I had come across TedTalks on YouTube only in the last couple of years. It has become a global phenomenon and... as global phenomenons go, this is one of the very few that actually advances humanity rather than drag it back (vide Rihanna, Kesha and Jersey Shore). When you attend a Ted session you have no idea what the topics will be, but you can be assured that they will be interesting, thought provoking and hopefully motivating general interest topics. I would put this up there with the Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org) and Wikipedia as invaluable global initiatives that have a profound impact on global knowledge.
I was very happy to hear that my company Telstra had organized a TedX event for staff. Telstra IT’s iTogether team had done the groundwork to bring a licensed Ted event to us, and they should be commended for that. TedXTelstraMelbourne was held on 23.05.13 at the Telstra HQ auditorium in front of a packed audience.
First to speak was Chris Vani, a youth advocate for Autism Awareness. He first spoke in third person of a autistic boy who went through great difficulties in his formative years, but through help from teachers and his parents, was able to largely overcome the condition and even make the most of the heightened brain activity that was part of his condition. He then revealed that the boy was none other than he himself. Leonardo da Vinci and many other greats are thought to have been autistic. Chris’s main message was that we need to get them to understand their condition and believe ‘that they can’.
Secondly, we watched a pre-recorded video of Jason Fried who spoke on the topic of ‘Why People Can’t Do Work at Work’. Is work the best place to work?, Managers are there only to interrupt us, Why do we have so many meetings?, We need log periods of uninterrupted time to get anything productive done – were some of his key points. He was an entertaining speaker and some of the points did encourage thought, even if not entirely practical.
Next up was Ramali, a ‘spoken word performer’ (first time I heard that term). As I learnt, it refers to a person who recites a free verse poem backed by gestures and expressions. Her two poems ‘History’ and ‘Future’ were beautifully written, and performed equally well. In History, she spoke of ‘my history’ almost as an past-significant-other who she had good and bad times with, and learnt a lot from.
I must say here that when they introduced Ramali’s presentation as a poetry reading, I was taken aback a little because I wasn’t expecting poetry. Then again I suppose that is part of Ted – its general interest. There may have been many few who would have thought they are not into poetry who would have ended up enjoying it.
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| Dr. Jason Fox (Photo: Telstra Intranet) |
The last speaker Dr. Jason Fox was a very interesting character. He was a young PhD who was quirky and funny, but obviously brilliant. His topic – ‘Make Clever Happen’ – was on what we can learn from video game designers about how we can keep people (staff) engaged and motivated. The most popular games have three key elements – Goals, Challenges and Quick Feedback. If we can bring those elements in to our work place employees would feel much more fulfilled.
I had the pleasure of meeting Jason during the post event fellowship, and had a very good chat with him.
Then it was time to head home... rather more refreshed than usual.
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