A group of students from our Futures Forum class at Huron Heights Secondary School in Kitchener, Ontario, are putting together a Salon, in partnership with TEDxYouth@Waterloo, with the theme of “chasingHome.”

On Wednesday May 22nd, 2013, our class hopes the Waterloo Region community can come together to make this event an amazing experience.

Part of our goal for this event is to help raise money which we will donate towards our school’s Relay for Life event as well as the H.E.L.P. organization.

We’ve put together an amazing line-up of speakers both from in and outside of the community. Our keynote speaker is Holly Painter – a spoken word poet who performed at the 2013 TEDxYouth@Waterloo event. Other TEDxYouth@Waterloo speakers who will be performing at our event include 9-year old ocean warrior Maddie Cranston and Richard McLean – an advocate for people who are homeless who will share his own journey of discovering home. Complete biographies on our speakers can be found on the TEDxYouth@Waterloo website.

Our last keynote speakers are H.E.L.P., a group of three Grade 11 Jacob Hespeler Secondary School students who look to shed light on the issues of homelessness in Waterloo Region. Half the money raised from this event will be donated to their organization so that they can continue to distribute food and other needed items throughout the Region.

We will also be hosting some performers from our own school community. Students throughout the school have put forth their bid to be allowed to speak, dance, or sing at the event themselves, all relating their performance to the theme of “Chasing Home”. We’ll also share some TED videos, which cover the issue. We’re working towards making this event a great experience for all those involved, and hope that anyone who lives in Waterloo Region is able to come out. We hope to see you there!

Outer space. What is it? Who resides there? Does it end?

The mystery of outer space has perplexed us, scared us, intrigued us, and excited us. Thinking of its enormity, is it possible that we are not alone in the universe? Are we Earthlings the only ones existing, rotating around the sun and surrounded by nothingness?

It’s a question Rob Manning has spent some time pondering.

“Before we started sending people to the moon, we believed that these planets were inhabited. Our view of the planets is that they were habitable places. In fact, habited. Other civilizations could invade earth. Oh, wouldn’t that be exciting? It gives me chills just thinking about it!”

According to Manning – the man behind the missions to Mars – scientists, writers, musicians and authors created this sense of wonder by giving us visions of what these unseen worlds might look like. And they called it “outer space”. The most amazing part? We believed them.

Rob Manning, Chief Engineer of the Mars Curiosity Project

To understand Manning’s fascination with Mars, you have to know his journey. For over 32 years, Manning has been designing, testing and operating spacecraft as an Engineering Fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He has been part of the Mars missions since the early 90’s and has most recently helped to successfully land the Curiosity Rover on Mars in August 2012.

Beginning in 1997 with the Mars Pathfinder Mission, Manning’s idea of Mars drastically changed after viewing the photographs of Mars that the spacecraft had taken. He was struck by the plainness of the planet, comparing its bland landscape to the likes of Sudbury, Ontario. Manning was ready for something big and what surfaced troubled him.

“Maybe we hadn’t gone far enough. Maybe Earth was all by itself and we were alone. It made me really sad to think about that. Earth spinning all alone around the sun, surrounded by a huge vast nothingness.”

Determined to know more, NASA embarked on another Mars exploration mission using two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.

“Going to Mars has been a wonderful experience. But one of the things that people don’t know about robotic spacecraft is that people think we actually send the robotics there and they do the work for us and we find out how we did. That’s how it actually works but what also happens is that we become part of those vehicles. The steering camera are our eyes, the wheels are our feet, we travel on the surface of Mars where there are geologists and geochemists scientists following along with us and looking as we are driving along.”

Through these missions to Mars, Manning’s team discovered that water once formed on the red planet. With this knowledge, the possibility of Mars being as habitable as Earth is becoming more of a reality than just a theory. If this is true, is it crazy to think that life could have started on Mars?

“Charles Darwin discovered that all the items in our world have been connected with life and travelled from place to place in rare circumstances. Turtles, birds and animals were travelling from island to island. Could it be that the same thing happened between the planets?”

4 billion-year-old meteor found in the Antarctic originally from Mars

Using a specific example from 1984, Manning explains how a meteor found in the Antarctic was originally from Mars. The rock was 4 billion years old and had lived on Mars 15 million years ago before it was launched up into space. During that time, the rock circled the sun for another 15 million years before crashing into Earth at the end of the last ice age.

