We received a ton of amazing submissions for our project with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation asking you for potential TEDxChange lineups. There are lot of interesting people out there, and we wish we could hear about all of them. We've selected the five most exciting submissions, which you can see here—everything from cookstoves in the developing world to beat poetry. We would like to thank everyone who submitted, this was a hard choice. We'll be announcing the winner—who will win an exclusive log in to the 2011 TED broadcast—next week.
From Tomiko Anders
Speakers:
Veronica Kitti—Director, ASA Initiative
Ms. Kitti is the Director of ASA Initiative in Cape Coast, Ghana. She directs a multi-pronged organization that provides job-training, reproductive and sexual health education, micro-finance opportunities, and micro-enterprise skills development for people in Ghana who would like to improve their quality of life through education.
Related links: http://asainitiative.org/index.html
Nathaniel Mulcahy—Founder, WorldStove
A humanitarian engineer and inventor, he has engaged in humanitarian interventions since 1982. As founder of WorldStove, Mr. Mulcahy works with local partners in developing nations to facilitate the creation of locally self-sustaining jobs, reduce indoor air pollution, eliminate the need for wood and charcoal as fuels and improve sanitation with clean water and toilets through cookstove programs.
Related links: www.WorldStove.com; http://www.youtube.com/user/WorldStove; http://www.facebook.com/pages/Worldstove-LLC/252249696987
Carlo Petrini—Founder, Slow Food Movement
Mr. Petrini has led the Western world in reconnecting with their environment and their communities through local organic foods and appreciation for the cultural values of cooking and eating together. He, through the Slow Food Movement, has inspired people worldwide to improve their health and environment by cooking and consuming delicious meals.
Related links: http://www.slowfood.com/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Petrini
Davide Bonaldo—Independent Short Film Maker
Mr. Portico is an Italian-based short-film Producer and Director, specializing in humanitarian endeavors. He has produced short films in Italy and Tanzania with an environmental and humanitarian focus, often working with local at-risk youth as actors and crew.
Related links: http://vimeo.com/18850771
Interlude—A Cook-Off! Ghana, U.S., Italy
For an Interlude, we propose a cook-off in the style of Iron Chef. The contest will be among three chefs: A Ghanaian woman living in one of the villages where ASA Initiative is work and two international celebrity chefs who are engaged in humanitarian and environmental issues. We propose Carlo Petrini, Founder of the Slow Food Movement and Jose Andres, a D.C.-based Spanish chef who brought the “small plates” concept of dining to the U.S.
The challenge will be to create a dish based ingrdients unveiled at the start of the competition, exclusively local and organic ingredients. Using Ghanian pots, clean-cookstoves produced in Ghana as part of the WorldStove ASA Intiative program in Ghana and directly under three smoke detectors.
The chefs will be scored on: food quality, presentation / style, and their ability to operate their stoves cleanly and without smoke. Judges will be randomly selected from the audience. Remote audience members can comment and vote on presentation and style via Twitter. Remote audience members can also Tweet or text questions for the chefs.
Audience Participation Beyond the Webcast
Three ideas for audience participation beyond the webcast:
1) The audience will be provided with plans for a simplified version of the stove that the chefs will be using on the program so they can make their own out of everyday materials.
2) During the presentations, audience members will be asked to Tweet or text their favorite dishes and the amount of time it takes to cook them. For the entire length of the presentations, the information will be updated on the web and on the screen next to the panelists. At the end of the presentation this information will be analyzed and visually displayed to show total energy consumption for cooking common meals translated into loss of trees that people's favorite recipes take to make. The message will be: by becoming aware of how much energy is required for everyday cooking, we can become more aware of actual energy consumed. Using stoves like those used by the chefs, other fuel-efficient technologies, eating locally and organically, you can contribute reduce CO2, save trees and increase food security for our planet.
3) Short videos of people using the clean cookstoves in other countries will be posted on the web. Remote audience members can watch these 45 second videos to see how people in five countries have benefited from using clean cookstoves. Audience members will be invited to make their own video shorts about building and using their stoves from the provided plans.
Why This Line Up?
