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Watching: Brilliant #TED talk by Liz Coleman on the need to reinvent liberal arts education

From TED:

Bennington president Liz Coleman delivers a call-to-arms for radical reform in higher education. Bucking the trend to push students toward increasingly narrow areas of study, she proposes a truly cross-disciplinary education -- one that dynamically combines all areas of study to address the great problems of our day.

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Backstage at TEDxWaterloo

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A look behind the scenes at TEDxWaterloo. The stage is set and speakers are prepped.

Tomorrow Started Yesterday starts tomorrow! February 25 can't come any sooner!

Photos taken with my iPhone 3G.

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TEDxWaterloo - Tomorrow Started Yesterday

After months of hard work, we're coming down to the wire with the organization for TEDxWaterloo, finally happening next week on February 25 at the Gig Music Hall in downtown Kitchener - and we're definitely super excited!!!

On a personal note, it's been quite the journey for me from my initial blog post on a possible TEDxWaterloo event last summer, to opportune meetings with an amazing group of people who are equally as passionate about ideas worth spreading. Credit for putting TEDxWaterloo together really has to go to the entire team of volunteers behind the event, who have collectively given hundreds of hours of their time, energy and commitment towards making TEDxWaterloo a success.

Our diverse range of speakers, all of whom are well recognized and respected in their fields, are also giving us their time and energy because they truly believe in sharing their ideas and experiences with the broader community.

We will be live webstreaming the entire event beginning 2pm EST on February 25 at www.tedxwaterloo.com. All of the TEDxWaterloo Talks will be made available online after the event.

For more information on TEDxWaterloo, please visit: www.tedxwaterloo.com

TEDxWaterloo Speakers

Terry O'Reilly

—Advertising visionary and host of the CBC award-winning radio series “The Age of Persuasion“

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Philip Beesley—Professor at Waterloo Architecture creating vastly complex ‘living’ environments that can breathe and feel

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Ray LaFlamme—Founding Director of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing whose insight changed Stephen Hawking’s mind and theories about our universe

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Paul Saltzman—Beatles photographer and two-time Emmy Award winning film & television producer-director

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Caroline Disler—A master of translation with working knowledge of ancient languages including Sumerian, Akkadian, Edomite, Ancient Hebrew, Egyptian, Sanskrit, Latin and Greek.

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Madhur Anand—Internationally-recognized scientist, poet, and professor of Global Ecological Change at the University of Guelph

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Michael Sacco—Chocolatier and social entrepreneur promoting the diversity of production of organic cacao through a structure defined as “horizontal trade”

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Darren Wershler—Canadian experimental poet, non-fiction writer and cultural critic

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Marty Avery—A connector and catalyst whose strategic approach offers remarkable insight into the human side of business

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Amy Krouse Rosenthal—New York Times best-selling children’s author, radio host and creative filmmaker

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TEDxWaterloo - February 25, 2010

Full disclosure: I am one of the lead organizers behind TEDxWaterloo, taking place on February 25, 2010.

If you are a big fan of TED and find yourself watching TEDTalks videos on a seemingly regular basis, why not come out to TEDxWaterloo on February 25, 2010 to experience a TED-like event in the company of like-minded, passionate individuals who believe in ideas worth spreading? Applications to attend TEDxWaterloo are now open and you can apply to attend here.

If you are not located in the Waterloo Region or surrounding area, you can still follow the proceedings of the day's events on Feb 25 by watching the live webcast on our website www.tedxwaterloo.com

The theme for TEDxWaterloo is Tomorrow Started Yesterday, and will feature an amazing line-up of speakers discussing a broad range of topics and ideas touching on this theme. The speaker line-up for TEDxWaterloo will be announced in the coming weeks, stay tuned!

Why do I have to apply to attend TEDxWaterloo?

I have seen a number of comments to this effect on twitter as well as on facebook, following the announcement yesterday on the TEDxWaterloo twitter account and facebook fanpage. For the sake of openness and transparency, I wanted to clarify a few of the key issues that have been brought to our attention.

To provide a bit of background to the event itself, TEDxWaterloo is organized as an independently organized TED event.

From www.ted.com/tedx

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." The program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level.

At TEDx events, unique talks given by live speakers combine with TEDTalks videos to spark deep conversation and connections. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis.

There are some guidelines as well as recommendations that TED provides to organizers to help re-create a TED-like experience at TEDx events. For example, TED encourages prospective TEDx attendees to fill out applications forms in order to showcase their commitment to attending the event.

