TEDx San Diego

*Warning - a post that is NOT about running! Prepare yourself.

A few years ago I had a coworker start talking to me about TED Talks. I had never heard of them (to her shock and horror) and after telling me about a few talks in particular, she told me to check out the website "knowing" that I'd love them. I have to be honest, I watched a few and found them totally boring. Maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind or maybe there just happened to be several topics I wasn't interested in posted most recently, but they just didn't capture my interest. I figured they just weren't my thing and forgot about them for a while until I happened across their video podcast a few months later. (Found here.) I subscribed to the feed and gave TED Talks a second chance. As I started listening to the podcasts in my car during my wonderful commute to and from work, I realized that some of the topics of the TED talks really were interesting to me. Some were fascinating, others were moving, several were inspiring, and okay ... some were still boring to me. The more I listened to the series though the more I found even the 'uninteresting' topics interesting, because I was intrigued by the person's perspective and performance.

TEDx San Diego Stage at Qualcomm

Last year I watched two TED Talks which were of particular interest to me. The first was from Molly Barker, founder of Girls on the Run, and the second was from Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run.

TEDx Charlotte - Molly Barker Part 1

TEDx Charlotte - Molly Barker Part2

TEDx PennQuarter - Christopher McDougall

TEDx San Diego

My boss is also a fan of TED talks and we've discussed several episodes in the past. Back in August she sent me a news article on TEDx San Diego (who even knew they had such a thing!?) with a link to apply for tickets. Wow you had to apply just to go? I smell exclusivity! Of course I want to go! I wish I had saved a copy of my application since I can now barely remember what the application asked for much less what I wrote, but the general gist from what I remember was them asking for a  five word statement about your "journey", a 140 character tweet-lengthed statement about yourself, and an open ended question about why you wanted to attend TEDx. 

Guess what I ended up writing about? Did you guess running? Wrong! Well, okay, only partially wrong. I wrote blathered on about the importance of living life with passion and encouraging others to do the same, and how I believe I am doing that through my job, my running, and my volunteer work with Girls on the Run. I also said that I felt that people who talked at TED with their "idea worth sharing" were people who were passionate about a topic or cause, and that I often found it inspiring and was interested in becoming further inspired by attending TEDx. I applied early in October and was accepted towards the end of the month. My boss and friend Devika also applied and I was super excited when I found out that we all got in and were able to attend together.

My Acceptance - I'm in!

Me, Devika, Kate

Where's Waldo?

One problem though ... by the time I was accepted to TEDx (occurring on Saturday December 3rd) late in the month of October, I had already signed up to run the California International Marathon on Sunday December 4th. Ack! What to do? What to do? I was obviously already committed to the marathon and I had planned on driving up to Sacramento with my dogs and staying with my cousin. I felt that attending TEDx was a once in a lifetime type of event (okay so its every year, but who knew if I'd be able to go again?) and that I couldn't miss that either. So ... I looked at flights and found a cheap flight that would get me up to Sac late Saturday night after TEDx, and in the area in time for the marathon. (Totally not idea race prep strategy, to be discussed in a future post.)

Checking Out Car2Go - Urban Electric Smart Car Sharing - Genius!

Session 1 - Self

The event was scheduled to run from 8:30am to 4:30pm with 13 speakers in the morning and 16 speakers in the afternoon. Quite a packed day! (Overview of speakers can be found here.) The day kicked off with a captivating spoken word poet, followed by a life coach, a Lucid Dreaming teacher, a horse whisperer, a social psychologist, and the VP of Product Development for Groupon. Of this first set of speakers, I found Suneel Gupta's talk to be the most interesting. (He's the one from Groupon, brother of Dr. Sanjay Gupta from CNN.) He talked about the Kahani Movement - "a social network  that aims to capture untold stories  from first-generation South Asians in the US and provide these stories with a platform to be heard." You can see a trailer for the movie that has come out of this project here.

Social Psychology and Mind Perception Talk

Session 2 - Community

After the break, the first speaker in the section about community showed an amazing concept for a flexible boat used to clean up oil spills from an organization named Protei. Next up was the founder of the Keep a Breast Foundation (or as you know them - the makers of the "I Love Boobies" bracelets. After the boobies we saw a presentation from an engineer from UCSD who started a program called myLab which hopes to inspire passion in engineering with kids through hands-on projects. So cool! It made me miss engineering for a brief moment.

