TEDxSunnyvale: Life After Doomsday

What comes after the end?
What do you do when the sun comes up the day after it was all supposed to be over?

. . . Together we’ll explore endings that failed to end, ponder new beginnings, and visit the times after “end times.” Our event Theme has led us to a day that will be both whimsical and serious, but not terrifying. Our goal is to feed our brains, and to encourage thoughtful discussion, all in a friendly and comfortable atmosphere.

As is our tradition, TED^xSunnyvale held our most recent event at TechShop San Jose. The staff went all out. They had creating a cool poster to promote our event and since our last event they had made black out curtains to block all of the windows. It definitely gave us a more theater-like atmosphere to show the TED and TED^x videos that the team had selected.

Refreshments were laid out. We offered coffee and donuts as our participants arrived. To support local businesses we purchased the donuts at Psycho Donuts across the street and some of the coffee was from Roy's Station. TechShop also sponsored us their in-house coffee. Thanks TechShop!

Once again our fearless leader Gordon Garb came up with a new concept for name badges. Gordon realized that if our event branding could be removed, our participants could reuse their name tags at other events as the badges themselves were made out of dry-erase board.

So this time instead of laser etching the entire badge, they were partially etched and we attached stickers to the rest that could be peeled off later and a new greeting or event  could be handwritten in with a whiteboard pen.

Our participants arrived by 10:30 AM to kick off Life After Doomsday. We had a great group of people attending. We did intros and learned more about people's views on Doomsday.

Participant Michelle even made suggestions about her favorite Doomsday themed books. I thought I'd pass them along in case you're interested in the same genre:

1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
3. The Holy Machine by Chris Beckett
4. Dark Eden by Patrick Carman

In light of our theme, Gordon asked all of us our "favorite' doomsday scenario. He wrote them all down on a whiteboard and later we matched up how many were addressed in the videos that day.

I was the only one who struggled for a "favorite" scenario. It just seemed so incongruous to me. Until Gordon mentioned global warming. Then I said that would have to be my favorite because the last person standing as the waters rose could say "I told you so." And I was sure that person would be a woman. LOL

In the end the event sparked meaningful conversations between the attendees at the conclusion of each video. Click on the video titles below to view them in their entirety.

LIFE AFTER DOOMSDAY SESSION 1

Paul Gilding: The Earth is Full
17 minutes - TED 2012

Sophal Ear: Escaping the Khmer Rouge
6 minutes - TED 2009

John Hodgman: The End is Nigh
14 minutes - TED^xMidWest

Christien Meindertsma: How pig parts make the world turn
9 minutes - TED Global 2010

Amy Purdy: Living beyond limits
10 minutes - TED^xOrangeCoast 2

Wade Davis: The Worldwide Web of Belief and Ritual
20 minutes - TED 2008

Ian Goldin: Navigating our global future
(Not Shown but Recommended) 
7 minutes - TED 2012

Lunch: We split up and wandered around TechShop to pick up lunch to go and brought it back to eat with the group. Some of us had Jack in the Box, others pizza, and most went for Indian food. 

I had a slice of Super Veggie pizza for lunch. I also found religion walking down the street. Or maybe I should say religion found me when a nice woman chatted me up at a crosswalk. After crossing the street she offered me a "bible" print out.

I also tried an Indian fried cauliflower dish called Gobi Manchurian that Gordon shared with me. I LOVED IT! I can't wait to have it again. It reminded me a lot of the sweet chili paste "pik pow" sauce I've had at Thai restaurants in the past. I used to cook a breaded shrimp dish like that years ago. It never occurred to me that I could still make it using cauliflower instead of shrimp. Since it is deep fried I will have to limit it to an occasional treat even though I'd like to eat it at least once a week. You're welcome heart and arteries.

After lunch we dimmed the lights and kicked off the second session. Here are the speakers and videos:

SESSION 2

Jared Diamond: Why Societies Collapse
(Not Shown but Recommended) 
19 minutes - TED 2003

Prepper Tips - Rehydration
1 minute excerpt - National Geographic

Richard Sears: Planning for the end of oil
7 minutes - TED 2010

Jill Sobule - Manhattan in January
3 minutes - TED 2006

Ric Elias: 3 things I learned while my plane crash
5 minutes - TED 2011

Thomas Calloway - Why the End of the World?
15 minutes - TED^xAsheville

Rajesh Rao: A Rosetta Stone for the Indus script
17 minutes TED 2011

Glenn Stutzky: Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse
2 minutes - TED^xLansing

Peter Diamandis: Abundance is our future
16 minutes - TED 2012

And a picture of the entire collection of laser etched and cut name badges we've created for our past event attendees. Click Here to view the recap posts for all of our past events

TEDxSunnyvale Embracing Recklessness recap

The theme for our second TEDxSunnyvale event in 2012 was: “Embracing Recklessness”

Rather than focus on technology we shifted more towards those who are daredevils, thrill seekers, some with mental health conditions that cause them to behave recklessly, careers in recklessness, and how possibilities in innovation are able to become inventions when one is willing to take a risk. We even touched on some social recklessness. At the end of the day it is fear that holds most of us back. For some, it's not a barrier. Embracing recklessness has both positives and negatives. We wanted to explore both.

