When we began planning this year’s TEDxWaterloo back in the summer of 2011, we had asked ourselves if there was a way to engage a wider audience of high school students beyond the venue of Centre In The Square. We were wondering if it was possible to develop a model of creating a meaningful learning experience for Waterloo Region high school students that was unique and yet still retained elements of TED + TEDxWaterloo.

And so, TEDxWaterloo Livestream @ The Chrysalids Theatre was born, in partnership with the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) and their Futures Forum Project. Close to 400 high school students plus teachers and administrators from across the Region are participating in this amazing TEDxWaterloo event.

So while over 1200 people pack the Centre In The Square this coming Wednesday, March 21 for TEDxWaterloo, The Chrysalids Theatre just down the street will play host to 400 very enthusiastic students that can only be described as a “TEDxWaterloo Livestream event meets Interactive Art Exhibit meets Science Fair.” Only more fun than that phrase actually sounds….

Throughout the day, these high school students will just about a full day of TEDxWaterloo Talks via Livestream, interact with art projects that revolve around the theme of this year’s TEDPrize, “The City 2.0” , and engage in talks with organizations such as the Institute for Quantum Computing, the Perimeter Institute, the Games Institute and the Critical Media Lab, who will be on hand to demo some of their exciting projects. The University of Waterloo CBET and Stratford Campus will also be present, along with Wilfrid Laurier University, Shad Valley and Free the Children/Me to We to speak with students.

We also want to publically thank and acknowledge The Chrysalids Theatre (formerly The Gig Theatre) and their role in this process. Joseph Chen and The Chrysalids Theatre have been very strong supporters of TEDxWaterloo from the very beginning, playing host to our very first TEDxWaterloo back in February 2010.

We can’t wait to take everything that we have learned in organizing TEDxWaterloo Livestream @ The Chrysalids Theatre, and apply this model of student engagement to different school boards across the province for next year’s TEDxWaterloo event!

For more information on this initiative, please feel free to email renjie@tedxwaterloo.com or teachers@tedxwaterloo.com

TEDx is an incredible event, as it brings together people from all walks of life, who seem to be looking for that something else. I can only imagine that what we are all looking for is a little inspiration, a little spark. I know that for me, the TED Talks have impacted my life, in ways I cannot begin to describe. I cannot duly express my gratitude to your team for bringing the event here. I remember when I got my letter of admittance to last year’s TEDxWaterloo, I was at a party and my phone vibrated with the email. It was a rush, a moment, which, left me breathless, and I’ll likely never forget it. What made it so memorable for me was the thought of being part of a group who want to disrupt the status quo. People who regardless of what they have been doing or done, want to do more, discover more, and share it. Such qualities need to be shared in this modern world, perhaps now more than ever.

In an area like Waterloo and Kitchener, it is imperative to have an event like TEDx, because in an area filled with so many entrepreneurs, game changers, and go getters, as well as a staggering amount of supporting businesses, it acts as a trunk to an ever growing tree. This is in fact why every member of your team, regardless as to how small a role they play deserves a thank you.

The TED Talks online are wonderful and can be exactly what some people need to discover, learn, and talk about with others. But, there is something completely different about walking into a room filled with people of all sorts, sitting down together, and just listening and watching a person tell their story. There is a chemistry in that act, or be it an energy that is shared, which cannot be expressed, only lived. So, I thank you TEDxWaterloo team for giving me the opportunity to experience that.

I firmly believe that what TED is, is a catalyst. That initial spark, that drove the automobile to revolutionize the world. The initial transference of electricity, that sent the first email. I believe that TED inspires others to change the world, and when we create a web of interconnected changers, the inevitable result, will, without question, be a world where humanity and it’s balance in the ecosystem that is our earth, is prosperous and lasting. The world needs TED, and perhaps even more so, the world needs the TEDx events. I am just one person saying thank you, and I hope to be able to give back the inspiration and joy your team has given me.

I know that together people are stronger, and that the day will come when people unite to change things, to disrupt the status quo, to shift our very thought of what a fulfilled life really is. And when they ask where it all began, I know, it will have all started with TEDx.

Thank you TEDxWaterloo team, keep moving forward.

Until now.

