One of the TEDxTotnes team pointed me in the direction of an intuitive and compelling TEDx talk.

Lucie Wilk spoke at TEDxAylesbury on ‘What Medicine can Learn from Art’.

Lucie is both Doctor and Author and her experiences have led her to the realisation that in the world of healthcare a persons sense of self and agency are often removed and replaced with scientific facts.

Lucie poses the question: “are scientific truths the whole truth?”

Her talk resonated with me and aroused in me a desire to take responsibility for my own self, something that I naturally believe and do but the authority and weight of the medical profession often removes this from individuals. I can’t say whether I would retain my sense of self were I to be placed in a situation where I felt powerless due to a lack of understanding or knowledge, could you?

Although Lucie called on the audience (and me via YouTube) to “take action and effect change in our life”, would I, or you be able to do this if I didn’t understand the situation?

At TEDxTotnes Kath Maguire will be taking us to the next stage. Hear what she is doing to answer the question above.

I am thrilled to have heard Lucie’s talk and if you are planning to come to TEDxTotnes. It’s insightful and thought-provoking. An excellent TEDx talk.

Don’t forget, tickets for TEDxTotnes will go on sale soon so please sign-up for details if you want to continue the conversation and continue to hear inspiring ideas, worth sharing!

www.tedxtotnes.com/tickets

Whilst talking to one of our speakers tonight, he pointed me in the direction of a TED talk given by Adora Svitak in 2010.

I watched it because it’s relevant to his talk and his message, which is inspiring in itself and as with all TED and TEDx talks I found myself re-evaluating my approach to life. A talk, available free online, thanks to TED has once again managed to make me want to take action.

This is what continues to amaze me about TEDx and when I talk to our speakers I know they all have the same mission in mind. They are here to inspire action. Make a difference, share ideas for a better world or a different concept or a change. TED and TEDx are helping people make calls to action, daily and in a unique way.

I urge you to watch Adora Svitak’s TED Talk watch it and think: Do you think Adults should learn from Kids? Our future leaders? Can we trust kids?

I think, and I’m certain I’m not alone, that yes, we should.

Did you know that TEDxExeter sold out in under 2 hours this year?

Is it a surprise given their past speakers have included the likes of Karima Bennoune who’s talk has received over 1.2m YouTube views? Harry Baker who’s slam poetry performance was also featured on TED.com? And the Scilla Elworthy who’s talk is featured on 3 TED playlists?

The curator of TEDxExeter was the first person we met when looking for motivation and inspiration after we were given our license and she has been a support and mentor ever since. We will be helping her on the day and are honoured to be part of a team that is so efficient and dedicated to TEDx.

In 2015 TEDxExeter will look at Taking the Long View and we can’t wait. We’ll be there listening intently and hoping to take in every last snippet of information.

Good luck TEDxExeter team, we can’t wait for Friday!

The TEDxTotnes Team

I went to TEDxBrighton last year and one of the talks that I still think about and cite regularly was a talk given by Megan Leckie from blockbuilders. Megan alongside Joe founded blockbuilders so that, in her words people could make a difference ‘because they can’, kids can ‘create some kind of change’.

But, how?

Well, blockbuilders use games to engage and reach kids so that they can make a difference. The example she uses in her talk is the Pheonix Estate in Lewes. They invited a group of kids in to help them design, using minecraft a town that they would want to live in. Essentially what they were doing was town planning using a game!

As Megan quite rightly points out ‘kids are experts in this (minecraft)’. They are experts in the digital world and using this as a tool to give them an opportunity is, in my opinion nothing short of brilliant.

Since this talk I have been thinking about games as an avenue to create a brighter future. I find it slightly ironic that blockbuilders had to translate the digital creations into 3D printed format to be able to communicate with the adults, ironic and amusing but also worrying.

If our children are our future and our children are engaged digitally but having to translate to their parents shouldn’t we be gaming too?

I then wondered about how adults approach games and how we could open up our minds and our potential through games. I came across another TEDx talk where Shimpei Takahashi talks about how by playing games we can come up with new ideas.

I like this idea and I believe in it and I feel there is a lot more exploring to do and whilst I remain convinced by the idea that games play a vital role in our future I remain more convinced that our kids expertise in the digital world will drive our future more.

So whether it’s digital gaming or digital living our future is certainly headed in a virtual direction.

I strongly recommend Megan’s talk if you haven’t seen it, she delivers it well and I didn’t miss a word of it either onsite or when I watched it back.

www.blockbuilders.co.uk

The production of TEDxTotnes is both inspiring and terrifying. I often catch myself wondering about my responsibility to the audience. As a licensee I feel responsible for delivering thought-provoking, controversial and inspiring talks to the TEDxTotnes audience, be they in the room with us or watching it online from Houston, Belfast or Mumbai.

As part of the TEDx community I feel duty bound to not only provide brain food but also brain relaxation and for me this comes in the form of performance, laughter and a moment where I can watch and absorb rather than watch and think.

A wonderful example of this is Bobby McFerrin’s “play – the audience!” TED talk. It’s only 3 minutes long but if I need to reset my brain I watch this. It’s simple, it’s clear and it’s funny and it gives me confidence in the wonders of the human brain.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.