Our curator Gordon went the extra step of once again creating unique and custom name badges for us on the laser cutter/etcher. This time he altered the design a bit by spreading out the elements from their usual format. I thought it was a really nice change of pace.

I loved my cool new badge!

This was our first sold out event. Not in the sense that we charged but rather in that we ran out of seating so we had to close the registration link before the big day.

We spent the morning and afternoon watching, thinking about and discussing recklessness from three main perspectives: Pursuing Recklessness, Daring Voices, and New Frontiers. Here are the videos we watched and discussed that day in case you'd like to recreate the event on your own.

Session 1: Pursuing Recklessness

1. Danny MacAskill: Way Back Home (7:43)

2. Gever Tulley: 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do (9:22)

3. Diana Nyad: Extreme swimming with the world’s most dangerous jellyfish (16:58)

4. Eve Ensler: On Security (13:49)

5. Charlie Todd: The shared experience of absurdity (12:04)

6. Heyonce: Single Man dances to Single Ladies (3:16)


Session 2: Daring Voices

7. Casey Neistat: Filmmaker (4:38)

8. Kary Mullis': Next-gen cure for killer infections (4:32)

9. J.D. Schramm: Break the silence for suicide attempt survivors (4:15)

10. Joshua Walters: On being just crazy enough (5:51)

11. Alanna Shaikh: How I’m preparing to get Alzheimer’s (6:12)

12. Philippe Petit: The journey across the high wire (19:07)

13.James Nachtwey: War Photographer (3:40)

14. Jennifer Lin: Improvises on piano at TED 2004 (5:15)


Session 3: New Frontiers

15. Jared Ficklin: New ways to see music (with color! and fire!) (10:00)

16. Misha Glenny: Hire the Hackers (18:40) Selected but not shown due to time conflict

17. George Dyson: On Project Orion (8:35)

18. Steve Truglia: A leap from the edge of space (14:33)

19. Jessamyn Lau - Get a Mohawk (9:38) The audio quality is not good but her message is fanatastic so find a quiet room and enjoy :)

Curator Gordon Garb welcomes our participants.

The process of suggesting and selecting videos is a group endeavor. Two that I had suggested that weren't selected for the presentation I wanted to include here because they embody the theme for me in a way different from the other videos we did present at our event.

The first is the TED Prize acceptance speech by Antiwar Photographer James Nachtwey. His photos are described by TED as "searing." I would have to agree. The first time I saw his work over a decade ago in the book Inferno the images were seared into my brain. They are unsettling, upsetting, disturbing but most of all real. They are the faces and consequences of what happens on the ground in times of war not just to soldiers, but to everyday people like you and me.

My respect for this man and the work he does is endless.

Since seeing first seeing his images in 1999 I've often wondered what drives a person to embrace the documentation of mans inhumanity towards other human beings? Whatever it is, it's something that most of us do not possess. Is it embracing recklessness or overlooking the danger to embrace humanity? I invite you to listen to the words of someone who has been where many of us will never go.

James Nachtwey: My photographs bear witness (21:48)

  

Why do I think his message matters so much? I think it can have some bearing in the way we vote our leaders into office. Rather than think of war as an idea that happens somewhere else to other people I think for some of us, our feelings would change if we had the opportunity to see what war is really like through the eyes of those who are forced to endure it. For many, their suffering comes through no fault of their own.

  

Naomi Klein: Addicted to Risk (19:50)

  

I also wanted to share this video by Naomi Klein as it focuses on the consequences of recklessness. Taken from TEDWomen 2010: "Our societies have become addicted to extreme risk in finding new energy, new financial instruments and more ... and too often, we're left to clean up a mess afterward. Klein's question: What's the backup plan?"

  

  

Lunch was provided by TechShop San Jose. We appreciate their support immensely.

  

  

   It is because of them we are able to host our events at no charge to our attendees.

  

I love that TED is all about "Idea's worth spreading." We hope our attendees always leave with fresh perspectives to consider, the courage to try something new, the desire ignited to follow their passions, and a drive to help spread these ideas and feelings. Simply leading by example we can all impact not only our own lives, but the lives of those around us in very positive ways.