Because everybody eats. However, the environmental and health implications of the cooking methods available to a third of the world's population are not only devestating, but largely unknown by the other two-thirds. Fortunately, there are existing solutions and several of the core problems are easily addressed. This line-up will draw attention to the issues and one possible solution implemented in different ways around the world. Through this program we hope to show how simple solutions already exist with numerous positive impacts. Most importantly, that these solutions can locally owned by even the poorest and most remote villages and are able to be self-sustaining without outside aid.
Note: A demonstration of the stoves will be a part of the panel presentation.
If possible, we propose that this TEDxChange take place in one of the remote villages in Ghana where ASA Initiative and WorldStove work.
From Allison Cash:
Speakers
1. Shawn Askinosie, criminal defense attorney turned bean to bar chocolate maker. Mr. Askinosie has dedicated his life to connecting international cocoa farmers to domestic children and youth. His most recent education project marked the first time a chocolate maker traded directly with a Tanzanian cocoa farmer group, led by a woman farmer. This project also funded a deep water well in the village.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5mF4-Mxj0M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E3VazSTlOs
http://www.lostandfoundozarks.com/
2. Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist of Half the Sky. Mr. Kristof brought widespread attention and action to the role of females internationally and the continued abuse they face. This movement highlights the resiliency of these women but also the necessary involvement of everyone to improve their overall mental and physical health.
http://www.oprah.com/world/A-Message-from-Nicholas-Kristof-Video
http://asiasociety.org/video/policy-politics/nicholas-kristof-and-sheryl-wudunn-womens-education
3. Wendell Berry, an American writer who has looked at the health of communities through an agrarian filter. His work on the connection of individuals and communities to their places ties into the health of the communities - physically as well as fiscally.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMlvvZvXcPY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3tiGsmZGO4
4. Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University. An objective and vocal proponent of what is best for public health, her straightforward, no-frills approach makes food issues seem simple.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qO39VEc0Ag
http://www.charlierose.com/view/content/318
Interlude
Music by How to Destroy Angels
Overview
I think this lineup represents a portion of the work in play in the arena of global health and development. From a manufacturing POV with Askinosie to a social justice POV with Kristof to a philosophical POV with Berry and a scientific POV with Nestle, this group brings together influential change makers who have changed lives. They are improving global health through their research, writing and outreach.
Connection Point
A great way to connect the global audience would be to have short videos shot around where each person is located that can be shared in a cloud and pulled down by interested parties. If you want to see what "Coleen in Toronto's" surroundings look like versus "Raoul in Lima" you can capture a bit of Day in the Life of the global citizens.
From Chandra Willard:
Speakers:
Muhammad Yunus
Founder of Graamen Bank, “Bank for the Poor," Economist, Noble Peace Prize Winner
From Bangladesh
Graamen Bank, founded by Muhammad Yunus, provides small loans (micro-financing) to the world’s poorest people that otherwise could not secure a loan. Over 90 percent of his clientele are women, who are given a chance at a successful career through these services.
Video: ideas on social business model
Michelle Rhee
Founder and CEO of Students First, Founder of The New Teacher Project, Former Chancellor of District of Columbia Schools
From Washington, D.C.
Activist and voice behind the push to fix the United States’ failing school systems, while her struggle may be more local, she once said “… if the country can make its education system the best in the world, economic success will follow.” Rhee faced much criticism during her tenure in the District, but is now moving forward with her mission to transform public education by putting the “students first.”
Video, Oprah announcing students first
Pierre Ferrari
Chief Executive Officer at Heifer International, Board Member, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, President, Hot Fudge Social Venture Fund
From Congo, Kenya, and England
Ferrari left the Fortune 500 world to give his knowledge and expertise to social needs, beginning with CARE. A social entrepreneur, Ferrari currently leads Heifer International that uses an interesting approach to aid those in need: giving families livestock and training to “help families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways.”
Anders Wilhelmson
Inventor of Peepoo, Architect
From Stockholm, Sweden
Wilhelmson, an architect by trade, invented the “Peepoo,” a single use biodegradable toilet bag created to provide sanitization to the over two million people globally without toilets. His invention is urea-lined so it first breaks down feces and then becomes an effective fertilizer.