From my own perspective as one of the organizers of TEDxWaterloo and discussions with other TEDx organizers, this approach also allows organizers of TEDx events to deeply and more meaningfully understand what motivates the audience members. Of course, there are also some practical considerations to this approach, such as capacity limitations of the venue (to be announced soon for TEDxWaterloo!) as well as budget considerations.

Taking the cue from the upcoming TED 2010 conference happening February 9-13, 2010 in Long Beach, CA, it seems to me the purpose of curating both the speakers roster as well as the audience members comes down to ensuring a rich and stimulating exchange of ideas among a diverse group of peers.

There are major differences between actual TED conferences (TED 2010, TEDGlobal 2010, TEDActive) and local TEDx events held in cities around the world. I would like to note that it is free to attend TEDxWaterloo and the application process is open to all, everyone is invited and encouraged to submit an application to attend. We look forward to seeing you there!

N.B. If you're interested in reading more about this discussion, I would encourage you to check out this page on TED's website, that addresses a number of probing questions including, 'Is TED elitist?'

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Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation

via ted.com

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TEDxToronto Live Webcast at the Kitchener Public Library - September 10 2009

TEDxToronto is taking place on September 10, 2009 at the Theatre Passe Muraille in downtown Toronto. The only problem is that the theatre holds 100 people. From what the TEDxTO organizers have mentioned on their blog as well as on Twitter, they have had an overwhelming response to the event, with over 500 applicants vying for the 100 seats.

I knew earlier on that they would be live streaming TEDxTO and in the true spirit of TED and ideas worth spreading, the organizers have encouraged people to organize live webcast meet-ups in their local communities to experience a TED-like event.

That being said, please feel free to join us for a live webcast meet-up at the Kitchener Public Library for those of you in the area. As far as I know, this seems to be the only live webcast meet-up happening in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Other live webcast meet-ups are also taking place at the Centre for Social Innovation, Toronto Public Library and the Manifesto Community Projects, all of which are locations in Toronto.

You can register to attend the TEDxTO live webcast meet-up at the KPL here.

TEDxTO Speaker Line-up:

Waawaate Fobister
Playwright, choreographer, dancer, and producer
“Telling Very Personal Stories”

Mathew Ingram
Journalist, Editor
“Five Ways New Media Will Save Old Media”

Min Sook Lee
Writer, Director
“Raising My Toxic Baby”

Peter MacLeod
Principal, MASS LBP
“Imagining 2017 and Why it Begins Now”

David Makepeace
Eclipse Guy
“Understanding Ourselves in an Epic Universe”

Michael McClelland
Architect
“Renewing Concrete Communities: Tower Renewal”

Richard St. John
Success Analyst
“Success is always asking ‘What's Next?’”

Gavin Sheppard
Co-ordinator, REMIX Project
“Creative Education”

Don Tapscott
Author
“The Future of Education”

Tom Rand
Entrepreneur
“Planet Traveler: The Green Hotel”

Steven Woods
Google Canada Engineering Site Director
“Google’s Vision for a Mobile Web”

Dr. Charlotte Yates
Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, McMaster University
“The Future of Unions”

D’bi Young
Dubpoet
“What’s Next?”

Full speaker bios can be found here.

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TEDx - Ideas Worth Spreading

I am a big fan of TED talks, so when their program TEDx was announced, I became really excited about the possibilities.

About TEDx:

TEDxTO

It seems that a group of TED-inspired people in Toronto took this message to heart and this September 10, 2009, TEDxToronto will be taking place from 1130am to 7pm at the Theatre Passe Muraille.

From what I understand, seating is limited to 100 people, and from all the buzz that TEDxTO seems to be generating, there is certainly more interest than there are seats available at the venue. However, in the spirit of TED and ideas worth spreading, the organizers of TEDxTO are looking into a live webcast of the event and I believe this is where TED-fans in the community come in.

I am certainly interested in seeing a TEDxWaterloo event happening right here in the Waterloo Region, perhaps at some point early next year. For the time being, one way to gauge interest in the broader Waterloo community is to host a live webcast of the TEDxTO on September 10 in the Waterloo Region, inviting people to come out and hear TEDx talks throughout the day. This would be a great way to introduce people to TED and perhaps generate a buzz around a potential TEDxWaterloo event at some point in the near future.

In any case, please email me at renjiebutalid (at) gmail (dot) com if you are at all interested in seeing TEDx in the Waterloo Region, whether you would like to help out with organizing a live webcast of TEDxTO on September 10, or indicating interest in organizing/sponsoring/participating/attending a possible TEDxWaterloo somewhere down the line. We'll take it one step at a time.

On that note, if you or someone you know fits the description above and are interested in speaking at TEDxTO, applications and nominations are currently being accepted online until July 17.

Follow TEDxTO on Twitter here.

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