TEDGlobal DAY TWO and THREE!

People! This is the greatest event EVER…
I am pinching myself every morning when I wake up. To be in this company!
To witness these world-altering innovations and insights! I have skipped to the auditorium everyday. Ok, maybe in my mind, but still. ;) Here are my picks from the first day, and a little report of the second. Today (Wednesday) began bright and early and I don't know how I could possibly choose favourites but I'll try tomorrow!

TedFellows Talks on Monday

Candy Chang:
Ohhhhh! Magical brilliant woman! This talk made me cry. Candy is an artist, a designer, and an urban planner, but most importantly, a human. The content of her art is an unflinching experience of life itself. Loving! Hurting! Striving! I think great art comes from those who love and feel DEEPLY. Life isn't transparent to them - it is front and centre in technicolour. Candy shared a story of personal loss and how it inspired the project "Before I die" which you should look at now. Yes, right now: http://candychang.com/

At the end of her talk she said - we must remember that "life is brief…. and tender."
Slean…. in her seat... melting.

Manu Prakash:
Tied for my favourite Ted Fellow talk with Candy Chang . JEE-ZUS this is amazing. Instant standing ovation! Manu has created a microscope out of paper (yes, paper. You can print it, for crying out loud) They've figured out how to embed lenses and other wacky stuff into sheets of paper. Like a page in a book of paper dolls, the user pops out the shapes along the perforations, assembles it like origami according to a dead simple colour-coded method and voila, a functional microscope. ?!?! Oh, and there is no need for instructions in any language, the colour guide is sufficient. Oh, and it costs fifty cents. Oh, did I mention it's pretty much indestructible? Waterproof? You can carry it around in your back pocket? A child could use it? You could diagnose myriad diseases with it? JEEEE-ZUS!!!!!!
http://conferences.ted.com/TEDGlobal2... (click the main picture until you see Manu)

Ed Ou:
Canadian photojournalist (woot woot!) A disarmingly casual, humble guy who is on the front lines taking iconic photos of youth revolutions in the Middle East for the New York Times and other major publications. Imagine photos that capture young people empowered by their anger, their collective hope, and the open collaborative platforms that the internet has now made possible. Fave quote: "it is really important for us to be active citizens". http://www.edouphoto.com/

Bahia Shehab:
This young woman's floored me. She stood and spoke with such solidity and strength. From the issues she was discussing it was clear that she harboured intense (and justifiable) anger - but she seems to have metabolized that anger in her artistic work, so her voice was steady, her words precise and carefully chosen, her demeanour, gentle and peaceful. Her art was as powerful as her presence - aesthetically magnetic while courageously defying old ideas, regimes and hypocrisy.
http://fellows.ted.com/profiles/bahia...
http://www.khtt.net/page/25951/en


Mainstage Sessions on Tuesday

I am in THE theatre... yes, with THE stage and that circular red carpet. WOW! This is so exciting! Emotionally I am hovering between ecstatic awe and intense anxiety (when I think about singing on that stage!)... Overwhelmed by the awesomeness I experienced yesterday in the mainstage talks...

Do you remember that book by Canadian Chris Turner "The Geography of Hope"? The "tour of the world we need?" That's exactly what today's talks were all about. Radically open-sourced everything. 3-D printing and/or DIY manufacturing of almost ANYTHING, new user-made machines for emerging problems and uses - from the mundane to the massive. Knowledge sharing on an unprecedented scale. Like Torontonian Don Tapscott said in the first fascinating talk of the day - "humanity is making a machine". Whew. In between Don's awesome talk and Macy Gray's terrific closing set (I KNOW! Crazy!) there were all kinds of bright stars - people that believe in human potential and are striving to stretch it further...

I am keeping to myself a lot, trying to process everything and not miss a morsel... (still such a shy kid at heart!) But I have met some extraordinary people already and I'm inspired to peer out of my shell some more.

Tonight is my rehearsal with the Cairn Quartet from Glasgow Scotland - the talented gals I found on, you guessed it, the internet. :) They sound excited - and I can't wait to meet them!

More soon...

xoxox love love love
SS