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To serve as a reminder, this year we’re focusing on ideas for the Rochester area. This is a great forum for those people and ideas who wouldn’t normally have access to something like this. Some of the people we’re looking closely at have fantastic ideas to help improve our local schools or the environment for Rochesterians as a whole, but no one knows they’re out there. We’re going to change that!

So, drop me a line and hopefully we’ll be talking soon.

We do have a couple of guidelines. First, remember how things work at TED when deciding if you’ve got a speaker for us or not…do they have an idea worth spreading? It doesn’t have to be Earth-shaking or world-changing, but it should be a new and original concept. Preferably, there should be a plan in place as to how to implement the idea and/or who can make it happen and/or who can benefit from it. And, most importantly, it has to be conveyable in under 15 minutes.

Second, while it’s not hard and fast, our “theme” this year is focusing on the Rochester community itself. Our goal since inception has been to make TEDxRochester a force and forum to provide benefit to Rochester and its residents. Our first event included a great lineup of speakers, but as it was our first time putting it on we didn’t have as many options to pick only speakers that fit a particular theme. After the success of the first event there has been a lot of interest generated and we’ll be able to be more selective in what we put on the stage. While we are focusing on solutions that would have immediate benefit to Rochester, if your idea can improve any community in general we’d love to hear about it, too.

We also need a level of commitment from our speakers, a bit more so than last year. Before making any commitment to having you present, we’d like to see your talk, if possible. If you will be presenting something similar in advance to which you can invite us, that would be great. If not, we can arrange to have some time at the Geva to see it. There will also be a cold read sometime in the Fall to help determine flow and placement of speakers. There will also be at least one final rehearsal the weekend before the event to finish up any remaining details. We understand that you’re providing your idea as a benefit to the community, but we feel getting everyone together a few times in advance will help us avoid some of the issues of last year’s event.

We’re closing this open call on Monday July 26th, 2010. As you can see in the last paragraph, there’s a lot to be done even once we’ve found who our speakers actually will be, we want to get that list nailed down as soon as possible My in box is open, I can’t wait for those submissions!

Since 2000, Deb Stoiber has been the Nitrate Vault Manager at the Eastman House.  She works to preserve the heritage to be found in these older films as well as teaching a new generation of students in film preservation and conservation.  (Interesting tidbit: the vault is no longer at the Eastman House location.  It had to be moved as the film is highly flammable and in the enclosed conditions in the vault could be disastrous not only to the collection, but the surrounding neighborhood.)

In this fun talk, Deb discusses the importance of film preservation by introducing us to a quirky little film from the early 20th century called “The Sign of the Cucumber”.  It’s a half-hour film, produced by a small troupe of actors who did it for the sheer love and joy of making films.  It’s currently in the public domain due to its production date, but not all of the films in the vault are so lucky.

Due to the quirks, flaws and nuances of our copyright system a lot of these films have become “orphaned” where the production company no longer exists, but the copyright is still in effect.  As a result, these films will most likely never be seen again.  Fortunately, Deb introduces us at the end to a number of places on the web where other public domain works can be found and you can find something new in something old..

The second of our presenters from Strong, Scott Eberle is the Vice President for Interpretation at Strong.   In his fun and fascinating talk, Scott discusses the science behind play, and discoveries that have been made in recent years that show that play is more than a way of introducing skills to youngsters (such as teaching cats to be hunters), but a way in which individuals can relate and interact with each other in fun and enjoyable ways.   Please note, I said “individuals”, not “people”. Play is one of the few universals that traverses and even brings together disparate species! In this interesting talk which spans from exhibits of the French civil war on roller skates to rats giggling when tickled, you’ll learn so much about a subject that should be more important in all of our lives…

* Okay, I admit it.  Before my wife and I had our daughter, we used to borrow other people’s kids just to have an excuse to visit Strong.

As I sat and listened to Ali tell me the story of how he came from a stone mason’s family in Cyprus, to start an architecture firm in Western New York, and then design a research/residence hall for a National Park in Madagascar, I was not disappointed (the map in my mind was animating lines of travel as we spoke). Ali was our last talk of the afternoon, which was tied-in with the video we played just prior to Ali’s talk, of Janine Benyus’ work with Biomimichry, and how much we can learn from and build on the natural world. He and his partners’ work have been recognized for design excellence locally and nationally.