Musical Interlude
Aside from being an incredibly talented, internationally recognized band, they have a record of supporting good causes including need in Haiti through Partners in Health and most recently they pledged to match up to $1 million in support of Haiti through Foundation KANPE. They were nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year and recently won FWA’s website of the year, which shows their forward thinking nature and ability to engage their audience.
from Montreal, Canada
Singer, Régine Chassagne, originally from Haiti
Ways to Engage a Global Audience:
It’s game time!
Create a social networking game. For example, Global Mind Games challenges users to create solutions to the world’s problems through a Facebook application. The questions are not overly challenging, but it makes people think, become aware of issues, and get involved. It would also come up on News feeds to let friends and family know they are participating in TED virtually.
There could be TED specific questions that people can answer throughout the day. At TEDxChange a side screen could highlight some participants’ answers with their location and age. To break up the day, TED could Skype chat with a few participants about their answers. A simple, 15-second chat with a variety of people across the globe.
Recap:
I was looking for an interesting mix of people to cover all areas that are important for global development and health. At first, someone might listen to these speakers’ stories and say “What were you thinking?” That, to me, makes it more interesting and shows they are truly thinking outside the box.
* Give money to people who might not pay you back?
* Shake up bureaucracy for student development?
* Create a poop bag? For… people?
* Free cows? Overseas?
My line-up features people of different trades, nationalities, locations, gender, ages, and causes – but they all have one thing in common, which is to believe in the potential of all people in the world. Each speaker’s ideas and approach to change betters the global community – improving education, creating opportunities, finding simple solutions, believing in one another, and lending a helping hand.
Additionally, I particularly like this line-up because all these speakers are smart, educated, very fortunate people that could have simply worked to make money, but made something more. If you listen to their stories you’ll notice they didn’t anticipate being where they are today -- Rhee, expected maybe to be a doctor. Yunus, always surprised about the new venture. Wilhemson, an architect by trade. Ferrari, making plenty of money at Coca-Cola. They all took their time and talents to create unique, sometimes controversial, solutions to help people near and far.
It’s inspirational to say they least, and I believe TEDxChange participants will learn a great deal about global development and health through these speakers.
From David Metcalfe:
My reasoning for the following line up is pretty simple, with all the issues surrounding the environment, the collapse of institutional support for the humanities, and the increasing reliance on technology in society... isn't it time that TED got a bit more poetic, raw, and green? The following speakers (and musical guest) where all chosen for their ability to cross boundaries, their familiarity with technology's effect on the global culture, and their reliance on the arts and humanities to express their positions in ways that speak to a wide cross-section of society.
In order to connect the global audience I would recommend that each speaker be positioned in a separate location across the globe, somewhere rural where a large number of people could gather and disperse easily, and that their talks be given via the most humble means possible, while still allowing them to be heard. Sort of a contemporary, interconnected, techno-rural version of Plato's academy.
Dale Pendell - author of the award-winning Pharmako trilogy, a literary history of psychoactive plants. His poetry is widely anthologized, most recently in The Wisdom Book of American Buddhist Poetry.
Resources:
http://dalependell.com/the-retort/
The Magic of Corporate Personhood
Gary Snyder - American poet, Zen Buddhist, mountaineer, environmental activist, deep ecology philosopher, founder member of the Beat Generation.
Resources:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/gary-snyder
Gary Snyder - Ecology & Poetry
Musical Interlude - Killing Joke, featuring Jaz Coleman EU's composer in residence, who is currently promoting permaculture and sustainable eco-villages.
"Central to this very old form of therapy is the idea that if you suffer from the underworld you can only be cured in the underworld."
Resources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naUAuptzUb4
http://theeyelessowl.wordpress.com/2010/12/23/cured-in-the-underworld-killing-joke-in-perspective/
David Abram - cultural ecologist, philosopher, and performance artist – is the founder and creative director of the Alliance for Wild Ethics. He is the author of The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World (Pantheon/Vintage), for which he received the international Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction.
Resources:
www.wildethics.org/david_abram.html
http://www.dark-mountain.net/wordpress/2010/12/29/sensing-knowing-a-conversation-with-david-abram/
Wendell Berry - Poet, essayist, farmer, and novelist
Our lives, half gone,
stay full of laughter.
Free-hearted men
have the world for words.
