Let’s help Larry Moss get Elastic Park some funding!

Earlier this year, Pepsi made a responsible decision: instead of spending $20 million on Superbowl ads, they would spend that $20 million on projects and charities that needed it. The project is called Refresh Everything. Every month, they’re going to give out grants to community projects and they expect to fund thousands of local efforts this way. In my own opinion, it’s a fantastic decision that shows good corporate responsibility, and I’d like to see more of it!

And, we’d like to see our community get some of that assistance. TEDxRochester 2009 speaker, Larry Moss, has a project that he’s been looking to get kicked off for some time, and Refresh Everything might just be the vehicle needed to do it. It’s called Elastic Park, and as a science geek I love it. It’s a 10,000 square foot exhibit inspired by Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park. Imagine: near life-sized recreations of dinosaurs from the Triassic through the Cretaceous made entirely out of balloons!

The project is educational, to be sure, but the real benefit comes from the community involvement when it arrives in town as dozens of volunteers are needed to bring it all together. As Larry discussed in his talk, his work brings communities together to reap the benefits of their own hard work. This is an amazing project, and Larry already has all of the resources in place to get it off the ground, he just needs funding.

To help, please visit the Refresh Everything website, sign up, and start voting! We’d really like to see a lot of referrers from the TEDxRochester website up there. Voting for this round begins February 1st. Stop by the site ahead of time to sign up for an e-mail alert when voting is open.

The video for the project is embedded below. Don’t forget to also follow both Larry and Elastic Park on Twitter to keep up to date with their progress.

Best of luck to you, Larry!

Geva Improv group closes out the day

Seeing as we knew that it would be a long, exciting day, we decided it might be fun to have Geva’s own Improv group take us all home with a smile. And, they didn’t let us down. Building on the theme of innovation, they worked with the audience in their research to find the Ultimate Comedy Formula.

And, so, in 5, 4, 3, 2…1!

Geomantics performs their Surveillance piece

Continuing on with a dance theme, we have Geomantics performing “Surveillance”. It’s an interesting piece that is a physical representation of the scariness, the oppression and the creepiness of society being so aware of everything people do now.

Why is it news that Tiger Woods had an affair? You’d think it would really only matter to his wife and kids, but every Joe Schmoe has an opinion about it. Curtis Stedge, the principle dancer in “Surveillance” says it’s about exploring “how media shapes our lives and how it influences us”.

The first part is a solo danced by Stedge himself, “Love Thy Neighbor” — with an ominous vibe of surveillance by media, government, maybe even a peeping Tom — followed by a trio, “Your Life Is Not Your Own,” exploring the pervasiveness of media influence.

Tomas Warfield teaches dance at a distance

This was easily one of the more interesting talks presented at TEDxRochester, but that was diminished by a simple fact: we could’ve been a little clearer as to what was going on….

A lot of TEDx talks, I’ve noticed, have revolved around the changes in society most notably the education of the latest generation of students (tentatively dubbed “Gen M” for “Media”). These are kids who grew up with technology and their lives revolve around it. They use it, they multi-task with it, they understand it. But beyond that, the old paradigms of teaching them are failing because they’re not up to the task of educating this generation. One speaker makes the point that one of his students is a Rhodes Scholar that never reads books.

One paradigm that’s seeing a lot of revamp in recent years is the “teacher at the bottom of the well” concept, where you have a single instructor on stage at the bottom of an amphitheater imparting their wisdom to the masses above. This model just doesn’t cut it for Gen M.

In Tomas’ talk, he demonstrates how technology can help overcome these transitional issues. In it, he teaches dance to a class of what appears to be be virtual students. In fact, and this is the point that wasn’t too clear, all of these students were in the lobby of the Geva or back on campus at RIT’s Virtual Theater Project.

If you attended TEDxRochester and weren’t too sure of what to make of this presentation, please re-watch it with this new knowledge. I think you’ll find it as entertaining and important as we did.

Marla Schweppe on sculpting minds

Marla is the Chair of 3D Digital Graphics department at RIT. In this heartfelt speech, Marla takes us on a journey through her life where she started with the lofty goal of being a housewife. She discusses the various influences on her who taught her not only how to be as a person, but how to be worldly.

She discusses how even though you think you might know what you can learn from a topic, there is always so much you can take from it. She has traveled all around the world working in theater where she picked up skills from power tools to leadership. She applied all that she has learned and experienced in the classroom where she considers herself an artist in sculpting minds.

Todd Krauss on why size matters

I’m so glad to finally get to post this video as Todd was not only our first confirmed speaker, but one whose talk I was looking forward to most. As a science geek, any new technology gets my blood pumping, and nanotechnology is one of those that has tremendous potential to literally reshape the world in which we live.

During the talk, Todd refers to a quote about lasers made in the 60s “it’s a solution looking for a problem”. With 50 years of experience behind us, it turned out to be a world-changing solution indeed. Nanotechnology is like that as well, but I think a lot of uses are already being salivated about…it’s just a matter of time before they start to be implemented.

