TED comes to UBC October 23rd
If you haven’t heard about TED by now, you may just have prime real estate under one of these. TED, which stands for “Technology, Entertainment, Design,” is a non-profit society that hosts seminarsin cities all over the world presented by some of society’s preeminent thinkers (Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Bill Clinton, Bono, et. al) about big issues; the environment, the media, geopolitics, cities, oceans, music and happiness are some of the high-level ideas that TED talks delve into.
For the first time ever, Vancouver is going to be on the TED circuit, with TEDxUBC, one of over 750 TEDx conferences that will be held worldwide in 2010. Unlike the flagship TED events, TEDx are localized presentations organized at the grassroots level and aim to provide the TED experience to more listeners. TEDxUBC is presented by Secondary School Business Education at UBC, particularly four graduates: Faye Chen, Judy Eng, David McMichael and Bret Conkin plus their faculty advisor, Randy Sangha. The teme for TEDxUBC is “FastForwardEd;” what will the future of technology education in B.C. look like?
Over 100 speakers will be at TEDxUBC, giving their thoughts on the future of business and technology education in British Columbia’s secondary and post-secondary institutions. Live speakers and TED videos will be presented to offer a wide range of insights about this important issue.
“How do you educate students for jobs that don’t yet exist? What skills will you need to be successful in the 21st century? TEDxUBC was created to help answer these questions,” said organizer Bret Conkin in a press release.
“It’s a grassroots forum on key education issues that will shape secondary and post-secondary education in the 21st century,” he continued. “We’re bringing together 100 key leaders and innovators in business and education, who together can help spread ideas about the skills needed in the work force vs. those currently being taught, all in the unique spirit of TED.”
Alongside presentations and videos from experts, the winners of a student multimedia competition called “Evolution of Learning” will show their work. Secondary school students were asked to give their digital story on where learning has come from, where it’s going, or what the future of learning should look like. Selected submissions will be shared at TEDxUBC.
TEDxUBC will be held at UBC Robson Square on October 23rd. If you are interested in attending, check out their website here.
Oh, and did I mention that just about every TED talk is given out for free on the Internet? If you want to hear some good ideas from some interesting people, check out some TED videos here.
