While most people in Savannah were celebrating with green beer on St. Patrick’s Day, I found myself in a landscape of snow and mountains with 700 other people from 65 countries. I was attending the annual TED Active Conference in Whistler, British Columbia, which coincides with the annual TED Conference (TED.com).
TED — it stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design — just celebrated its 30th year of sharing “ideas worth spreading.”
TED was initially established as an exclusive conference where new and innovative ideas were shared with an intimate crowd. These early presentations were videotaped, and, as interest in the conference grew, the videos were shared with the world.
You can now watch the entire collection of TED and TEDx presentations (I’ll explain the latter a little later) at TED.com and even curated groups of talks on Netflix.
So why did I take three flights and drive two hours to Whistler for something I could watch online?
TED and TED Active are so much more than watching talks and presentations. TED Active, specifically, focuses on interaction, engagement and sharing. Nearly half of the 700 attendees at TED Active were TEDx organizers (I’m one of those).
TEDx was created by TED five years ago for local communities to participate and create their own “ideas worth sharing.” On May 30, we’re proud to say, TEDxCreativeCoast will mark our fifth year hosting the event in Savannah.
One reason I attended TED Active is to allow our local TEDx to grow and expand.
TED grants free licenses to local communities to use the TED brand and be part of this amazing network. As with most global brands, there are a lot of rules and regulations we must follow each year.
One that is not well known is TEDx events cannot make money. This is pretty important and also pretty amazing.
There are hundreds (maybe even thousands) of TEDx communities around the world. All of these events rely on hours, weeks and months of volunteer time to organize the events, and all are doing so without making any money for themselves or their organizations.
How powerful is that?
At The Creative Coast, we rely on ticket sales and sponsorships to help pay for the event. Speaking of which, there are still great sponsorship opportunities available, and we have a new ticket opportunity this year called the Patron ticket.
For $150, we’ll include your name or company name in event materials, you’ll receive a letter of your charitable contribution and, more important, you’ll have the happiness factor of knowing you are supporting this wonderful event.
Why does The Creative Coast, a small nonprofit with limited staff and resources, choose to do this? We feel TEDx provides an opportunity to represent our community and its ideas worth sharing with the rest of the world.
This year we had more than 70 applications for 15 speaker slots. That’s an extraordinary base from which to pick a matrix of diverse backgrounds, topics and perspectives to represent our community.
We also love the power of TEDx to bring people together, whether at the event at the Jepson Center or at another space showing the LiveStream feed. TEDx gets people talking and engaging with new people and new ideas.
Let’s keep the discussion going. Let’s bridge gaps. Let’s act on new ideas and engage with new people.
We, at The Creative Coast, believe Savannah is an amazing place. That’s why we work hard every day to nurture members of the Savannah community engaged in creative or innovative endeavors and to help cultivate an environment in which they can thrive.
Join us at the Jepson Center May 30 for ideas worth sharing. Tickets are available at thecreativecoast.org or consider organizing your own watch party at work or school.
Get engaged.
Charisse Bennett is the program director of The Creative Coast, a not-for-profit organization that promotes the creative and entrepreneurial community within the region. Charisse can be reached at 912-447-8457 or charisse@thecreativecoast.org.