The TEDxRochester experience
There's so much to think about when attending a TED conference.
TEDxRochester 2009 has come and gone. It was a huge honor to be invited to be a presenter. I’ve been downloading TED Talk podcasts for a while now. I frequently find myself excitedly sharing some random bit of information I learned from the latest talk I had on my iPod. Now, I was given a chance to present. I’ve shared a stage with many different people, but this was the first time I was on a stage with presenters as varied as a chemist and museum curators.
With each talk, my mind wandered into ways I may be able to collaborate on projects with each speaker. After all, TED is about sharing, learning, crossing disciplines, and developing new directions for advancement. I couldn’t help but wonder how I could combine the dance and movement taught by Thomas Warfield with balloon puppetry, or how my form of play fits with that of Scott Eberle’s at the Strong National Museum of Play. I thought about how the community building stuff I’ve done with my balloons would fit with the work of life coach Luis Martinez. And I couldn’t help but wonder if Todd Krauss’s work with nanotechnology held the answer to the question of how to keep a balloon inflated indefinitely. (I also wondered for a bit if I’d actually want to see a balloon last forever.)
Thanks to Tony Karakashian, Amanda Doherty, and Gary Jacobs for putting on the event. I couldn’t help but notice the way they each answered the question of, “will you do this again?” Each gave a very definite “yes.” But they had that look in their eyes that said they knew they must be crazy for wanting to do it, but that they felt a definite need to keep this going. It’s a lot of work, and they directed the focus to their presenters, so they got little attention for their effort. I hope everyone attending took the time to learn something about the people behind the event.
Wish I could have been there…sounds like a blast!
Good for you-that’s the right attitude to have, always thinking of ways you can collaborate with different people, not just different artists (although there’s nothing wrong with that).
Sometimes real art is working outside of your comfort zone with someone who does something completely different, just to see how it turns out!
Thanks for helping bring the balloon industry to people in a different light than they’ve seen before, and fro bringing these people’s work to the balloon industry! I will definitely be checking their work out, if I can.
David,
I was so excited about the event that I forgot to mention that what you just wrote about is exactly what my talk was about. It was all about collaboration and building community through art. I’ll work with anyone and I feel that just gives me more opportunity to grow. As soon as the video of all of the talks are available, I’ll let you know so you can see the work of the others.
So glad you enjoyed presenting and being a part of the audience, Larry! Sounds like you have some awesome ideas there. I would definitely consider talking to those presenters about your thoughts! You just never know where your ideas might lead…
Hope we’ll see you at the NEXT TEDxRochester!
I’ve started conversations with some of them. If only there was more time in the day.
[...] Moss has a wonderful blog entry about his time there. Larry was kind of a last minute addition along with Luiz, and I’m so [...]
[...] Moss has a wonderful blog entry about his time there. Larry was kind of a last minute addition along with Luis, and I’m so [...]