After a group of scientists at NASA conducted tests on the rock, they discovered that there might be signs of primitive nano bacteria in the rock. This means that the rock was alive! How crazy is that?

While the rock didn’t indicate if there was life on Mars, it did prove that it is possible that life can travel from place to place within the solar system.

Bound and determined to further investigate the notion that Mars could have once been habitable, Manning and the team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory set out on another mission to Mars.

Last August, they successfully landed the Curiosity Rover on Mars. This past January, they began drilling and collected samples of gray clay. After analyzing the clay, they confirmed that this clay was formed under wet, warm conditions on Mars. Upon further analysis, they were able to announce to the world that they’ve proven beyond doubt that Mars was once habitable for life.

Currently, Manning and his team are waiting. Right now, Mars is behind the sun for the next month but after that, his team will be ready for more exploration.

“And hopefully if we are lucky, in the next two years of exploration, we might find chemicals traces of our kind. So perhaps, we’re going home…”

Star acrobat, Aygul Memet, performing for TEDxWaterloo audience in March

True dedication is not saying, “I went to the gym today”. It is ingrained in your life; as valuable as the air you breathe. Some rare people in this world achieve feats which take a life-time of dedication to master. Aygul Memet is one of them.

Aygul had great natural flexibility as a child which led to her being chosen to join the Chinese national circus. This star acrobat later ran away from the circus, leaving her native Uyghur and family behind in 2005  so she could establish a new life for them in Canada. Happily, she was reunited with them later and continues to amaze audiences around the world with her jaw-dropping acrobatic skill.

She was the only circus arts performer to reach the finals in the television show,  “Canada’s Got Talent”. Clearly, Aygyl has dedicated her life to acrobatic prowess.

Unbelievable. Can you even do 10 pushups?

I had the pleasure of watching Aygul perform for TEDxWaterloo in March. What I enjoyed pondering was what kind of mental state is required to achieve such feats. What was she thinking as she amazed hundreds of people? Her mental focus had to be razor sharp!

That dedication and state of mind is what we should all strive for.

Noel Biderman, AshleyMadison founder, addressing TEDxWaterloo audience on the what online data reveals about infidelity.

Adultery is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of home. At least not for me. So, I must admit when I first saw Noel Biderman’s name on the list of speakers this year and read about his company, AshleyMadison, a website whose tag line is “Life, is short. Have an affair,” I raised my eyebrows.

I wondered what Noel would have to say to the TEDxWaterloo audience and after watching his guest appearances on American talk shows like Dr.Phil and The View during which audience members hurled almost hateful remarks at Noel, I was eager to see how the TEDxWaterloo audience would react. By the end of it, I was impressed with his straightforwardness and charisma, and the information that he shared got me thinking more about how our online habits can uncover facets of societal behaviour.

Polling the TEDxWaterloo audience on infidelity

Noel started his talk with a simple poll of the audience: a show of hands to indicate how many people were cheating on their partners. Not surprisingly, I saw no hands in the air. But I thought his poll was a clever and cheeky way to illustrate his idea of “declared reality” versus “revealed reality”. AshleyMadison, Noel said, deals with “revealed reality” and is a valuable data source that could give insight into the types of people who engage in infidelity. This data, he believes, could lead to better understanding their motivations.

4x as many 39-year-olds than 38-year-olds use site

AshleyMadison and partner universities such as Duke University, NYU, and Michigan State are analyzing the data on the 17 million users who use the website to commit affairs. Noel shared some statistics from the research that has been done so far. For example, there are 4x as many 39 -year-olds than 38-year-olds who use Ashley Madison. Noel believes that the age difference can be explained in the same reason why people approaching 40 might start getting hair transplants or buying expensive sports car – the midlife crisis. It is a time where people start to recalibrate their lives and really reflect on what they want.

Holiday disappointment possible catalyst for infidelity

Also could disappointing holiday plans be a cause of infidelity? Possibly. Noel revealed that the busiest of the days of the year for AshleyMadison follow Valentine’s Day, New Years Day, Mothers Day, and Fathers Day. As Noel explained, spouses typically build up these holidays in their minds to be something special and when those expectations are not met (perhaps their partner forgets or shows a lacklustre effort in planning something special) it could lead them to find compensation elsewhere.

An interesting reality revealed through AshleyMadison.