Next TEDxSunnyvale Event: Embracing Recklessness

THEME:
The Theme for our next event is "Embracing Recklessness"
In our brainstorming session, we discussed how the culture of Silicon Valley is based on disruption, on taking risks, on sometimes unanticipated game changers. Silicon Valley is one of the few places in the world where trying and failing is celebrated; where somebody who doesn't have any failures is considered to be not taking enough risks. We want to take this idea to its logical extreme, and see where we all go. So, Embracing Recklessness. It's going to be quite a ride.

WHERE:

TechShop San Jose

300 South 2nd Street

San Jose, CA, 95113
PLEASE RSVP

10:00 AM to 4:00 PM split into two sessions, with a generous lunch break in between.

Due to road construction, the main entrance to TechShop on San Carlos street is closed. You can enter via 3rd street - behind the McDonalds. Here's a map

INSPIRATION:
There are over 1,300 TED talks up on TED.com, and over 15,000 talks from TEDx events. TEDxSunnyvale exists to bring some of the best of those talks together with passionate people to view, and to ignite discussion.

LIVE ATTENDEES, NOT LIVE SPEAKERS:
So while we will have live attendees, we will have no live speakers. We'll watch together and talk about what we've seen. We'll network and meet new people.

Our event is structured just like any other TEDx event - with a Theme, and Sessions of talks lasting roughly an hour and a half. But in our event all the talks will be watched on video, taken from both the TED and TEDx archives. This is an experiment - all the other TEDx events in the Bay Area focus mainly on live speakers. By taking this lower-key approach to a TEDx event, we are able to keep the costs very low, and we are able to hold multiple events in a year. We're not trying to replace any of the other great Bay Area TEDx events; we add another dimension to TED in the Bay Area, and another way to participate and contribute to the greater TEDx and TED communities.

REFRESHMENTS:
We expect to offer complementary coffee and breakfast pastries
We will have sandwiches from Togos for lunch, courtesy of TechShop.
We'll also have soft drinks and water.

COST:
There is no charge to attend.

OTHER DETAILS:
We have a stress-free policy for our committee and our attendees. We keep the process of attending simple and casual.

Visit the TEDxSunnyvale website
Or Click Here to RSVP

We also make really cool laser engraved and cut custom name badges for each event. Here are samples from earlier this year:

January 28, 2012 Theme: "Prototypes"

TEDxSunnyvaleChange, April 5, 2012

TEDxSunnyvaleLive, June 27, 2012

TEDxSunnyvaleChange: The Big Picture and more cool name tags

Last week I helped to organize and host the TED^xSunnyvaleChange event. We rebroadcasted a livestreamed video feed from Berlin, Germany earlier that day choosing to show the video at 6:30 PM our time instead of playing it at 8:30 AM while it was live. The theme was "The Big Picture."

We made super cool custom name badges again.

Due to the need to live and re-broadcast this event to a global audience (with varying bandwidth access) the video is 600kbps which means there are some moire pattern issues and, unrelated to the feed, some camera angles that might make you laugh. So, while the recording quality isn't as high as TED^x videos usually are, the quality of the thought provoking presentations meet the standard.

CLICK HERE to watch "The Big Picture" in its entirety. (90 minutes)

We returned to the location of our first event, the conference room at TechShop San Jose.

We  posted signs to let people know we had space available for last minute participants.

And set up the room configuring the tables and chairs, readying for the event.

We even made custom window covers for the far wall to help cut down on light and distractions from the workroom next door.

With the room prepared I stepped out to The Kabab Shack just across the street to grab a quick bite to eat. An old Victorian on the outside, the interior is decorated really fun and mod. They even have a pool table! I had a vegetarian, falafel pita that was fresh and tasty. It was so good I've already been back a second time.

Just as I was picking up my order to-go Gordon, our fearless leader, texted me to come take pictures of our latest name tags, hot on the laser etching and cutting machine.

The laser machine doing its thing.

With Gordon's help I had designed the name tags using Photoshop. He then converted them to Illustrator and set them up on TechShop's Epilog laser etcher and cutter.

The tags look powdery from all of the loose paint and acrylic dust that came off during the etching and cutting process. It was Gordon's idea to paint a piece of red acrylic bright blue, allowing the etcher to remove the paint and some of the acrylic leaving behind a nice contrast between the two colors.

Here you can see how he also had to punch out the holes for the lanyard clips and loosen off the trimmed edges. The cut is so fine the whole thing fits together like a jigsaw puzzle. The top stack was done and the rest needed the left edge snapped off and the clip holes tapped through.