Resources:
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/675
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMlvvZvXcPY
From Rebecca Frank
First Speakers:
Marcus Samuelsson, chef Red Rooster, Aquavit, who draws on his Ethiopian heritage and Swedish upbringing to create innovative food, and who won Bravo TV’s Top Chef Masters and donated his winnings to Unicef’s Tap Project. http://marcussamuelsson.com/about-marcus
Kristen Lodai – Founder, LIFT who found a way to tap college student energy to help lift individuals out of poverty http://www.liftcommunities.org/about/history
Interlude
A giant jigsaw puzzle. Break attendees into groups to work on sections and talk to each other.
Second Speakers
Abigail Washburn – Folk musician who co-created “Afterquake” to raise money for earthquake relief funds in Sichuan province, China http://www.afterquakemusic.com/index.php
Carlos Ruiz Zafon – author, The Shadow of the Wind who is not only an incredibly spellbinding storyteller, but in The Shadow of the Wind paints a picture of what a country goes through following a time of uncertainty and trauma, particularly the fascist Franco regime in Spain. http://www.carlosruizzafon.co.uk/
Connecting the Global Audience
Create maps of both people who’ve watched the webcasts, as well as people they’ve passed the webcasts/stories/information along to. See who the influential watchers are, and see if there’s other information for them to pass along.
The idea for this TEDxChange lineup was to identify storytellers from different corners of the world who create to solve problems. Whether that involves creating a non-profit or writing a story about a country recovering from its past, each speaker is involved in creating experiences for others to help them understand the issues. They create meals that fuse cultures, volunteer hours that get college students to see the world around them, songs that help rebuild schools, and stories that show how nations heal wounds. The interlude is designed to be experiential, by having attendees work together on the jigsaw puzzle, and the map designed to connect the global audience shows how the experiences are moving worldwide.
-
This College Hockey Team's Secret Weapon Is An Autistic Defenseman The biggest challenge for this player on-the-spectrum was learning how to trash talk ”There are high moments and low moments and how you respond to those moments I think defines who you are”
Sports -
Boys HS Soccer Team Refuses To Play Against Co-Ed Squad, Citing ‘Religious Beliefs’ ‘Even though it's a boys league, it doesn't say girls can't play’
Sports -
People Are Mesmerized By This Strange Optical Illusion ‘You can’t not see it once you see it’
Design -
Here’s Why You Really Need To Prepare Like A Survivalist Right Now “People need to be physically prepared for an interruption in their normal lifestyle”
The Planet -
Tecate Proposed A ‘Beer Wall’ During The Presidential Debate ‘The time has come for a wall.’
Communities -
This Father and Daughter’s Beautiful Morning Mantra Is Attracting Attention From All Over The World It’s already been viewed more than 12 million times
Communities
We received a ton of amazing submissions for our project with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation asking you for potential TEDxChange lineups. There are lot of interesting people out there, and we wish we could hear about all of them. We've selected the five most exciting submissions, which you can see here—everything from cookstoves in the developing world to beat poetry. We would like to thank everyone who submitted, this was a hard choice. We'll be announcing the winner—who will win an exclusive log in to the 2011 TED broadcast—next week.
From Tomiko Anders
Speakers:
Veronica Kitti—Director, ASA Initiative
Ms. Kitti is the Director of ASA Initiative in Cape Coast, Ghana. She directs a multi-pronged organization that provides job-training, reproductive and sexual health education, micro-finance opportunities, and micro-enterprise skills development for people in Ghana who would like to improve their quality of life through education.
Related links: http://asainitiative.org/index.html
Nathaniel Mulcahy—Founder, WorldStove
A humanitarian engineer and inventor, he has engaged in humanitarian interventions since 1982. As founder of WorldStove, Mr. Mulcahy works with local partners in developing nations to facilitate the creation of locally self-sustaining jobs, reduce indoor air pollution, eliminate the need for wood and charcoal as fuels and improve sanitation with clean water and toilets through cookstove programs.
Related links: www.WorldStove.com; http://www.youtube.com/user/WorldStove; http://www.facebook.com/pages/Worldstove-LLC/252249696987
Carlo Petrini—Founder, Slow Food Movement
Mr. Petrini has led the Western world in reconnecting with their environment and their communities through local organic foods and appreciation for the cultural values of cooking and eating together. He, through the Slow Food Movement, has inspired people worldwide to improve their health and environment by cooking and consuming delicious meals.
