TEDxGR was this past Thursday, and I happened to be there as a volunteer. Most of what I saw were the exhibits and lunch that happened at Kendall, but I got to watch a few talks on the video feed as well.
Steelcase sponsored an exhibit of their furniture arranged in sitting areas, with their Campfire Paper tables, so that people could write on them.
Nearby, the Eames studio had stacks of cards, which everyone wrote on and used in the house of cards, which evolved as the day went on.
Behind that, the next exhibit showed 3D technology of the present and past, with holograms and sterographs. The sterographs were an older technology to see a 3D image, in which two images taken inches apart are viewed through a set of divided glasses, making the image appear 3D.
The next two exhibits were done by Kendall, the Material Connexion and 3D fabrication. The Material Connexion is the school’s library of 300 samples of materials, from a larger archive of 5,000. The 3D fabrication exhibit was pretty interesting. It showed three different types of 3D printers that Kendall uses in operation, and students were there to explain the different purposes that they were used for. One of the 3D printers could print with wax in extremely fine detail, which than can be cast and made into jewelry. I knew a little bit about 3D printing before, but now I’m more interested in learning about it and learning how to use it.
If you’ve never heard of TED before, it’s an organization that organizes conferences to share ideas that are worth spreading. TED talks are all about big ideas, and I think that’s fantastic. However, I’m not quite sold on it’s little brother, TEDx, the franchised version of TED. TED is great because it connects people who have big ideas to other people who can add their ideas, which can lead to great things. In my mind, an ideal TED talk says “Here is this great technology, which was invented for thing A, but we could apply it to things B and C, and that could be huge.” or it says “Here is a way of thinking about thing D, but when we apply it to other things, it revolutionizes them.” TEDxGR didn’t have quite that feel, and I’m not sure if the other events have it. At this event, nothing felt terribly revolutionary.
In TEDxGR, the lack of big ideas was the main issue. It might be because this year was only the second time it happened, so it’s not terribly established; speaker curation might be a thing that takes some time to get right, and we could be watching that process with TEDxGR. Maybe it’s because Grand Rapids is a fairly small city, and this event didn’t have the involvement of a major university, that many other TEDx events have. If this had been in a city like Ann Arbor, smaller than Grand Rapids, but home to a large, well known university it could have worked differently. It will be interesting, nonetheless, to see where TEDxGR and the whole TEDx concept goes in the future. I hope to see it become a version of TED, with TED caliber speakers, but with greater accessibility.
If you have any ideas for things that I should cover on this blog, or if you have some feedback, feel free to email me.
If you’re like me and constantly struggle to carry your portfolio around, you might be interested in this StartGarden project that a friend of mine has going, to create portfolio racks to put on a bike. If enough people endorse him on StartGarden, he’ll get a grant to start making these. It’s free to endorse, all you have to do is go here and log in with Facebook. Thanks!