Theme: The World In Our Grasp

A day that took the minds and emotions of a sold-out crowd on a roller coaster thrill ride began with a literal bang. San Diego Taiko’s energized and energizing performance set the tone for a line-up of 28 speakers and performers to present interpretations of this year’s theme, The World in Our Grasp. For nearly 8 hours, they demonstrated with personal experiences how anyone who sufficiently inspired can make a difference locally, nationally or even globally. Throughout the day, break sessions provided opportunities to explore various interactive experiences including a photographic installation showing the many faces of America’s homeless, street artist Tracy Lee Strum’s 3D chalk art interpretation of the event logo and graphic recorder Jeannel King’s delightful notes from each presentation.

The event was divided into four sessions and co-emceed by Emmy-award winning news anchor Susan Taylor and award-winning food writer Troy Johnson.

The first session, Self, challenged the audience to explore the expansive power we have as individuals to create the internal transformations that trigger innovation, creativity and action. It began with spoken word artist Sekou Andrews urging us to sprout our stunted wings and fearlessly realize our potential. Other self-challenging presentations ranged from conquering inner demons with lucid dreams, altering our perceptions and reactions, keeping family histories vibrantly alive and dissolving the iron cage of rationalism to free our minds.

During Session 2, Community, presenters looked at the meaning of local in a globally connected world and explored ways to bring about lasting, positive change. Topics ranged from rethinking accepted wisdom to find innovative solutions, tapping new sources of community activism and reaching out to new, often neglected segments of our communities including the homeless and under-privileged girls.

Session 3 dealt with finding solutions to global problems. Speakers from such diverse disciplines as oceanography, climatology, genomics, bio-mimicry, music and software development demonstrated practical and visionary innovations. Along the way, we journeyed beyond our solar system and through explored coral reefs that hold the promise of cancer cures.

The final session, Seeds of Change, provided the ideas and inspirations each of us could employ to be active, motivated agents of meaningful change. We heard an impassioned case for teaching civics to our children, learned how simple changes at our family dinner table could help alleviate world hunger and found ways to make creative use of the many crevices in our busy lives. We also got progress reports from five of last year’s presenters on their global projects.

TEDxSanDiego 2011 concluded as it had begun, with Sekou Andrews delivering an rhythmic , upbeat recap of the day’s presentations and all we had experienced in our quest to take the world in our grasp.

Irwin M. Jacobs Qualcomm Hall
5775 Morehouse Drive
San Diego, SAN DIEGO, san diego, California, 92121
United States