Noel shared that there are twice as many black males than black females, and 3x as many Asian females than Asian males who use AshleyMadison to engage in casual interracial relationships. Also, 91% of users from Georgia have partners of a different race.

I think what I took away most from Noel’s talk is that perhaps it’s time to have a true conversation on what the modern marriage is. Certainly, 17  million subscribers is a significant number and increasing use of AshleyMadison may signal that people need to have more honest conversations with themselves and their spouses about what they want and need.

Ramy Nassar, Angela Pause and Matt Gorbet addressing TEDxWaterloo 2013 audience

After every TEDxWaterloo event, people ask us about our speakers – how they came to be on our stage and the process behind getting them there.

The simple answer is the curatorial team (Matt Gorbet and myself, along with Ramy Nassar who has one degree of separation from all the interesting people in the world) ask them and they say yes or no. But getting to that point is full of twists and turns. You see, once we have decided upon a theme for the day and how it reflects the Technology, Entertainment and Design aspect of TEDx; with our own local “TEDxWaterloo flavor” we begin our search.

It is a worldwide effort and it involves a fair bit of research, as well as reliance on the tidbits of information about interesting topics that all TEDx curators store away, just waiting for the day when that particular person or idea fits into a TEDx event. It helps to be eclectic in your reading habits and insatiably curious. We always look close to home because, frankly, we live in an area that is one of the richest sources of innovation and ideas anywhere in the world. We ask around and we have a “nominate a speaker link” on our website. Yes, we have chosen speakers from that list! Rarely, but it has happened. We never choose motivational speakers or those with a corporate message. We are vigilant against pseudo science, but aren’t above tugging heartstrings or ensuring there are some good laughs throughout the day.

The Approach

When Matt and I feel confident that a person has potential as a speaker, we either send them a carefully worded email or make a phone call. We are not inviting them to speak at this point; we are inviting them to engage in an exploratory conversation about the potential of being a TEDxWaterloo speaker. People say no to us and people are uncertain about the difference between TED and TEDx and sometimes they have never heard of either. Some are nervous, and some can’t commit the amount of time involved to present a great TEDx Talk.

After a conversation, or two, Matt and I decide together whether to send a formal invitation as a speaker, outlining the commitment involved (talk draft deadlines, audio/visual technical requirements, logistics, rehearsals and when desired, speaker coaching.) We are careful to stage our invitations; to see how the “line up” is progressing and where we may need to add a different tone. It is not a shotgun approach. While we are working with unique individuals, we also have to consider how each them add a new layer to the entire audience experience.

Cold Feet and High Ledges

Invariably, over the weeks of contact, a speaker or two gets cold feet. Matt calls it “talking them off the ledge.” He’s good at it. I backed out of co-hosting duties three times, until Matt persuaded me that not only could I do it, but that I would be great at it. It works because we build up a relationship of trust with our speakers. Matt and I have a lot of experience interacting with people and their ideas – he and his partners have a very successful design-thinking company that is all about people and ideas, and I have spent 27 years as a professional writer – essentially asking interesting people questions and distilling the essence of their ideas into a story. Together,  we are able to work closely with the speakers to allow them to tell their story in under 18 minutes. Sometimes 5 minutes. Or whatever time we decide is necessary to get the idea across to our diverse audience. We also have to keep in mind that each talk is part of a much larger whole for our live audience on that day – there is much discussion about pacing and order of speakers; it’s as carefully produced as your favorite music cd. But, here’s the rub – each talk must stand alone as that is what the final “product” is – a TEDxWaterloo Talk that is released by itself and viewed independently. Matt and I are constantly working at both levels. Fortunately, we make a good team and even when things are going south (as they sometimes do), we work through it and refocus. One thing we never forget though is to have fun and realize how lucky we are to be doing what we are doing!

To Coach or Not to Coach

Of course, not all speakers want our help. Nor do we insist. Some have a very clear idea of what they will say and how they will say it. They graciously accept small edits and comments from us, while other speakers request, and receive, much more hands-on coaching and “talk” crafting. Sometimes we are ruthless in our editing assistance, but distilling ideas into a small time frame is tricky business, and one that Matt and I work hard at. In the end, it is always their talk and their ideas; this is one of the golden rules of curating – letting the speaker find their voice and express their passion.

