TEDxYYC was so good it made my face hurt
It was Friday. I was surrounded by 100+ like minded Calgarians bursting with ideas, talent and a motivation to make something happen. I was at TEDxYYC and couldn’t have been a happier tech/marketing/wannabe-change-making nerd in the middle of cowtown. I’m pretty sure from 11:30am onward, I had a smile on my face. And by the end of the day, it hurt. Not a bad price to pay for complete and utter inspiration.
On top of the ridiculously impressive attendee list, piping hot Phil & Sebastians coffee, yummy Community Natural goodies, thirst-quenching bottles of Steam Whistle, tasty appetizers from Hotel Arts, super cool vibe at THE GRAND, and all round good time, TEDxYYC carried with it a few themes definitely worth sharing:
Stop being wasteful and excessive
Brilliantly highlighted by a couple of TED talkers, it is apparent waste and excess is increasingly becoming a problem in our developed part of the world. Too often we (Canadians/North Americans) get caught up in moving faster, stronger, better, but forget to realize that there’s a side effect to all of this development. One, is the increased amounts of waste in the form of garbage with little attention paid to the kind of recycling we should be practicing, as highlighted by the amazing Jamie Furniss. And, two, our ability to see with blind eyes our constant need to take full advantage of that which was given to us in excess, such a land, water, and casinos, as highlighted by the also amazing Gary Burns. (At this point, you’ll just have to go watch their talks to get what I’m talking about)
End the status quo, embrace openness, and become human again
Ending the status quo was by far the most common thread during our day at TEDxYYC. It began with the amazing Patrick Finn proclaiming a need to abolish critical thinking in University and look more toward creative thinking, more “contributive thinking,” more “love thinking” in our pursuits towards meaningful classroom experiences (Have you hear about his UofC class on “LOVE”?)
Steve Fisher and his look into open source technology, Ron Glasberg with his education “freedom” ideas, Dr. Megan McElheran and her ideas surrounding human embrace and engagement, Kirk Sorensen with his insights into the future of Liquid Flouride Thorium power generation, and Kris Fester’s look into the world of organic farming, were all laced with the message that what’s happening now, with the status quo, just might not be good enough for where we as society need to take it. It’s time to embrace openness, be human again, and see what happens next.
Admit to, share, and fix the hell out of failure
By far one of the most insightful messages of the day was brought to light by David Damberger in the form of a lesson we all probably didn’t want to hear: it’s time to admit to our failures and do something about it. David recounted the challenges often encountered by Engineers Without Borders (David founded the Calgary chapter), and reminded us all that truly great leaders and change-makers are those who openly admit to failure. Why? Because it’s an opportunity to, as our parents aways said, “learn from our mistakes” and, the thing that we were all there to do, make things better.
Being my first live TED experience it lived up to everything I thought it would be. Huge props to the event organizers and sponsors who made every effort to facilitate forward motion. In fact, even while I’m writing this, with a big smile on my face, I can’t wait to make something happen.
David Wald is a brand strategist, marketing guy for Vogogo Inc., writer, blogger and new dad. You can follow his musings at @djwald, legendarybranding.com and getdaddysomegin.com.