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?)