Related links: http://www.slowfood.com/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Petrini
Davide Bonaldo—Independent Short Film Maker
Mr. Portico is an Italian-based short-film Producer and Director, specializing in humanitarian endeavors. He has produced short films in Italy and Tanzania with an environmental and humanitarian focus, often working with local at-risk youth as actors and crew.
Related links: http://vimeo.com/18850771
Interlude—A Cook-Off! Ghana, U.S., Italy
For an Interlude, we propose a cook-off in the style of Iron Chef. The contest will be among three chefs: A Ghanaian woman living in one of the villages where ASA Initiative is work and two international celebrity chefs who are engaged in humanitarian and environmental issues. We propose Carlo Petrini, Founder of the Slow Food Movement and Jose Andres, a D.C.-based Spanish chef who brought the “small plates” concept of dining to the U.S.
The challenge will be to create a dish based ingrdients unveiled at the start of the competition, exclusively local and organic ingredients. Using Ghanian pots, clean-cookstoves produced in Ghana as part of the WorldStove ASA Intiative program in Ghana and directly under three smoke detectors.
The chefs will be scored on: food quality, presentation / style, and their ability to operate their stoves cleanly and without smoke. Judges will be randomly selected from the audience. Remote audience members can comment and vote on presentation and style via Twitter. Remote audience members can also Tweet or text questions for the chefs.
Audience Participation Beyond the Webcast
Three ideas for audience participation beyond the webcast:
1) The audience will be provided with plans for a simplified version of the stove that the chefs will be using on the program so they can make their own out of everyday materials.
2) During the presentations, audience members will be asked to Tweet or text their favorite dishes and the amount of time it takes to cook them. For the entire length of the presentations, the information will be updated on the web and on the screen next to the panelists. At the end of the presentation this information will be analyzed and visually displayed to show total energy consumption for cooking common meals translated into loss of trees that people's favorite recipes take to make. The message will be: by becoming aware of how much energy is required for everyday cooking, we can become more aware of actual energy consumed. Using stoves like those used by the chefs, other fuel-efficient technologies, eating locally and organically, you can contribute reduce CO2, save trees and increase food security for our planet.
3) Short videos of people using the clean cookstoves in other countries will be posted on the web. Remote audience members can watch these 45 second videos to see how people in five countries have benefited from using clean cookstoves. Audience members will be invited to make their own video shorts about building and using their stoves from the provided plans.
Why This Line Up?
Because everybody eats. However, the environmental and health implications of the cooking methods available to a third of the world's population are not only devestating, but largely unknown by the other two-thirds. Fortunately, there are existing solutions and several of the core problems are easily addressed. This line-up will draw attention to the issues and one possible solution implemented in different ways around the world. Through this program we hope to show how simple solutions already exist with numerous positive impacts. Most importantly, that these solutions can locally owned by even the poorest and most remote villages and are able to be self-sustaining without outside aid.
Note: A demonstration of the stoves will be a part of the panel presentation.
If possible, we propose that this TEDxChange take place in one of the remote villages in Ghana where ASA Initiative and WorldStove work.
From Allison Cash:
Speakers
1. Shawn Askinosie, criminal defense attorney turned bean to bar chocolate maker. Mr. Askinosie has dedicated his life to connecting international cocoa farmers to domestic children and youth. His most recent education project marked the first time a chocolate maker traded directly with a Tanzanian cocoa farmer group, led by a woman farmer. This project also funded a deep water well in the village.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5mF4-Mxj0M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E3VazSTlOs
http://www.lostandfoundozarks.com/
2. Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist of Half the Sky. Mr. Kristof brought widespread attention and action to the role of females internationally and the continued abuse they face. This movement highlights the resiliency of these women but also the necessary involvement of everyone to improve their overall mental and physical health.
http://www.oprah.com/world/A-Message-from-Nicholas-Kristof-Video
http://asiasociety.org/video/policy-politics/nicholas-kristof-and-sheryl-wudunn-womens-education
3. Wendell Berry, an American writer who has looked at the health of communities through an agrarian filter. His work on the connection of individuals and communities to their places ties into the health of the communities - physically as well as fiscally.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMlvvZvXcPY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3tiGsmZGO4
4. Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University. An objective and vocal proponent of what is best for public health, her straightforward, no-frills approach makes food issues seem simple.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qO39VEc0Ag
http://www.charlierose.com/view/content/318
Interlude
Music by How to Destroy Angels
Overview
I think this lineup represents a portion of the work in play in the arena of global health and development. From a manufacturing POV with Askinosie to a social justice POV with Kristof to a philosophical POV with Berry and a scientific POV with Nestle, this group brings together influential change makers who have changed lives. They are improving global health through their research, writing and outreach.