Then Gordon rinsed them off with water. We dried them then attached the lanyards. That they were wet and squeaky clean was funny to me since the last time our wooden name tags were so burnt by the laser cutter on the edges they were covered with black soot and we had to ask our attendees to wipe their badges edges down with a paper towel before they put them on so they wouldn't get their clothes dirty.

From really dirty to ultra clean. LOL. I wonder what we'll come up with next?

That's my co-organizer Brenton hard at work attaching lanyards.

We set them up on a  table by the door and waited for our participants to arrive.

We eve made blank name badges for drop-ins so people could write their names in with a Sharpie. They worked great!

Our coffee sponsor for this event was the Roasted Coffee Bean in Cupertino.

I even went there the next day to enjoy a soy mocha at their shop on Steven's Creek Blvd. The really neat thing is it's a coffee shop and gift shop all in one. There are all kinds of ceramic, jewelry and gift products available made by local artisans available to purchase. The community vibe there is very strong.

TechShop sponsored lunch for us with a large selection of both meat and vegetarian option sandwiches from Togos. They also sponsored the lanyards we used for the name badges.

TechShop is the place for dreamers, doers, tinkerers, rocketeers, robot builders and so much more. Here's a post I wrote last year that best describes what TechShop is all about.

We gave the video and projector a test run before the guests arrived then waited for 6:00 PM.

And then it was time to kick things off. We had a few repeat participants from our January event and new faces too. People were able to grab  a bite as waited for everyone to arrive.

Gordon got up and gave the intro for the event welcoming our guests and outlining what TED, TED^x, and the presentation would be about.

He had on his new name badge and the wood one we made for our previous event.

Because we weren't having any live speakers we opened the floor for discussion between each presentation. The speakers and one musical performer are listed below.

The Big Picture featured: 

Jeff Chapin, a mechanical engineer and product designer, showed how creating and successfully implementing a sanitation solution in Cambodia (and other developing countries) required not just showing up with a finished product, it meant they needed to listen and be willing to be flexible to come up with a good and sustaining solution beyond what they thought would be the correct one. 

Sven Giegold is a Member of the European Parliament who spoke about how the global economy is suffering from both the crisis of scarcity and the crisis of abundance. In particular he discussed the need for clean, renewable energy and how the development of these options are good for the world economy. 

Theo Sowa, head of the African Women's Development Fund, spoke about the marginalization of African women. Asking how can there be effective solutions to help world and women's issues from poverty to war, peace and family planning when women are not invited to be a part of the conversation on a national level in Africa? She is a knowledgable and eloquent speaker. In fact she is one of the best speakers I've ever seen. Anywhere. 

Senegalese musician Baaba Maal. 

And to close, Melinda Gates spoke about how even though 1 billion people, around the world, use birth control, there are, particularly in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia,  200,000,000 women who can't because they have no access to contraceptives. Though many will disagree with her statement that contraception should not be controversial, in this presentation she begins a dialogue about the need for universal contraception. To join the conversation CLICK HERE.

I'd like to thank our participants who attended, the Roasted Coffee Bean and TechShop for their sponsorship of our event, and Liveworld and 37 signals for making things easier for us as organizers.

We don't have a next event planned yet but if you'd like to attend just sign up for our updates at the www.TED^xSunnyvale.com website and we'll keep you posted.

It's not too late to join us tonight

There are still a few seats left for the TED^xSunnyvale live viewing party of TED^xChange's: The Big Picture at 6:00 PM tonight.

REGISTER to RSVP:
 CLICK HERE to register at www.TED^xSunnyvale.com

THEME:
The Big Picture - streamed live from Berlin: The current economic climate has drawn our focus to immediate needs closest to home. But now, more than ever, it’s critical to keep sight of the fact that we are part of interdependent, global community. And too many within that community cannot meet their most basic needs: food, clean water, life-saving medical treatment and vaccines.

We can’t proceed with business as usual.

On April 5, 2012, we’ll take a step back and look at the big picture: Why should we, as a society, continue to invest in global health and development? How can we work across borders and political boundaries to make positive change? And what returns can we expect on our investments?

The Speakers:
Melinda Gates, Jeff Chapin, Sven Giegold, Theo Sowa and Baaba Maal. CLICK HERE to read more about them.

WHERE:
TechShop San Jose, 300 South 2nd Street, San Jose, CA 95113

WHEN:
Tomorrow Thursday, April 5, 2012
Registration opens at 6 p.m.
The program starts at 6:30 p.m. and runs approximately 90 minutes.
We'll have plenty of time for conversation and discussion.

COST:
There is no charge to attend.

Free sandwiches and beverages will be available for the hungry and thirsty.

Limited free parking is available in the TechShop parking lot. When that's full, there are several pay lots and garages nearby.