TED Community » Alison Whitmire

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Running, Yoga, my 9 year old son, coaching CEOs and entrepreneurs, Why Discovery, TEDxRockCreekPark, Conscious leadership, creating community

An idea worth spreading

If leadership is defined as the ability to attract willing followers, I know of only two types of successful leaders: those who vividly paint a compelling picture of the future they are creating and those who have your back.

Talk to me about

You, who you know in DC, What makes a successful TEDx

People don't know that I'm good at

Frankly, there's not much that people don't know I'm good at because I can tend to tell people everything I'm even moderately good at in a "mom, look at me, no hands!" kind of way.

My TED Story

I attended my first TEDActive in 2009 and wanted to do something with the passion that was sparked by attending. Soon thereafter, the TEDx program was introduced and in 9/09, TEDxPugetSound was born. The Great Recession provided the impetus for the 2009 event theme: The Art of Living, Integrating Life’s Passions. The event’s intention was to reconnect CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners with the passion that inspires them to lead their companies. Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why” talk so resonated with the audience that his video was viewed thousands of times and was uploaded to TED.com. TEDxPugetSound 2011 occurred on 2/10/11 and it's theme was, Dreaming Out Loud: Transforming Ideas Into Action, and celebrated innovation beyond capitalist purposes. Our belief is that innovation represents the highest form of living. TEDxRockCreekPark is next, slated for May 2013, and the result of a transcontinental move. The theme will be: Learning: to unleash your potential

Comments

• TEDCred score: +861.60 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Conversation: In Honor of Teacher Appreciation Week: Who was your favorite teacher?

  May 11 2013: Thanks so much, Mary. I really appreciate it. a
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: In Honor of Teacher Appreciation Week: Who was your favorite teacher?

  May 11 2013: My favorite teacher is Jack Petrash, who just gave a great talk at TEDxRockCreekPark on educating children outside the box. http://tedxrockcreekpark.com/jack-petrash/
• +3

  A comment on Talk: Candy Chang: Before I die I want to...

  Sep 6 2012: Wow, that's powerful stuff. I love the simplicity and truth of it. Rock on CC.
• +2

  A comment on Talk: Paul Gilding: The Earth is full

  Mar 4 2012: While Paul's not wrong (his argument is somewhat intuitive), how about a few more facts, charts, graphs, timeline, something?! By producing no facts/evidence, assumptions, there's nothing to dispute. The talk feels dark, pessimistic, and sensationalized, very Chicken Little. And yet, it's still a good talk and something we need to hear. Maybe that's the point.

• A comment on Conversation: What idea is worth creating a disruption & what, who, where, how would you disrupt?

  Feb 9 2012: The change I want to make to me is behave and relate to others and myself in a way that considers the long term, not just right now. I want the way I relate to my son, my husband, my family, my friends, to consider not just the small petty thing that has hold of me now, but the importance they have in my life. That's the biggest change I want to make. And it's totally worth it. And it's a work in progress. :) And it's VERY uncomfortable in that petty moment.
• +3

  A comment on Conversation: What idea is worth creating a disruption & what, who, where, how would you disrupt?

  Feb 5 2012: I believe that any change that I can make to myself that allows me to be more effective at employing my purpose, is worth making. Also, the more that I can become familiar with my discomfort, the more I'm able to change. Change accelerates when discomfort becomes familiar.
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: Should anyone be able to upload their TEDTalk to TED.com?

  Feb 16 2011: I believe that allowing anyone to upload a video to TED would hurt the brand. I trust the TED brand to stand for quality and that anything that's made it on TED.com has passed through a quality filter. I don't want to have to BE that filter. I've got too many other things to filter in my life. It would be like crowdsourcing the TED brand. While it's an interesting idea, are the people who would do the crowdsourcing like the people who are paying for the brand (sponsors, attendees, etc.) IDK.

• A comment on Talk: Steven Johnson: Where good ideas come from

  Feb 14 2011: I screened this talk at TEDxPugetSound on Thursday night. It was a hit with the CEOs in the room. There is part of his talk where he talks about one person having part of an idea and someone else having another part. It inspired me early in the planning process for TEDxPS to have everyone register an idea and then we created puzzle pieces that people got at check in which matched them with someone else at the conference who had a complementary idea. It was a lot of fun and created some positive energy.
• +1

  A comment on Talk: Brené Brown: The power of vulnerability

  Feb 14 2011: I was so struck by Brene Brown and her talk that I showed it to all of my CEO groups and discussed it at length. It was interesting to me how, even after seeing the talk, most if not all of the men over 50 viewed vulnerability as a weakness. They couldn't get their heads around vulnerability as necessary as Brene suggests.
  
  What she doesn't talk about is when it's safe and when it's not safe to be vulnerable and how to be smart about when and to whom you reveal yourself. (I suppose you could say it's always safe, and not many of us are that thick skinned. I'm not).
  
  Brene's talk gave me a deeper understanding of myself, my own needs and how I want to be. It gave me courage to show up as me more of the time.
• +1

  A reply on Talk: Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action

  May 4 2010: That was my bad. I curated and produced the TEDxPugetSound where Simon spoke and our wireless mics died. He handled the change seemlessly, though it was a huge pain.