Connection Point
A great way to connect the global audience would be to have short videos shot around where each person is located that can be shared in a cloud and pulled down by interested parties. If you want to see what "Coleen in Toronto's" surroundings look like versus "Raoul in Lima" you can capture a bit of Day in the Life of the global citizens.
From Chandra Willard:
Speakers:
Muhammad Yunus
Founder of Graamen Bank, “Bank for the Poor," Economist, Noble Peace Prize Winner
From Bangladesh
Graamen Bank, founded by Muhammad Yunus, provides small loans (micro-financing) to the world’s poorest people that otherwise could not secure a loan. Over 90 percent of his clientele are women, who are given a chance at a successful career through these services.
Video: ideas on social business model
Michelle Rhee
Founder and CEO of Students First, Founder of The New Teacher Project, Former Chancellor of District of Columbia Schools
From Washington, D.C.
Activist and voice behind the push to fix the United States’ failing school systems, while her struggle may be more local, she once said “… if the country can make its education system the best in the world, economic success will follow.” Rhee faced much criticism during her tenure in the District, but is now moving forward with her mission to transform public education by putting the “students first.”
Video, Oprah announcing students first
Pierre Ferrari
Chief Executive Officer at Heifer International, Board Member, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, President, Hot Fudge Social Venture Fund
From Congo, Kenya, and England
Ferrari left the Fortune 500 world to give his knowledge and expertise to social needs, beginning with CARE. A social entrepreneur, Ferrari currently leads Heifer International that uses an interesting approach to aid those in need: giving families livestock and training to “help families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways.”
Anders Wilhelmson
Inventor of Peepoo, Architect
From Stockholm, Sweden
Wilhelmson, an architect by trade, invented the “Peepoo,” a single use biodegradable toilet bag created to provide sanitization to the over two million people globally without toilets. His invention is urea-lined so it first breaks down feces and then becomes an effective fertilizer.
Musical Interlude
Aside from being an incredibly talented, internationally recognized band, they have a record of supporting good causes including need in Haiti through Partners in Health and most recently they pledged to match up to $1 million in support of Haiti through Foundation KANPE. They were nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year and recently won FWA’s website of the year, which shows their forward thinking nature and ability to engage their audience.
from Montreal, Canada
Singer, Régine Chassagne, originally from Haiti
Ways to Engage a Global Audience:
It’s game time!
Create a social networking game. For example, Global Mind Games challenges users to create solutions to the world’s problems through a Facebook application. The questions are not overly challenging, but it makes people think, become aware of issues, and get involved. It would also come up on News feeds to let friends and family know they are participating in TED virtually.
There could be TED specific questions that people can answer throughout the day. At TEDxChange a side screen could highlight some participants’ answers with their location and age. To break up the day, TED could Skype chat with a few participants about their answers. A simple, 15-second chat with a variety of people across the globe.
Recap:
I was looking for an interesting mix of people to cover all areas that are important for global development and health. At first, someone might listen to these speakers’ stories and say “What were you thinking?” That, to me, makes it more interesting and shows they are truly thinking outside the box.
* Give money to people who might not pay you back?
* Shake up bureaucracy for student development?
* Create a poop bag? For… people?
* Free cows? Overseas?
My line-up features people of different trades, nationalities, locations, gender, ages, and causes – but they all have one thing in common, which is to believe in the potential of all people in the world. Each speaker’s ideas and approach to change betters the global community – improving education, creating opportunities, finding simple solutions, believing in one another, and lending a helping hand.
Additionally, I particularly like this line-up because all these speakers are smart, educated, very fortunate people that could have simply worked to make money, but made something more. If you listen to their stories you’ll notice they didn’t anticipate being where they are today -- Rhee, expected maybe to be a doctor. Yunus, always surprised about the new venture. Wilhemson, an architect by trade. Ferrari, making plenty of money at Coca-Cola. They all took their time and talents to create unique, sometimes controversial, solutions to help people near and far.
