TED Palm Springs - First Day

I applied to TED to be inspired by people who are way smarter than me. I'm so blown away after Day 1, I'm finding it difficult to fully articulate the experience in a meaningful way. I'm in Palm Springs. TED is in Long Beach with 1,300 attendees, TED Palm Springs is a satellite event to Long Beach, with about 400 and we're all connected by huge screens. 

I arrived yesterday, and met people from the US, Canada, South America, Australia, Europe and Asia. People who run non-profits, philanthropists, employees of Microsoft and Google, musicians, artists, creative directors, photographers, CEO's, architects and a cardiologist. I awoke to the shock of the sun, sent a few emails, then wound my way around the hard-to-resist pool through the Riviera Resort to the Google cafe for coffee before the first event. An inspiring and delightfully open and humble man I'd met the night before, Brian Andreas, gave advice on how to effectively tell a story. Talk to others like they're a friend, tell a story in pictures and create a pattern. 

People were called to stage to answer a question by our Palm Springs hosts, Kelly Stoetzel and Rives (shopliftwindchimes.com). "I was once caught..." I told the story of entering the kitchen one morning to find my Dad with my shoes on the breakfast table, the very same white flats I'd used to write the answers to a test. I was in Texas, it was the '80's and I got a free t-shirt for telling it. 

Start.

Juan Enriquez, among other some depressing economic statistics, told of scientists spraying stem cells from a mouse onto a human heart, which then regenerated and began to beat. 

Peter W. Singer spoke about the robots being used in Iraq to disarm bombs, as well as the dangers of distancing human emotion from technological warfare. 

David Hanson showed his Albert Einstein robotic head that not only looks unbelievably real, but recognizes and mimics the expression of any human face it sees. 

Bill Gates released mosquitos into the audience as he discussed The Gates Foundation and radicating Malaria, "Why should only the poor have the experience?", as well as the importance of education, what makes good teachers good and the success of KIPP charter schools. 

Ben Zander, who I experienced at a Nike speaker series years ago, is one of the most amazing public speakers in the world. He had us sing, some guy named Ross had the best birthday of his life. 

Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the web, yes, the web, discussed the hidden potential of linked data.

Cindy Gallop woke everyone up to proper sex education through her recently launched site needing little explanation, makelovenotporn.com.

Pattie Maes of MIT Media Lab revealed an unbelievable technology I can't begin to explain here, so you need to watch this video on ted.com to be appropriately blown away.

Al Gore reiterated how fucked we are with global warming and the continued importance of change in order to slow it down. Might be good to watch this one, too.

Ray Anderson. Wow. An entrepreneur from Georgia who founded a carpet company in 1973 that until 1994, had a really negative impact on the Earth. He instituted a mantra of "Take nothin', do no harm." and, well, also worth watching. I was fighting tears at the end. 

Saul Griffith on efficiently harnessing the wind to supply electricity to the world. Incredible.

Seth Godin encourages everyone to make a movement and lead a tribe. 

Seriously, I haven't even gotten to the best part. 

Jake Eberts. He did films like Ghandi and The Killing Fields. He has produced a film with a Frenchman names Jacques something super French called Oceans. Unreal. Stunning. This film will change the way you think about life in the sea and the fucked up impact of humanity. Beautiful. Please watch this one. "It is late in the day, but not yet dark."

Yann Arthus-Bertrand. Unreal photographer, this man has spent a good chunk dedicating his life to document, via the air, the impact humans have had on Earth. He is distributing this film, called Home, on June 5th of this year. He's not selling it, he's giving it away for free to anyone who wants to see it. "It's too late to be pessimistic."

I'm so tired, I don't think I did any of these justice. The good news is you can watch all of them on ted.com. 

To say I've been inspired to DO SOMETHING is a huge understatement.

- Melanie

We'll be okay, really we will.

Last week was kind of emotionally difficult. It really started to bring me down, the incessant negative news, concerned calls from people, nervous people with mortgages and families, who are just now starting to feel and fear the domino effect of this horrible economy. Thanks to corporate greed and the inept leadership who blindly ran this country into the ground.

Everywhere I go, they're there. These little reminders that something big, really big and really scary is happening and no one knows how or when it's going to stop. Just thinking of listing all the increasingly bad things happening in the world right now is too depressing, and at times I’m feeling like I can’t escape it. Simply driving to my house, I'm reminded as I pass one barren car dealership after another and OPEN HOUSE! signs scattered throughout the neighborhood. How does one keep positive momentum when it feels like the walls are slowly closing in like the Death Star trash compactor scene in Star Wars? 

As a result, I've spent a lot of time this weekend reading and thinking. When I contemplate my life so far, it’s very clear the most difficult challenges I’ve faced have made me grow in the most beautifully raw and profound ways. I've overcome some things I really thought I couldn't, and when I’ve had the courage to follow my gut and face the uncomfortable, the bad and scary, it has turned out okay, even better than I expected. Always.

As a result, I’m stronger. I feel myself carrying more wisdom through each “event”, walking with more confidence and less fear and slowly shedding the facade I so strategically began building when I was a pure and innocent little girl who didn’t want to feel pain.

Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.”

When you think about it, George Bush was a gift. If we hadn't spent the past eight years feeling so weak, powerless, horrified and embarrassed by our president and the actions, or inaction, of our country's “leadership”, I don't think we would have come together in the ways we did to elect our first African-American President. It took horribly awful to create an awakening, and we’ve finally taken our first step towards a new direction.  

There are unavoidable challenges we’ll continue to face over the next few years in this country, and on this planet. Maybe we need this increasing horribleness to create a bigger awakening, not only for a healthy economy, but for the evolution of our collective consciousness. Maybe it takes the horrible to convince more of us get off our asses and actually DO something. Maybe we’ll get in touch with our true selves, develop into the kind of aware, empathetic and generous people we should be, and maybe, just maybe, we can actually solve many of the problems we currently face.

I'm headed to TED Palm Springs tomorrow and have a feeling something really good is going to happen there, I’ll keep you posted. If there’s anything we can do to help you, whether it's give you feedback on your work or advise you on your current situation, just ask and we’ll do our best to help you. For some inspiration when you need it, go to TED.com and watch a 20-minute speech given by incredible thinkers and doers. Here's one we love from a scientist who studies the brain, Jill Bolte Taylor. 

- Melanie