Friday, November 26, 2010

Countdown to TEDx tomorrow

I've spent much of the past week learning the speech I'll be giving tomorrow at the TEDx conference here in Toronto. I'm a terrible memorizer so it's taken me a good deal of effort to get my 18-minute spiel down. It was tough and I won't be able to do it without cue cards, but I think I'm pretty well good to go.

TED stands for "technology, entertainment and design" and centres around the motto of "Ideas worth spreading." TEDx conferences are organized independently, with the main non-profit organization's blessing. It's quite the honour to be part of one as TED is well regarded and has featured major luminaries in the past, from Bill Gates to Richard Branson to, of course, Bono. It's especially exciting to be doing this talk in particular because it's at Ryerson, my old university. I wonder if any of my old profs will be in the audience?

Here's The Eyeopener, Ryerson's student paper (and where I learned the journalism ropes), and its take on the event.

The theme of my talk will be "Technology good, media bad," or, more specifically, how we've been conditioned over the past few decades to doubt and be cynical about new technology, despite the fact that it has brought us out of the dark ages. We're in fact barreling towards utopia, not that you'd believe it if you open a newspaper or turn on the TV.

I'll be speaking during the afternoon session, between 1:30 and 2:00, I think, and the entire event will be streamed online on the TEDx website. The day officially kicks off at 10 and there are tons of great speakers, so I encourage everyone to check it out. It should be a fun day. I imagine they'll post videos after the event, so I'll be sure to link to them when they're up.

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