If you see us at the festival with our TEDxRochester shirts, stop and say hi!

The event is free on the RIT campus on Saturday, May 1 from 10AM – 5PM.

Go to http://www.rit.edu/imagine/ for more information.

Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival is a campus-wide event that showcases the innovative and creative spirit of RIT students, faculty and staff. Visitors experience the breadth and depth of RIT through interactive presentations, hands-on demonstrations, exhibitions, and research projects set up throughout campus. Inflatables, games and multiple performance stages with live music and entertainment are also a hit with visitors of all ages. Held annually each spring, Imagine RIT is the annual kickoff to Rochester’s rich festival season.

I also owe a tremendous apology to Jennifer Indovina.  Jennifer made the Rochester area proud last year when she was the first person from Rochester to become a TED fellow.  She got to go to the main event, participate in the workshops, meet and greet the folks there and even gave a talk!  I finally got to meet Jen at TEDxLila last month at The Harley School.  She gave an impassioned talk about her time at TED and the things she learned there….and somehow she didn’t make it into my last post about that event!   I have notes about her talk, but they didn’t get put in the entry.  Jen, you have my sincerest apologies and lunch is on me soon!

Now that the self-chastisement is out of the way, where does that leave us?  I don’t know about you, but it finds me and the other TEDxRochester organizers ramping up for next year’s event!  While we anticipate this year’s event will be a little easier to put together, after all people know what it is now, we’ve still got a ton of work to do.  We have a couple of ideas for the “theme” of the event.  We’d like to get participation from the City of Rochester and really make this a City event.  We’ve spoken to a few people who could be potential speakers, all of whom I’m quite excited about.  We’ve been meeting, talking and planning.

But, yes, all of this means TEDxRochester 2010 is absolutely a go!  November 1st, 2010 once again at the Geva Theatre.  That’s pretty much the extent of the detail we have for you at the moment.  We’re not sure how long it will be this year, nor who’s speaking yet.  But, to answer the other questions in advance:

- Yes, we’d love you to pass us the names of anyone you think would be a great speaker for TEDxRochester!  Self-promotion is just fine, so even if it’s you,  drop me a line!

- Yes, we will be making more announcements as the date gets closer.  There will be a press release coming soon to let every one know it’s on again, plus another later to announce further details.  As last year was the first event, we got very little coverage in advance, so folks didn’t know about it.  Based on the success, though, we anticipate a little more.

- Yes, we will no doubt need volunteers!  The staff of the Geva stepped up last year and volunteered their time and the event would’ve been only a fraction of what it was without them.  But, every bit of help helps!

- Yes, we DO need sponsors again, so if you’ve got money or services you wish to donate feel free to drop me a line!

- Yes, we WILL make sure the table with the food on it will not be up against the wall.

This site should be your primary point of contact for news and information.  As the day looms closer, more and more will start flowing.  Subscribing to our RSS feed is the easiest way to keep up-to-date.  We look forward to seeing you in November!

As innovators in education themselves, Harley was the perfect venue for this well-executed conference.  My wife and I have been considering Harley for our daughter.  Even though she’s not yet two, we decided to head to an open house in January and very quickly fell in love with the school. I was especially enthused to see that Jay Stetzer who is Harley’s artist-in-resident acting as MC for the evening.  At the open house, my wife and I were both impressed with Jay’s love and zeal for his work and were amazed that all of this energy and enthusiasm was from a man who was in his 39th year teaching at Harley!  Jay introduced the audience to the concept of “lila”, the sanskrit word for play, by engaging us in a 21st century re-imagining of the classic Mother Goose rhyme “Hickory Dickery Dock”.

With the audience suitably pumped, Jay introduced Bob Bechtold, president and founder of Harbec Plastics, an Ontario-based injection molding company that strives to be as green as possible.  Bob began his talk about how lila lead to invention when, in trying to come up with his talk, he decided to relax on vacation by blowing some bubbles, found he didn’t have any of the necessary components and had to come up with a solution.

This lead his talk to one of his personal projects which is a potential solution to the world’s water problem.  As many as one in six people on our planet don’t have access to reliably clean drinking water.  8 children die each second (which Bob provided the math to show that amounted to 144 just during his presentation) from diarrhea caused by E. Coli in their water.  Worse, women in affected countries spend as much as two hours/day retrieving water that may just kill their children.  Aside from the immediate effects, this has the long-term effect of limiting their choices in terms of work and education.  The invention that Bob has helped innovate is a portable, human powered, UV-based water treatment device that can inactivate the E. Coli in drinking water in areas where access to electricity and technology are scarce.  He discussed in detail the issues they encountered and how they overcame them.  Bob’s project is innovative and when successfully implemented will save a LOT of lives!

