I get it. We’re all too busy to get out of our chairs, disconnect from our smartphones even momentarily, stop monitoring and engaging with our social media content, etc. Well, TEDx is a place you can go and enjoy the space.
This week was my first TEDxIndianapolis experience (live). I’ve tracked it online, watched the TEDx videos, and sometimes shared the content. But until you go – you don’t know. So I bought two tickets and headed with a friend to the Hilbert Circle Theatre on Monument Circle.
According to its website, TED is a nonprofit devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading.” The movement, which is what is really is, started in 1984 pooling people from technology, entertainment and design. There are TED prizes, TED talks, TED events, and more.
On a cold and dreary day, with plenty of backlog at the office, this was a refresher – with a chaser.
It’s difficult to put a TEDx experience in words for those who haven’t been and the one photo on the A-1 section of The Indy Star Wednesday really didn’t do it justice.
This was for the soul and the senses. The mix was for the open-minded as well as the timid. It made an entire audience of nearly 1,300 hum (yes, we did a humming exercise).
All OK.
The food was fun and healthy (first time for many of the conferences I have attended), the people hip and not so hip, the sponsor plugs kept to a near minimum during the day, and plenty of hard working volunteers pulling it off.
Here’s my TEDx takeaway:
I’m glad Indy has an event like this and I wish there were more to sample.
It’s good to get away from the office for a day. I ran into a colleague who said his small office, a national association, did close the doors and brought the entire crew – from executive director to receptionist. Kudos.
It’s refreshing to be around people who don’t think anything like you do and to walk away with an unhinged brain – if only for the day.
People need to like their work more and express themselves often – whether that means your love for insects or the desire to help out your uncle who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It was all there and it was all inspiring.
And here’s something else I learned – you can indeed cover an entire topic in five or seven minutes starting with a beginning, middle and an end.
Cheers to all the other Harry LeSabres on the flip side.
My TEDxIndianapolis purchases:
“My HEART is an IDIOT” by Davy Rothbart
Time for Three/fervent travels
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