Today, the TEDxWaterloo team is proud to announce the early stage launch of our new initiative, TEDxWaterloo Teachers. The vision is a TED video database designed by and for teachers in Ontario high schools who are passionate about ideas worth spreading, and are interested in showcasing TED Talks in their classroom as an avenue for experiential learning.

At TEDxWaterloo, we so strongly believe in the impact and potential of ideas worth spreading in the classroom that we knew we had to create a TED Talks online searchable database. We also knew that to make this online resource of TED Talks truly relevant to the Ontario high school curriculum, teachers themselves had to be involved in its co-creation every step of the way. From the first day that TEDxWaterloo proposed this idea we were met with enthusiastic support.  We’ve had ongoing invaluable assistance from many secondary school teachers, yet we know we need to reach even more teachers for more insight and input, as this is truly a community initiative with amazing potential.

 We are excited to invite you to join us in this journey of co-creating TEDxWaterloo Teachers.

If you are an Ontario school teacher and are interested in participating in this project, please fill out this survey to help us uncover the potential for TED Talks in the classroom, as well as to assist us in the curation and categorization of grade and curriculum-appropriate TED material.

For more information, please email teachers@tedxwaterloo.com.

We look forward to fostering a dialogue on ideas worth spreading in your classroom!

Visit: teachers.tedxwaterloo.com

1. Developing a theme
2. Selecting speakers
3. Coaching speakers and directing the day

COACHING SPEAKERS & DIRECTING THE DAY

These days, a lot of my time is spent communicating with our speakers. There are logistics to arrange, lots of questions to answer, and just making sure they are engaged and ready when the time comes. The speakers are sending abstracts of their talks, and I have scheduled one-on-one calls with each of them. We have recently firmed up the order of our speakers, performers, and demos, and begun to get a sense for the flow of the day, and the sub-themes that have emerged in each of our three sessions (At the same time, I am still confirming a few speakers, and as always we expect some surprises near the end).

It’s important to have a few deadlines for speakers to meet, so that they can be thinking through their ideas and starting to shape their talks early on. I find the speakers really appreciate a one-on-one conversation as it lets them try out a few ideas, and it also lets them learn more about the rest of the day, and how to shape their talk to give it the greatest impact. With a little thematic coordination, we can multiply the ideas that each speaker brings to the stage.

We talk a lot around why they are so passionate about their particular ideas – what drives them, and how is this personal? If a speaker can deliver a talk from a place of great personal passion and belief, the audience will make a much stronger connection with them. Sometimes asking “why” many times over (in various ways) can get to the emotional core of an otherwise dry or seemingly objective subject matter.

I’m in awe of our speakers, and it’s exhilarating to start to get a glimpse of how their ideas will all come together on March 21st. I can’t wait to share it all with you.

We’ve made the decision to extend the deadline because we have had an outpouring of community support and, frankly, we need the extra days to accommodate the demand. Plus, we realize that with a couple of more speakers to announce in our line up in the coming days, there will be increased demand to attend. It’s only fair to make sure that everyone has a chance to attend TEDxWaterloo.

By the way, the set design for this year’s event is rumored to be awesome. The atmosphere at Centre in the Square on March 21 will be electric. Exciting. Amazing. And you’re going to be so glad you’re there.

With less than a week left to submit your application to attend, I have to admit that the TEDxWaterloo team has heard some CRAZY reasons why people are procrastinating in filling out their online application.  Here are some of them:

•  I don’t think I am interesting enough for TEDxWaterloo. 

Ah! Of course you are interesting enough! Just tell us about yourself. Why you want to be at TEDxWaterloo. What you do around the community. You don’t have to be a volunteer or change the world, just talk about your life a bit.  You might be a student slammed with homework and your community work may consist of helping your roommates polish off that keg, but eventually you will be doing something else with your life. Tell us about your goals. Or if you spend your day in a cubicle and want to get out for the day to experience all this TEDx inspiration or motivation, that’s a good reason, too.  JUST tell us something.

• It’s too much work to fill out the online application. 

NO, it’s not. It will take 10 minutes. Maybe less. Or you can write as much as you want. Take an hour if you want. Just do it.

• It’s on a Wednesday. I work on a Wednesday. 

Sick day, vacation day, personal day, professional development day, skipping school day, mental health day, “tell your boss about it  and invite them to apply to attend” day!