What is amazing to just about everyone outside of the TEDx community is that everyone involved is a volunteer – including the speakers. No speaker gets paid (although we do cover the cost of transportation to get them to Kitchener), and neither do we. It is definitely a labour of love for everyone involved. TEDx has a funny way of becoming a passion – some say an addiction, but who can argue with Ideas Worth Spreading?

On the actual day of the event, when the speaker gets up on stage to share their idea, they are doing it from the heart. They are part entertainer, part performer, an expert in their field and always, by then, an integral part of the TEDx community. As are you.

Some of the “army” of TEDxWaterloo volunteers that made it all happen!

TEDxWaterloo 2013 wouldn’t have been possible without the generous support of our community partners along with our army of close to 80 volunteers!

Our title partners, Libro Financial Group and Desire2Learn, have been valued TEDxWaterloo partners for three years now. New title partner, Manulife Financial, joined their ranks this year and brought us the third session of the TEDxWaterloo 2013 program entitled “Home Beyond.”

Manulife Financial had a special interest in profiling the volunteer organization behind the TEDxWaterloo initiative, which is now in its 4^th consecutive year.  So much so, they’ve asked if they can produce a video about our volunteers.

They also helped our Social Media team do some innovative things in the social media space. Several weeks leading up to the event and when we welcomed 1,500 people into the Centre In The Square to participate in the day, Manulife Financial, working closely with our team, worked on a live feed program to extend our reach to an even larger audience.

Nicole Boivin, Manulife Financial’s Chief Branding and Communications Officer, said the company is proud to support innovative initiatives like TEDxWaterloo.

“We are drawn to this partnership for two reasons”, she said. “The first is the commitment TEDx events have in promoting thought-leadership on a variety of topics.  This certainly aligns with Manulife’s brand value of “Forward Thinking”- which TEDxWaterloo so wonderfully highlighted at the event by linking our partnership to the theme of “Home Beyond.”  The second is the amazing group of volunteers that invest their time to make this event an unbridled success each year. These volunteers are the backbone of TEDxWaterloo and we are proud to have the opportunity to help showcase their story.”

Those not in our TEDxWaterloo audience in Center in the Square on March 27th were able to watch the talks online via the Livestream generously provided by Desire2Learn.

When TEDxWaterloo organizers approached Libro Financial Group in 2010 to help take TEDx to the next level, they didn’t hesitate, according to TEDxWaterloo Director and Co-Host, Ramy Nassar.

“With with very little experience or track record in producing events like this, they jumped on board and not only that, they also helped direct other community-minded organizations to join in supporting the program.”

Quarry Integrated Communications  is our Design Partner and they created TEDxWaterloo’s graphic “look and feel” and designed our chasingHOME wordmark and icons (as they have for the last three years).  Quarry is a founding partner of TEDxWaterloo and shown a deep and generous commitment to supporting TEDxWaterloo in any TEDxWaterloo-branded event.

“I can’t think a more worthwhile organization to throw our support behind than TEDxWaterloo.” Quarry President and COO, Ken Whyte said. “Our time, talent and resources invested are multiplied a thousand fold in what we collectively are able to give back to this community – all because of the efforts, passion and enthusiasm of the TEDxWaterloo organizers.”

 

Ken Whyte,
Quarry President/COO

“TED is all about ideas worth spreading”, Ken noted. “The Waterloo team has taken the ‘E’ (entertainment) of TEDx to new heights – to experiences worth spreading and sharing, to education worth spreading. Every year it grows with new ideas, new ventures, and new people in the region sharing the experience of TEDx for the first time. At Quarry, we consider being part of this initiative and this team as both an honour and a privilege.”

While we owe much of our success this year to our corporate partners, not all our support came from large companies. In fact, two very special individuals, who asked to remain anonymous, made a significant financial contribution for the second year in a row to TEDxWaterloo as Event Partners. Their generosity helped make the event accessible to the community.

In the spirit of volunteerism, we should mention that our speakers are also volunteers who passionately believe in the power of shared ideas and were generous enough to give their time to deliver powerful talks.

We are thankful for of all our partners and volunteers who gave financial support, gifts in kind and months of dedicated effort to make the event a success. They are Waterloo Region’s community treasures and their enthusiastic support both powered and shaped the memorable day of inspiration that defined TEDxWaterloo 2013.