Next up, we had Igor Lipinski, a student at the Eastman School who combines his love of music with his passion for magic.  He opened his performance with an amazing fugue from Bach. After which, he described how fugues “worked” and described precision, skill and practice that’s needed to perform one.  In trying to memorize the piece, he had to find new ways to improve his memory.  He demonstrated his technique with assistance from an audience member and a deck of cards.  The deck was shuffled, and then Igor proceeded to memorize the position of ever card in the deck.  The true trick came as he recited each card in order while once again performing that complex fugue!

Irene Taylor Brodsky was next and she presented an overview of her life’s work as a documentary film maker.  I found this to be the most emotionally charged talk as Irene described her efforts to document her parents who, after being deaf all their lives, decided at 65 to get cochlear implants.  For me, the hardest part was when she discussed her own son’s  degenerating hearing.  Joshua loves to sing, and it made me think of my own daughter who also loves music and how I would be devastated for her in that situation.

As the McPherson Director of Education at the Memorial Art Gallery, Susan Dodge-Peters Daiss knows a thing or two about teaching people how best to appreciate and interpret  artwork.  She took us through a piece called “Shooting Flamingos” that currently resides at the MAG and what the piece means and how a person’s personal bias can influence interpretation.  I won’t spoil the surprise, though.  You’re just going to have to go to the MAG and find out what this piece is about yourself!

After a brief video from TEDIndia by Kiran Bir Sethi where she discusses how her school empowers kids with a “Yes, I can!” attitude, and the changes they’ve been able to make in India, we headed into the lobby for the break.  TED is one part inspiration, one part networking and it was great to see everyone actively involved in that.  I know it’s my favorite part; getting to meet all of the amazing people that comes to these events.  Food was provided by King David’s Restaurant and there was a raffle of merchandise donated by Mann’s Jewelers to help pay TEDxLila’s expenses.

Back from the break, Richard Ryan gives an overview of the research he’s done over the last few years.  I think his talk is best summed up in one sentence that really caught my  attention: We found there were no gains in happiness as a function of financial success”.  Ryan’s research has, to me anyway, definitively shown that striving for financial and material gains not only doesn’t bring happiness, but that it also leads to a deterioration of mental and physical health.  Worse, due to increasing media pressures, overall mental health is degrading over time with increases in anti-social behaviors.  It’s a disturbing trend, with no immediate cure, but one we need to look into very soon! Finally, you’ve got to love a talk that ends with Aristotle LOLing at Donald Trump.

The second performance of the night was provided by Grant and Niema Neteri Atkins, artists who who synthesize slam poetry and interpretive movement.  They started with Grant reciting some of his poetry, with the second of my favorite lines to take away: “In a world that is dark, be the light shining through”.   He was then followed by his wife who did a stunning dance that combined a traditional African style with modern dance, jazz and house.

Dr Alejandro Junger, MD was the last presenter of the night.  He discussed his life growing up in Uruguay, his transition to New York City to study medicine and the deterioration of health that he experienced as a result.  He then worked to find the reasons behind his issues and found some evidence that toxins in the food were causing them.   Dr.  Junger’s research has culminated in a book, Clean, in which he documents a regimen for reducing these toxins.

Before presenting the final video for the night, Julie Kling, TEDxLila licensee and organizer took the time to thank everyone involved.   The video was from TEDxBlue: Chris Wink, co-founder of the Blue Man Group who hosted that TEDx.

Julie and her crew did a wonderful job and put on a very exciting TEDx event and have a lot to be proud of.  Great speakers and the whole thing went off without a single hitch that I could see.  Congratulations, Julie! And, hopefully you’ll sign up to do it again next year!

We are very excited about the TEDxLila tomorrow at the Harley School.

The speaker lineup looks great, and I’m sure it’s going to be an incredible afternoon.

Our warmest wishes go out to the coordinators of the event, knowing that they are running around making last minute preparations and probably will not be getting any sleep tonight.

If you haven’t seen the speaker list, go check it out.

Good Luck Lila!