• It’ll be too much fun, then I have to go back to my real life and be depressed.

No kidding. There is nothing like the “TEDxWaterloo Day-After Hangover.”  You wake up the next day and realize you just met hundreds of really cool people, heard some amazing stories, ate fantastic food, drank a few beverages with people who made you laugh, think and think some more.  The only cure to this is to add them to your social network, send them an email, and hook up with them sometime soon. TEDxWaterloo is a catalyst for change!

• I don’t want to go alone.

At TEDxWaterloo, you are never really alone. You are surrounded by interesting people who want to talk to you. Besides, part of the fun is not just hanging out with the usual suspects, but to be open to meeting new people.  You don’t have to be a crazy extrovert – TEDxWaterloo is designed to make talking with other participants easy. And fun. Besides, there is food involved. Rumour has it that serious friendships (and minor flirtations) have got their start at a TEDxWaterloo buffet food line.  Go on, make new friends. You may have them for life!

• I didn’t get in last year. 

Try again. Mention you didn’t get in last year. We aren’t heartless. Besides, we admire people who don’t give up.

•  You people are crazy. 

Yeah, we are. Crazy about bringing TEDxWaterloo to our community and ensuring everyone has a fantastic time. We are crazy about spreading ideas and crazy about making sure as many people as possible can be part of it.

Now, go apply. 

Why trepidation? Because while we sincerely wish everyone who wants to attend TEDxWaterloo 2012 could buy a ticket and enjoy the day/night with fellow TEDxWaterloo participants, we are faced with two realities that prohibit this from happening:

1. Space considerations – The Centre in the Square venue can accommodate only a certain number of people  (1200) in terms of seating, moving around outside the auditorium, feeding and maintaining the interactivity level this event is meant to instill.
2. TEDx events like ours are governed by certain TED guidelines and this includes the concept of “curating” the event from the speakers to the audience. While not all TEDx events are audience curated (some TEDx organizers around the world are vehemently opposed to this concept), it has proven to be an effective tool in creating the “TED-like” experience that the TEDxWaterloo team deems essential to our event.  Curation encourages a dynamic, engaged and interested audience from an entire community: it’s an all-ages, all-stages-of-life event with the only prerequisite is that you are able to articulate in some fashion your interest in the event and your community involvement. There is also a bit of luck involved. We have to make the cut off point somewhere because of the limitations in space. We have an excellent team of trained people who read the applications (but don’t see names) and choose participants based the answers to the five questions that are most reflective of a person’s interest level and community involvement.  It’s an incredibly tough job because with so many interesting people who want to attend, there are some agonizing decisions about limits. Yet, decisions are made.

As Canadians, having to say “no” to someone is just not in our national character. We hate to disappoint and love to apologize. (That’s a good thing. It goes a long way in making society less fractious.) We offer alternatives: there are locations around the cities that will be live streaming the event so you can enjoy a different kind of community feeling and still be part of the event (we will be listing these locations in the next month or so).  You can also watch live from your computer.  And there is the waiting list for the live event in case some of the original accepted participants change their minds about attending on March 21, 2012.

One thing we do want to stress is that you don’t need to be super special, amazing, a wunderkind or fabulously accomplished to attend TEDxWaterloo. Heck no! We seek a wide range of experience in life – you might be in elementary school or a retirement home; you could be homeless or build homes; you may have seen every TED talk or maybe just discovered your first one. You could be new to this city, community or country or able to fly here from a whole different nation in your private jet (so far that hasn’t happened that we know of!)  Just fill out the five questions to the best of your ability; state your interest and send it off.  As Wayne Gretzky famously said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”  So take that shot!

In the end, the audience selection process works for the TEDxWaterloo community.  The people who find themselves listening to our speakers and engaging with fellow participants outside the auditorium are thrilled with the diversity of the speakers and audience.  It’s not the same-old, usual suspects crowd they run into at work, school, cultural events or their day-to-day lives. Sure, there are always familiar faces but there is also that awesome feeling of meeting someone new and thinking “Wow, this person is so interesting; I am glad they are here.” Connections are made, new friendships are forged and, most importantly, ideas are spread.  

P.S. The Application process ends on January 27, 2012.  So fill out your applications early to avoid the last second rush!