#TEDxCanberra

On Saturday I had the privilege of attending a brilliant conference named TEDx Canberra. For those of you who don’t know, TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a movement started by the Sapling Foundation in the United States of America. It is now a global set of conferences based around the concept of ‘ideas worth spreading’. Their website www.ted.com features hundreds of talks and presentations by intellectuals all around the world. These talks cover a range of topics including, but not limited to: Technology, Entertainment, Design, Business, Science and Global Issues. If you haven’t already, head straight to their website and start watching, when your mind is as alive with ideas as mine was over the weekend, come back and finish reading this post.

The TEDx Canberra event was hosted at the National Library of Australia. It was an Independently organised TED event run by volunteers supported by kind sponsors throughout Canberra. Steven Collins (@trib) and the rest of the team did an absolutely outstanding job of organising the event: Finding brilliant speakers (including a couple last minute replacements), ensuring the day ran smoothly (even 5 minutes ahead of time at one point, then quickly cursed by computer error at the start of Ash Donaldsons presentation) and ensuring everyone’s bodies and minds were well fuelled to learn.

The beautiful National Library of Australia, a great venue for TEDx

As you can see in the photo above, Canberra didn’t help its weather stereotype. Fortunately it didn’t rain until right at the end of the day which gave us a nice chance to have a few breaks outside in the fresh air, a time to clear our minds for the next session of talks.

The talks.

I wont detail everyone’s talks as they’ve all been well documented by other writers out there and collected neatly at the link below. I will however say that I was thoroughly impressed with everyone’s talks, whilst I didn’t agree with 100% of what was said (why would you want to) It was fantastic to see everyone passionately talking about a subject that meant a lot to them. The below talks were just a couple that I found to be particularly interesting and/or moving.

http://tedxcanberra.org/2010/10/wed-love-to-know-what-you-thought-of-tedxcanberra/

Sunny Forsyth – on clean water for everyone

This talk really moved me, I think it was a combination of  how Sunny presented it and that I found myself continuing to relate to him throughout his talk. Sunny Forsyth told us his story of how he came to start the organisation known today as Abundant Water. Abundant Water was founded in 2008 to help support villages in Lao by providing them with an almost zero-cost water filter made from locally available and easily accessible materials. Access to safe drinking water is something we take for granted in Australia however many billions of people worldwide aren’t quite as fortunate as us. Dirty, polluted drinking water is responsible for the spread of many diseases which sadly often lead to death. These new water filters which were developed with the help of Dr Tony Flynn from Australian National University (ANU) are made from a mixture of waste coffee bean grounds, clay, a bit of water and then fired to set and complete the process. Brilliantly simple.

It wasn’t just the simple water filter solution which impressed me it was the idea that was put across of ‘everyone can help somehow’. As Sunny said, it’s often that people want to help, but don’t know how they can, or they feel that their circumstances prevent them from being helpful. This isn’t the case, everyone can help somehow. I didn’t get the chance to chat with Sunny at the event but I am hoping to very soon so I can figure out the best way for me to help. I urge you to check out the website and get involved.

There’s more on the organisation and how you can help at their website www.abundantwater.org

Sunny Forsyth presenting his talk at TEDx Canberra

Mitchell Whitelaw – The Visible Archive

Mitchell delivered a brilliant talk on the visual experience or the digital archive. He proposes new processes for thinking about how to quickly navigate vast databases of information. ‘Show everything’ is the idea behind this. He explained that whilst search boxes are great if you know exactly what you’re looking for, you usually completely miss other bits of information or related content because of the narrow mindedness that searching for a particular term creates. The idea of finding ways to ‘show everything’ at once, opens up new and exciting links between data. It makes showing relationships between different sets of information feel more natural and easier to navigate. It also exposes you to relevant data which you previously might have discarded in your frantic search.

Most importantly, ‘show everything’ invites you to explore and discover.

I found great value in value and relevance in his ideas. Being one of the creative industry my work is predominantly visual. As Mitchell was talking I found my brain buzzing with idea’s of how I too can implement this great new concept in my work. And for that, I wish to thank him.

You can find more about The Visible Archive and other great of idea’s of Mitchell’s at his blog: http://teemingvoid.blogspot.com/ or follow his tweets @mtchl

Mitchell Whitelaw presenting his talk at TEDx Canberra

The wrap up

There was so many great idea’s flying around the venue on Saturday I know I’ve forgotten a few already, even though I noted most of what came to mind. I also wanted to congratulate, in no particular order:

Simon Taylor for showing us that the reality we construct is the result of the pieces we collect, via a very cool mind magic trick.

Francis Owusu for his work in helping youth achieve their dreams through the creative arts with his organisation ‘Kulture Break‘

Pete Williams for making me teary via his heartwarming recount of how the human spirit triumphed to save, then rebuild the town of Flowerdale after the devastating ‘Black Saturday’ bush fires.”If you don’t know what to do, just do something”

I am very excited about the prospect of attending future TEDx events. I’m not going to be able to make the Melbourne event on the 20th of November, however I am aiming to attend next years event in Canberra again. I once again urge you to watch the video’s on www.ted.com, start thinking big, and start making a difference in our world.

Thanks, and go #teamwhite