By Alexandra Reid
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
This powerful idea comes from Alvin Toffler, an American writer and futurist best known for his works discussing digital, corporate and communication revolutions and technological singularity. It’s a thoughtful quote that sums up the core theme of the TEDx Ottawa event nicely. Its theme, “creative actions,” explored the creative effort that goes into reversing, reworking and reinventing previously held ideas and the profound results that come from taking this kind of action.
What is TED?
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to the notion that ideas are worth spreading. “Talks” are conferences that bring people together from many fields, including technology, entertainment, design, psychology, philosophy, education, philanthropy and literature, to name a few. Annual conferences take place in Long Beach, Palm Springs and Edinburgh, but there are also community-organized talks such as the one I attended at Algonquin College in Ottawa, called TEDx events, that showcase and attract local influencers.
I have watched TED Talks online and been a fan of the organization for a long time but never had the opportunity to see a live Talk until last weekend. My expectations going into the event were high and I’m happy to report that they were widely exceeded by the enthusiasm of the organizers and volunteers, the passion of the participants and the profound and inspirational messages shared by the speakers.
Hosted by Algonquin College’s own Jeremy McQuigge, the event brought together a number of inspirational speakers, including architect and project manager Bret Cardinal, professor and “compassion in evolution” expert Robert West, hip-hop “Buddha” Stephen Leafloor, cognitive science assistant professor Jim Davies, public policy advisor Nicolas Charney, literary tourist Nigel Beale, blogger Kelli Catana, spoken word poet Brandon Wint, Ottawa Creative Collective co-founder Steve St. Pierre, former international fashion model turned raw foodist Natasha Kyssa and a musical performance by David Martel. While presentations were wide in subject matter, they all revolved around this central theme of “creative actions.” Here are some ideas I brought home from TEDx Ottawa that I thought were worth spreading.
Ready. Fire. Aim
This advice came from Steve St. Pierre in his presentation on The Art of Doing. What he means is that we shouldn’t spend time analyzing every aspect of our ideas but should instead just begin and figure things out as they progress. Pierre says that thinking about things too much before starting is a form of procrastination, which can lead us to dream up the idea that we also lack the time, resources and motivation to make our ideas a reality. Barriers to getting started also include the thought that your idea has been done before. To this, Pierre says do it again and do it better. Better yet, share your ideas, talk about them and write them down. The goal, he says, is to turn your peers into your “nagging mother” who will ensure you never let down your idea. After all, a good idea becomes a bad idea if it’s wasted, says Pierre.
Find your mentors
Kelli Catana was feeling bored and unfulfilled in her life at home raising four children so she set out to connect with other women on Twitter to try and get her “mojo” back. She worked hard and found what turned out to be her mentors on the social site. One such mentor included Erica Ehm, a MuchMusic video jockey turned Yummy Mummy founder who recruited Catana to blog on her site. Catana’s inspiring story of how she reinvented herself demonstrates that there are people out there willing to help you if you show passion and a willingness to work hard.
Employ your passion
Both Nigel Beale and Stephen Leafloor are walking proof that remarkable things happen if you employ your passion. Beale admitted that most of us have just an inkling of what we are passionate about and don’t really know exactly how to find our passions. It took him years of searching and a deep depression to be sure that his passion lay in books. By immersing himself in his own passion – reading, finding, buying, selling and writing about books – Beale has achieved great success running a highly regarded blog called The Literary Tourist. Of his struggle to success, Beale sighted Charles Bukowski’s beautiful poem “The Laughing Heart,” which begins, “Your life is your life, don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.”
As an angelic boy in the ’70’s who was also short for his age, Leafloor found himself the target of relentlessly bullying. He wanted desperately to be accepted, and decided that the best way to do this was to beat the bullies at their own game – in this case, roller disco. He practiced in a church basement for his opportunity to shine, and at the roller rink, he triumphed in a dazzling display of agility, rhythm and of course, style. Leafloor developed his talent for movement as a street hip-hop dancer and founded the Canadian Floor Masters, Canada’s oldest street dancing crew, which has opened for celebrities including James Brown, IceT, Grandmaster Flash, BlackEyed Peas and George Clinton. Today, Leafloor is a social worker and founder of Blue Print for Life, one of the world’s leading companies that use hip-hop as both a community development tool and as a model for alternative education and healing.
Collaboration can be a powerful force
Nicolas Charney is trying to build creative action in an organizational environment that has traditionally been adverse to change –the federal government. Charney is looking at how technology, public policy and the public inform one another to try and create a more open and agile public sector. He says that the entire system needs to be client, or public, focused and that the government needs to act as a convener. By collaborating with consultants, entrepreneurs, internal professionals, businesses and the public, Charney hopes to improve our system by levering the expertise of many. The focus can then be on the outcomes, not the process itself, he says.
Two TED videos were also screened during the event that demonstrated the power of collaboration. In the first video, Aaron Koblin used collaboration to artfully visualize our humanity. Using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, Koblin took mass amounts of data from a vast number of people and weaved it together to tell powerful stories visually. It’s worth watching his presentation on what he has accomplished through his collaborative effort.
In the second video, Johanna Blakley shared her views on what the fashion industry can teach other creative industries that might be hindering their ability to innovate by protecting their ideas through copyright. Blakley asks, “Without ownership, is there no incentive to innovate?” This is a great presentation on how creativity can be fueled through freedom, collaboration, and even copying.
These are only a few of the ideas that were shared at TEDx Ottawa. Let’s harness the power of collaborative discussion. What lessons did you take home from the event?