3D Chalk Art

We also saw a talk (and outside saw an example) from a 3D street chalk artist who made amazing dimensional scenes that I've seen online before. I was so excited to see one in person!

Fish eye Lens to Give Perspective

Kate on England

Me Ruling California

Session 3 - Global

The third session focused on a global theme and the speakers were mostly scientists and engineers. From this group the one that I found to be the most interesting was the zookeeper from the San Diego Zoo who came to talk about biomimicry, a field I knew nothing about. Biomimicry, or bioinspiration is "a field of integrative study in which biological systems, processes, and elements are studied to draw analogies to be applied to human design challenges in a sustainable manner." Apparently San Diego is the center of such research!

Biomimicry of Alligator Skin for Durable Materials

Session 4 - Seeds of Change

After the global session the talks then turned to "seeds of change", and we heard ideas from people who were taking steps to change themselves, their community, and the world. To kick off this session Richard Dreyfuss gave a speech about the Dreyfuss Initiative and the need to teach civics in American Schools. Surely to my parents' dismay, I found this topic truly, utterly boring. Maybe this makes his point. I am a product of the American public school system, and I have little to no interest in the topic. How can I keep up on civics AND the Kardashians? jk

Richard Dreyfuss & The Dreyfuss Initiative

After Richard snorefest (kidding!) was Ellen Gustafson from FEED Projects talking about how hunger and obesity are essentially the same issue - lack of proper nutrition. Have you seen the FEED bags at Whole Foods before? I bought one for David a couple Christmas' ago and was really intrigued by this woman's organization and initiative. 

Hunger & Obesity - The Same Problem

At some point during her talk she mentioned her age and I marveled that someone only a couple of years younger than me had done something so amazing. This was actually a common theme through out the day. Older or younger, all of these people had done amazing things.I felt like a bit of a slump several times in the day listening to the speakers and wondered if someday I would be able to create such impactful change.

Smiling Required!

Cool Graphic Recordings of Each Speaker

Later in the Seeds of Change session came my favorite speaker of the whole day. Amy Krous Rosenthal came to talk about the "crevices of like", aka the small bits of time that you have here and there where you're in between finishing one thing, and getting ready to do another. She talked about how people often marvel at her ability to find the time to sit down and write a book. She pointed out that she never has a big stretch of time to do this, most people don't. Instead she has time here or there, and little by little the book comes together. 

The Crevices of Life - Make the Most of Them!

This made me think about how people often ask me how I find the time to do so many things. Well part of it is because I don't like to sleep and I have a hard time relaxing, but the other part of it is that I'm extremely organized with my time (can we say checklists all day?) and I also make the most of each day. In the morning I catch up on emails while having breakfast, on the way to work I listen to some podcasts, during lunch I work on Girls on the Run or Glam Runner stuff, on the drive home I catch up with David, while watching TV at night I make Glam Runner tutus, before going to bed I read for 15-30 minutes,  and when I'm waiting at the doctors office, nail salon, or any place where I need to sit and wait, I'm doing something that I'd like to get done. This is partially thanks to my ability to multi-task, but its more about my (psychotic) desire to plan and organize things, and to maximize the time I have in a day. I don't just like to be busy, I like to be productive.

Speaking of Productivity - Check out Qualcomm's Patent Wall!

One of the short films that Amy created during the crevices of life is this hilarious video titled "Life is a Marathon". She staged a meetup where people came with signs to a subway station at the end of a workday, and they cheered on everyone getting off the train and completing their day. This video really made me smile.

Life is a Marathon

The afternoon wrapped up with some quick 5-minute updates from past speakers, and soon the day was over. The magical day was over! It was an amazing event (even with the topics I was less interested) and it left me wondering what it was that I could do to come up with an idea worth sharing, and taking that idea, my passion, and some hard work to make a change in the world. These speakers were amazing, as was the work they were doing in their different organizations, non-profits, and jobs. If you have an opportunity to see a TED event in your town, take it!

Beautiful Photo Project Showcasing the San Diego Homeless

Once the day ended my boss and I rushed out of there to beat the traffic and I headed home for a quick stop to take my dogs out, grab my suitcases, and rush off to the airport. I thought a lot about these TED talks on my flight, during my race the next day, and over the past few days. I'm not sure if I'll ever have an idea big enough for TED, but even if I don't I hope I can continue to take the passion that I have for life to help change the world. In a small way of course. You have to start somewhere!