Wednesday, March 19, 2014

TED 2014 Day Two

A totally packed day at TED. I'm brain-sozzled.

Two great Main Theatre sessions, including a surprise 'appearance' by the highly articulate Edward Snowden through a telepresence robot. That interview is already up on TED.com and worth watching.  So what do TEDsters think of Snowden - reckless traitor, or patriotic hero? Given that stark choice, most were undecided (or at least didn't put their hands  up), but of those who voted, it was a landslide for hero. 

Two fast-paced session of 10 All Stars - favourite TED speakers from past years invited back to update their work -  that was like being at the end of a fire hose. A compelling talk by TED Prize winner Charmian Gooch. A spectacular performance by Sting. Then, a small dinner with Robert Fuller, biologist and creator of bio-inspired robots and an ebullient dinner companion. 

Yesterday, I sat  next to my hero Nancy Duarte (speaker coach for many TED speakers, proponent of story-telling as the backbone of talks, and recognized as the creator of Gore's Inconvenient Truth slide show). I already learned a lot from her and learned more yesterday. Tonight, I came up the elevator with Aimee Mullins, a speaker who blew me away when I first heard her at TED years ago. She remains on the top ten favourite posts on this blog. I wish the elevator ride had been a lot longer! 


Detailed descriptions of various talks will follow, as there was just too much going on today, and I'm still recovering from the sleep I lost over the US Airways fiasco.  (Did I mention you should never fly with them?)

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