw people work their asses off to put together a one-day event in Lebanon. We were doing something that we cared about, that we wanted to see happen, and if others wanted to be part of it, that would be great.

When Patsy started organizing the event, she meant it to be for about 100 or so people, then bumped it up to 300, and bumped it up again to 800 to eventually get an 800 seated audience and about 200 other people sitting on the stairs in the theater or watching the stream in a different room (not to mention those who tuned in for the live stream on the web)!! Exposure, recognition, TV spots or seats in the parliament were never the objective.

I urge you to take a moment and let that last paragraph sink in. It might not impress you at first, you might think it’s weak, your reaction might be #meh. But take a moment to put it in perspective. We are talking about a “do it yourself” mentality coupled with a “do it FOR yourself” attitude. So much goes into planning an event of this caliber. It takes certain personality traits but also education and culture to foster such a mentality.

With TEDxBeirut, the group of individuals who participated broke the mold. They showed that ideas belong to everyone and the execution is as possible for the common person as it is for the likes of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

What Inspires You?

Written by Youssef Chaker of the TEDxBeirut team

Behind the scenes with TEDxConcordiaUPortland 2012 guest curator Jefferson Smith

Expect a fresh perspective from a familiar face at TEDxConcordiaUPortland 2012. Switching from his role as a 2011 speaker to that of 2012 Guest Curator, Jefferson Smith is excited to be a part of TEDxConcordiaUPortland once again, and this time in an even more integral way. One session at this year’s event will be entirely organized and led by Jefferson with a group of speakers that he’s carefully assembled. (See Jefferson’s TEDxConcordiaUPortland from talk last year.)

All of the speakers Jefferson has chosen have inspired, challenged and entertained him, and he’s selected them with four guiding principles in mind:

They have to be soft-hearted and hard-minded; these are people who care deeply and approach their work with intelligence and creative solutions
They have to be diverse in terms of thought, mood and topic (in his words, he’s not trying to get every base covered but trying to create a meal with a variety of flavors)
They have to be inspirational and teach us something about becoming extraordinary ourselves
They should have a sense of humor. Why? Because he likes funny!

Being able to assemble great teams that have been responsible for change is something for which Jefferson is very well-known. His collaborative spirit is at the heart of the innovative Bus Project he founded, and it’s apparent in all of the lasting changes he’s made representing East Portland in the Oregon House. In his current campaign for mayor of Portland, he hopes to further promote connection and collaboration at the local level in order to help Portland be the city it aspires to be.

You might be surprised by some of the things he does without help from a team (Cartwheels for change! Action shot), though for Jefferson it’s all in the name of public interest and democracy. As you can see below, he can be one silly puppy!

Jefferson is also excited about TEDxConcordiaUPortland’s 2012 theme, “Becoming Extraordinary,” particularly because it paints a picture of the event.

“What I like about the theme is that it allows plenty of flexibility for all of the speakers to share unique stories of becoming extraordinary that resonate with their own skills and experiences” he says.

He makes a great point. It wouldn’t be right to have the speakers who have been invited — these pioneers, innovators, thinkers, artists and risk takers — conform to something that didn’t allow their extraordinary individuality to shine through.

Naturally, the theme’s flexibility also resonates with Portland itself.

“This city has cultural strands where sameness isn’t required; in fact, it’s a city where different-ness (see Portlandia) can be culturally rewarded and celebrated,” says Jefferson.

In discussing the theme, he was also reminded of a quote from writer and photographer Jacob Riis, who wrote, “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock perhaps 100 times without as much as a crack showing in it. But on the 101st blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”

So often a person’s extraordinary results are like the stone cutter’s, so that what we see only hints at all of the passion, dedication and continuous action that was involved. At this year’s event, with Jefferson’s help, our speakers will uncover their stories about the processes and dreams that lie beneath their extraordinariness.

All in all, it means a lot to the TEDxConcordiaUPortland planning team that Jefferson is so willing to share his organizational expertise with us. His philosophy of people-driven politics and involvement is one that doesn’t just stop at the stage. Many of us remember how moving his speech at TEDxConcordiaUPortland 2011 was, but we also remember how he struck up numerous conversations with attendees during the conversation breaks and stayed until the end of the day, taking part as much as possible and even helping to stack chairs and clean up after the event was finished.

Jefferson’s guest curating will not only make for an excellent session at this year’s event, but it’s an endorsement that demonstrates the growth of our TEDxConcordiaUPortland community. So many of the relationships and connections that were forged at last year’s event have continued on, growing and blossoming into new, exciting, and unexpected creations. Watch the results of our collaboration with Jefferson at TEDxConcordiaUPortland on March 31st, and expect to forge some new connections of your own.

Written by Sean Wheaton.

Sean Wheaton is a teacher and writer who lives in Portland, OR. He’s a lover of ideas both big and small, and he is thrilled to be a part of this year’s TEDxConcordiaUPortland planning team. He’s one of several storytellers who helps to share write-ups, interviews, and perspectives on the many extraordinary people from his surrounding community.