Theme: Prototype

Serving the Bay Area TEDx Community

THEME:
The Theme for our inaugural event was Prototype.
This fit as this was the first event we'd put together, and here in Silicon Valley both hardware and software is typically prototyped as part of the process of development. I think of the process of building prototypes as taking risks, experimenting, expecting failure, where imperfections are tolerated and rough edges are celebrated. It is a process of successive refinement. We chose talks that related in some way to this theme.

INSPIRATION:
There are over 1,100 TED talks up on TED.com, and over 12,000 talks from TEDx events up on YouTube.
TEDxSunnyvale exists to bring some of the best of those talks together with passionate people to view and discuss them.

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.

LESSONS LEARNED:
I learned a lot during the planning of our event, and during the event itself. Most importantly, I learned how important it is for people to be able to interact and discuss the videos we've watched.

PLAYLIST:
Here are the videos we watched at TEDxSunnyvale

SESSION ONE - THEORY
1. Chris Anderson, TED Curator - Introduction to TEDx

2. Erin McKean, Lexicographer
http://www.ted.com/talks/erin_mckean_redefines_the_dictionary.html

3. Jason Halpern - Entrepreneur
http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxSanJoseCA-Jason-Halpern-The

4. Tom Wujec - Build a Tower, Build a Team
http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_build_a_tower.html

5. Dale Daugherty - All of Us Are Makers
http://www.ted.com/talks/dale_dougherty_we_are_makers.html

6. Eric Whitacre - A Virtual Choir 2,000 Voices Strong
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/eric_whitacre_a_virtual_choir_2_000_voices_strong.html

SESSION TWO - PRACTICE
7. Onyx Ashanti - This is Beatjazz
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/onyx_ashanti_this_is_beatjazz.html

8. Nathan Myhrvold - Inventor, Cookbook Creator
http://www.ted.com/talks/nathan_myhrvold_cut_your_food_in_half.html

9. Marcin Jakubowski - Farmer and Technologist
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/marcin_jakubowski.html

10. Zach Kaplan & Keith Schacht - Inventables Guys
http://www.ted.com/talks/toys_from_the_future.html

11. Sonaar Luthra - Meet the Water Canary
http://www.ted.com/talks/sonaar_luthra_meet_the_water_canary.html

12. Commercials - Three adverts fitting our theme and adding some humor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQVnYeAgF1k

13. Johnny Lee - Wii Hacker
http://www.ted.com/talks/johnny_lee_demos_wii_remote_hacks.html

14. Nikhil Arora & Alejandro Velez - Entrepreneurs & Urban Farmers
http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxPresidio-Nikhil-Arora-and-A

FURTHER RESOURCES:
• Onyx Ashanti documents the design and construction of his Beatjazz
controller in an article on page 116 of the latest Make Magazine, Volume 28.
• Wired also blogged about Onyx Ashanti at MakerFaire in 2008.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/05/performer-blend/
• Onyx Ashanti's blog http://beatjazz.blogspot.com/
• If you want to do the Marshmallow Challenge with your teams,
here is the canonical website: http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Welcome.html
• Other videos we selected that relate to our theme of Prototype:
Neil Gershenfeld - What Comes After the Digital Revolution
http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_gershenfeld_on_fab_labs.html
Miwa Matreyek's "Glorious Visions" - Performed live at TEDGlobal 2010
http://www.ted.com/talks/miwa_matreyek_s_glorious_visions.html
Veronika Scott, Designer & Social Entrepreneur
http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDx-Alva-Park-VERONIKA-SCOTT-T
Erin McKean also spoke at TEDxYouth@Castilleja in November, 2011
http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxYouthCastilleja-ERIN-MCKEAN
Gever Tulley - Five Dangerous Things For Kids
http://www.ted.com/talks/gever_tulley_on_5_dangerous_things_for_kids.html

BLOG POSTS:
Stacie Tamaki of the TEDxSunnyvale team wrote these two informative posts, including the behind-the-scenes story of the making of the namebadges.
• http://theflirtyguide.blogspot.com/2012/01/wood-name-tags-made-on-laser-cutter.html
• http://theflirtyguide.blogspot.com/2012/01/attend-tedx-sunnyvales-inaugural-event.html

JC DILL PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBIT:
We were fortunate to have nature photographer JC Dill exhibit ten beautiful photographs of dry ice sublimation at TEDxSunnyvale. See the images JC exhibited here:
http://portfolio.jcdill.com/Art/Sublimation-1/6356003_GFdZ5d#!i=505337910&k=TrLkF

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*TEDxSunnyvale is independently organized under license from TED.

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