Todd’s talk gives a great overview of the current state of the technologies, advancements his team has made as well as potential future uses. I was fortunate to be invited to Todd’s talk the next week at the Rochester Section of the American Chemical Society‘s meeting, and wanted to give them a hearty thank you for inviting me!

The other TEDxRochester

There’s been a rumor going around for some time now that there is another TEDxRochester coming soon that isn’t organized by the same folks. The question invariably arises “How can this be? How can you have two of these in the same area?” My answer: “Because the Rochester area has a lot to offer. A lot more than can be presented in one day!”

The fact is, there is another conference scheduled for March called TEDxLila (pronounced “Leela”. See the Wikipedia article for an explanation.) TEDxLila is being organized by Julie Kling, a Brightonian, and is being held at the Harley School.

I met with Julie the other day to offer any assistance and advice she might need in order to make her TEDx event a success. She has an amazing lineup of speakers already (including one I had planned on inviting to TEDxRochester 2010!), and more information is coming soon. Julie says the TEDxLila website will be going live in January sometime and that’s when registration will open.

Julie is currently trying to finalize sponsorship of the event. Please contact me via this blog if you’d like to sponsor TEDxLila (or assist or participate) and I will forward your information on to Julie. This is a great opportunity for those who missed out on sponsoring TEDxRochester to help make another of these amazing conferences a reality!

Rochester innovator named TED Fellow

Gary Jacobs, one of my fellow TEDxRochester organizers, really sums up what TEDxRochester is all about: it’s about what Rochester IS. For the last few years, talk has centered around what Rochester was or didn’t have. We WERE a world leader for imaging. We don’t have a fast ferry. We don’t have a casino. We don’t have a downtown cultural center.

No, we don’t have any of those things, but what we do have is great innovators, passion and drive. With a host of leading colleges and universities, we have a steady stream of young people learning how to reshape the future. As the older, larger Rochester institutions shed employees and bulk, new, smaller and more innovative startups begin to emerge to fill the void.

One such innovator is Tenrehte, a recent startup that “designs and delivers Wi-Fi enabled, fully integrated product platforms that provide a market leading combination of high-performance, low power consumption, and superior applications flexibility”.

But, this article isn’t about the company. It’s about their CEO, Jennifer Indovina. A recent Rochester Institute of Technology grad, Jennifer has been named as one of the 1000 2010 TED Fellows. The TED Fellows program serves to bring together young people who have begun to make an impact on the world and help them amplify that impact. Jennifer will participate in the TED 2010 conference and network with the other conference members.

We’d like to offer our sincerest congratulations to Jennifer and wish her the best of luck (not to mention the most of fun) at TED 2010! Thank you for making Rochester proud!

On a personal note, I would like to point out that this is just what Rochester needs: we need to figure out a way to retain all of the brilliant talent that’s being shaped every year at our schools. Too many students come here, learn what they need to succeed and then they take that success elsewhere. There is a lot of potential this city and area isn’t exploiting. Before any other projects, that should be our first goal: figure out how to keep the innovators local, and then let them help us solve the other problems.

Luis Martinez on what drives us

Easily the most emotionally charged talk, Luis shared with us the story of his life, starting as a young boy in Cuba. His parents made a difficult choice to ensure he did not become conscripted into Castro’s militia, and sent him to America and freedom. Luis talk is poignant, funny and thought provoking as he weaves a tale of the choices that made him who he is today. He shares his story easily, building to an end that moves all who hear it.

In his talk, Luis tells us what it is that drives him to succeed. Often times we push ourselves to success without really knowing why. This is one of the first things he asks us to do in his book, Getting There, as it’s very difficult to get where you’re going if you don’t actually know where you’re going or why.

And, just as with Larry Moss, Luis is one of the most down-to-earth, personable people you’re ever likely to meet.

Petar Kodzas – an interlude of Brazilian guitar

Those who were there can tell you: the first few minutes of TEDxRochester did not go so well. We had a flawless rehearsal, which of course meant we’d have issues during the actual show. These started immediately when our projector started giving us a hard time and refused to accept the proper resolution for display. Twelve minutes of more or less random button pushing and precise cursing lead us to Lesson #1 for next year’s TEDxRochester:

Make sure we have a backup projector and that someone has a copy of the manuals for each.

As the only presenter who didn’t require a projector, we asked Petar if he would mind if we moved him up and he didn’t hesitate to jump from his seat to assist. It turned out we didn’t need to make the change as the magic button combination had been found and the TEDxRochester logo no longer looked like it was folded in half.

Personally, I’m glad we didn’t have Petar go first. As the day wore on, and other issues cropped up through the day, the staff and volunteers got more and more ragged. Petar’s guitar interlude was a welcome respite from the day’s events. He gives a wonderful and funny intro to his music and then proceeds to play. The notes washed over us and really eased us into the second half of the event as we were all simultaneously relaxed and invigorated by Petar’s playing.

His style is Brazilian, which he tells us is often confused for a variety of styles as it’s both influencer and influenced by many a style. Soft spoken and entertaining, he was a welcome addition to our lineup.