Saturday, December 03, 2011

TEDxSMU 2011



Today was TEDxSMU, all day, a chance to not only hear some great speakers but also bump into random people with their own ideas. The audience was a kind of select group of about 500 with an application process and $138 ticket price. I’ve tried for many years. This year I got in with an extra ticket from a friend.

First off let me say I take this kind of material seriously. Its important, and to me somewhat revered, work to go out and do good journalism about things they think are “Ideas worth spreading” and tell the story and why it matters. I am an amateur connoisseur of journalism and regularly enjoy the best of Charlie Rose, Frontline, TED, and anything else social media delivers my way.

But TEDxSMU this year was not great storytelling. There are a few that rose to the level, but none that were great.

Worth listening to:

1. Jaewon Ahn - extraordinary cellist

2. Brent Brown - Building homes in Dallas that fit a community. Something makes me think he takes his work seriously.

3. Jaume Plensa - artist that makes wonderfully giant blissful statue heads and other works. Some examples.

There were around 19 speakers/artists. I don’t want to describe why most were not relevant to me.

So what works for finding great stories about great things?

Here is my list:

1. Ignite Dallas. Its an evening of speakers from Dallas mostly made up of the creative web entrepreneur types. Its cheaper, better, and they let anyone attend.

2. ted.com . Its the original. Some speakers deserve the title of insanely great.

3. StumbleUpon.com

4. Twitter (find interesting people and see what they have to say)

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