Brain – Noun: An organ of soft nervous tissue contained in the skull of vertebrates, functioning as the coordinating center of sensation and intellect…

So, will this still be an accurate definition in the very near future? What about when we have successfully engineered a “brain”? When “Billy” in that chat forum isn’t a kid down the street on his computer, but an actual computer. A computer that can talk, listen, act, learn and problem- solve –  just like us.

Chris Eliasmith believes maybe it isn’t such a ridiculous idea to simulate the human brain. He believes this so deeply that he has successfully created the world’s largest functional brain simulation named “Spaun“.

Chris Eliasmith

Let’s take a second to stop and use our own brains to think about our own brains. Can you begin to comprehend the complexity of it and what it does every second? A human brain allows you to walk down the street in full conversation with another human being all while chewing gum, being aware of one’s surroundings, following internal directions to your destination, and even worrying about that next meeting or chocolate bar you just ate!

Yikes! That is a big list.

What makes the list even more impressive is that it’s all done through interactions among millions upon millions of identical neurons. Neurons whose only job is to pass signals to one another in combinations that allow you to do all of this at once.

Understanding the brain could help us heal it

Chris hopes that by successfully simulating the human brain, we can better understand it. Then, once we understand it, we can begin to heal it. Brain disorder, damage and disease would be a thing of the past. We could improve our brains, just as we currently improve our muscles through exercise and drugs.

It’s not easy though! The tremendous efforts invested by Chris and his team at the University of Waterloo have built a simulation that requires 2.5 hours to simulate 1 second of some functionality!

I believe advancements in nanotechnology, quantum physics and the fact that Chris’ work is open source, will allow Chris and others in his field to achieve their goal sooner rather than later.

Perhaps we should consider what happens AFTER we have simulated the human brain. What then makes it different from you and I? Surely, the human race will find out sooner than we think!

Mountains of data surround us. Data tells us if we have a decent chance of buying the winning lottery ticket, or if burning our cash makes as much sense.

Data provides the cold facts about global warming.

It segments our population, tallies our economic prosperity and warns of threats to food security in developing nations or conflict zones.

Statistical data also records the low percentage of female scientists in the rigorous field of  particle physics.

CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) particle physicist, Alison Lister, is among that minority of female scientists. As part of the ATLAS experiment team of 3,000 scientists from 38 countries focused on fundamental research, Alison’s team was responsible for the amazing discovery of the Higgs Boson, or “God particle” in July 2012.

“There are only 20% of women in the ATLAS experiment at CERN but we are making progress,” she told the TEDxWaterloo audience on March 27th, 2013.

On the other hand, she noted, as female researchers age, they have tended to drop out of scientific careers in greater numbers than their male counterparts.

So which argument is correct? Is the relatively low female participation in scientific research like this a problem of gender discrimination or a result of aging and lifestyle choices? People tend to be too easily swayed by data – especially from an expert.

“Both arguments are not necessarily correct. You don’t know until you have more data”, Alison pointed out, adding, “You can’t believe everything you hear at TEDxWaterloo!”

Alison Lister, CERN particle physicist, at TEDxWaterloo

Alison believes that as we are required to deal with growing mountains of data, we need to have a basic understanding of data mining and statistical analysis in order to make sense of it all. Our politicians and leaders have to understand this data, she said, in order to make informed decisions on our behalf.

Her dream is to help make society one dominated by reason, critical thinking and the scientific method of analysis.

If it wasn’t for the brilliant scientists at CERN, she said, the internet would not have developed as we know it. Something to remember “next time you open your smartphone.”

Above all, she believes, we need to preserve our sense of curiosity. As a child, Alison loved a book called “What’s Inside” which explained the inner workings of many things in the world and fed her own sense of curiosity. Too often, children lose this as they grow older, she said, and this concerns her.

Both her parents were physicists who met and fell in love at CERN. So, growing up,  Alison’s natural inquisitiveness was welcomed.

“It was quite normal that for my 8th birthday I got a trip to Disney and a scientific set.”

Alison currently trains young scientists to think more critically about the world in order to effectively problem-solve.

“We are used to being the gladiators of our science, except for using swords, we use our minds.”

In reflecting on the 40 years of research that culminated in the recent discovery of the Higgs Boson, Alison said that atoms only comprise 5% of particle energy in the universe. The rest is made up of dark matter and dark energy.

“The dark energy, that’s for our granddaughters to figure out. That is what keeps ME up at night. What excites your curiosity?”