It’s inspirational to say they least, and I believe TEDxChange participants will learn a great deal about global development and health through these speakers.
From David Metcalfe:
My reasoning for the following line up is pretty simple, with all the issues surrounding the environment, the collapse of institutional support for the humanities, and the increasing reliance on technology in society... isn't it time that TED got a bit more poetic, raw, and green? The following speakers (and musical guest) where all chosen for their ability to cross boundaries, their familiarity with technology's effect on the global culture, and their reliance on the arts and humanities to express their positions in ways that speak to a wide cross-section of society.
In order to connect the global audience I would recommend that each speaker be positioned in a separate location across the globe, somewhere rural where a large number of people could gather and disperse easily, and that their talks be given via the most humble means possible, while still allowing them to be heard. Sort of a contemporary, interconnected, techno-rural version of Plato's academy.
Dale Pendell - author of the award-winning Pharmako trilogy, a literary history of psychoactive plants. His poetry is widely anthologized, most recently in The Wisdom Book of American Buddhist Poetry.
Resources:
http://dalependell.com/the-retort/
The Magic of Corporate Personhood
Gary Snyder - American poet, Zen Buddhist, mountaineer, environmental activist, deep ecology philosopher, founder member of the Beat Generation.
Resources:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/gary-snyder
Gary Snyder - Ecology & Poetry
Musical Interlude - Killing Joke, featuring Jaz Coleman EU's composer in residence, who is currently promoting permaculture and sustainable eco-villages.
"Central to this very old form of therapy is the idea that if you suffer from the underworld you can only be cured in the underworld."
Resources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naUAuptzUb4
http://theeyelessowl.wordpress.com/2010/12/23/cured-in-the-underworld-killing-joke-in-perspective/
David Abram - cultural ecologist, philosopher, and performance artist – is the founder and creative director of the Alliance for Wild Ethics. He is the author of The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World (Pantheon/Vintage), for which he received the international Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction.
Resources:
www.wildethics.org/david_abram.html
http://www.dark-mountain.net/wordpress/2010/12/29/sensing-knowing-a-conversation-with-david-abram/
Wendell Berry - Poet, essayist, farmer, and novelist
Our lives, half gone,
stay full of laughter.
Free-hearted men
have the world for words.
Resources:
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/675
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMlvvZvXcPY
From Rebecca Frank
First Speakers:
Marcus Samuelsson, chef Red Rooster, Aquavit, who draws on his Ethiopian heritage and Swedish upbringing to create innovative food, and who won Bravo TV’s Top Chef Masters and donated his winnings to Unicef’s Tap Project. http://marcussamuelsson.com/about-marcus
Kristen Lodai – Founder, LIFT who found a way to tap college student energy to help lift individuals out of poverty http://www.liftcommunities.org/about/history
Interlude
A giant jigsaw puzzle. Break attendees into groups to work on sections and talk to each other.
Second Speakers
Abigail Washburn – Folk musician who co-created “Afterquake” to raise money for earthquake relief funds in Sichuan province, China http://www.afterquakemusic.com/index.php
Carlos Ruiz Zafon – author, The Shadow of the Wind who is not only an incredibly spellbinding storyteller, but in The Shadow of the Wind paints a picture of what a country goes through following a time of uncertainty and trauma, particularly the fascist Franco regime in Spain. http://www.carlosruizzafon.co.uk/
Connecting the Global Audience
Create maps of both people who’ve watched the webcasts, as well as people they’ve passed the webcasts/stories/information along to. See who the influential watchers are, and see if there’s other information for them to pass along.
The idea for this TEDxChange lineup was to identify storytellers from different corners of the world who create to solve problems. Whether that involves creating a non-profit or writing a story about a country recovering from its past, each speaker is involved in creating experiences for others to help them understand the issues. They create meals that fuse cultures, volunteer hours that get college students to see the world around them, songs that help rebuild schools, and stories that show how nations heal wounds. The interlude is designed to be experiential, by having attendees work together on the jigsaw puzzle, and the map designed to connect the global audience shows how the experiences are moving worldwide.
