TEDxLila: a resounding success!

One of the drawbacks to the time of year we held TEDxRochester is that right after this amazing event we slammed head first into the holidays.  The exultation of having pulled off the event, plus the hustle and bustle of the holiday season has left me drained for months.  I was beginning to think nothing could pull me from the funk I was in…until last Sunday night.  The Rochester area got its second taste of locally produced, independantly organized TED-like excitement with TEDxLila which occurred at the Harley School.  (Apologies for the poor quality of the pictures.  I took them with my iPhone, so they’re not the best.)

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!