I’ve had a busy morning. I’ve taken the road less traveled, tackled my to-do list with a machete, narrowly escaped the deathly mortal jaws of the lava monster living in my kitchen, and evicted all negathoughts living in my head.

I’m not crazy; these are the side effects of attending TEDxDetroit last Wednesday.

The idea behind TED started in Long Beach, California with the intention of bringing together people from the worlds of Technology, Entertainment, and Design to share their ideas worth spreading. Originally, the only way to experience TED was attending the exclusive California event, but that changed when the organization released videos online, launching a global phenomenon.

The power of the TED concept is obvious. TED devotees realize knowledge is connected and when people from different realms of knowledge share their ideas, powerful and positive change occurs.

The newest addendum to the TED family is TEDx, a string of independently organized events occurring anywhere enterprising individuals are willing to organize an event. When Charlie Wollborg, Founding Partner of Curve Detroit, heard the news, he jumped on the opportunity to host an event that brought the area’s leading creators, catalysts, entrepreneurs, artists, technologists, designers, scientists, thinkers, and doers together to discuss positive ideas for the world from Detroit.

Not just positive ideas—positive ideas worth spreading. And on October 21, that is exactly what happened. The Twittersphere was in hyperactive mode as attendants tweeted snippets from the #TEDxDetroit presentations mere seconds after the ideas were uttered by the presenters.

Chazz Miller presents on Using Art & Technology as a Catalyst for Change

The genius behind the TEDxDetroit talks cannot be captured in a nutshell, so instead I hope providing a glimpse of the proceedings will entice you to explore the videos online yourself (there isn’t a centralized location for all the videos yet).

Turning Inside Out: Dr. Gary Gabel from Infinite Learning
In a fitting start to the day, Gary used a large hourglass to make a harrowing point—our time on earth is limited and every day we wake up, we have one less day remaining. So, if time is your currency, are you spending it wisely? Is your flow of ideas positive and enabling or negative?

Gary challenged the room to think positive thoughts and avoid what he calls “negathoughts,” the thoughts dwelling on the negative—I’ll never find a job in this economy! Negathoughts leave you powerless.

The thoughts that got you to where you are today are also keeping you where you are today, so turn those thoughts positive. Gary also encouraged asking high quality, thought provoking questions and taking action—after all, there’s no time like today.

Taking the Road Less Traveled: Dr. Aaron Crumm for Adaptive Materials
Aaron’s vision of bringing “power to the people” through a revolutionary fuel cell technology provided an excellent example to the morning session’s theme of “Powering.” His company has designed a lighter and longer lasting fuel cell that has piqued the interest of the Army as a way to reduce the amount of gear—up to 80 pounds—soldiers must carry. And that’s just a start; the commercial applications of their fuel cell are incredible.

In the early stages of business, they realized their product was too small for engines, yet too big for batteries; however, there was a void—an opportunity—in the market between those two extremes. By taking the road less traveled and marketing their mini-generator that is five times lighter than average, their Ann Arbor business has experienced a successful start and expects continued growth in an industry that has great potential for creating jobs in Michigan.

Using Art & Technology as a Catalyst for Change: Chazz Miller from Public Art Works
After finding success as a commercial artist for billboard signs, Chazz Miller decided to move back to Detroit in 2007 and quickly noticed something—the city lacked color. So, he set out to change that. For a while progress was slow—it seemed all his clients wanted were repainted bathrooms, which was not exactly the change Chazz hoped to see. However, he wasn’t going to complain—about the jobs or the state of Detroit—he stayed committed to making positive change through art.

An opportunity to paint a mural at an elementary school ignited a string of events that led to Chazz’s breakthrough—a mural in the heart of the city. The idea was that if you could unite the neighborhood behind an art project, they would take pride in the result and work hard to keep the area clean and safe.

The successful project turned into Public Art Workz, a nonprofit that creates “bold, innovative community redevelopment projects that use the arts, culture, creativity, and innovation as a catalyst for reinventing and revitalizing the communities of Old Redford and Northwest Detroit, Michigan.”

The success of Public Art Workz is inspirational, but what had the audience riveted was Chazz’s energetic and selfless spirit. He left the security of a well-paying job to move to Detroit and make an impact on a city he loved. He saw an opportunity and dove in headfirst, and inspired others in the process.

Building an Enterprising Class in Michigan: Matt Dugener from Enliven Software
Following Chazz was Matt Dugener who spoke on “Economic Hurricanes,” people like Chazz who are generating changing winds within Michigan. He stated that we “have taught young people how to be employees, not employers” and the health of Michigan’s future requires creating a culture that allows enterprising people to thrive.

In the late-90’s, Matt’s friend Mike had an idea for a company, but couldn’t get the idea off the ground in Michigan so he moved to Texas. After just two years in business, Mike’s company was worth $25 million dollars. Why the success in Texas? As an entrepreneur, Mike was treated like a hero in Texas; new ideas were welcomed and well supported. In Michigan, those same ideas were scorned.

Matt’s message was clear: if we want to rebuild Michigan, we need to start rewarding people that take risks, we need to start changing the way we think, and we need to create an environment that attracts innovation and new business.

Jump and the Net Will Appear: Charlie Wollborg from Curve Detroit
On top of being the lead coordinator behind the event, Charlie Wollborg gave the final presentation with compact pieces of wisdom that nicely tied together many of the themes presented throughout the event:

• Excuses don’t change the past, they just delay the future. What happened yesterday is done; let’s start focusing on a brighter tomorrow.
• Less busy and more gee whizzy. Ideas are perishable! As Dan Izzo (link: http://bizzo.biz/) said earlier in the day, stop dreaming and start doing. Time is running out.
• Talent, money, and ideas will never be the problem. Ideas are a dime a dozen, time is the precious resource. When your day starts, time is running—so don’t waste your days.
• Quit waiting for approval. If you’re waiting for someone to tell you it’s okay to follow your dreams, start that company, write that book, change Michigan, you’re going to be waiting for a long time. Take the initiative and make it happen.
• Take that one step off the edge. There will always be a reason to postpone your dreams—ignore that reason and go for it.
• If you aren’t living up to your potential that is blasphemy.

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Here are great links if you’d like to explore more of what TEDxDetroit had to offer:

• Shai Agassi’s bold plan for electric cars
• Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity
• Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man
• Inspiration (a life changing day) by Kevin Ertell
• Thanks Worth Spreading by Julie Becker
• TEDxDetroit 2009 Highlights from Chris Spiek
• A Day In the Life of TED(xDetroit) by Philip Lauri

And if I can leave you with something it is this, a poem by D Blair that exhilarated the crowd and has made its way around the Internet. He took an entire conference worth of passion and promise and condensed it into a six-minute poem that represents the glory of Detroit and the promise of its future—which is exactly what TEDxDetroit set out to do.

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Megan Gebhart is a Marketing Junior at Michigan State University and the creator of msuCatalyst, a website that offers advice from MSU alumni and uncovers the inspiring activities happening with current students.

Luckily for Megan, there is no shortage of brilliant alumni and fascinating students from Michigan State. Between the 45,000+ undergrad students on campus, 14,868 members in the MSU Alumni Association LinkedIn group, and great events like TEDxDetroit, it’s easy to find someone (or something) great to write about.

You can find Megan at msuCatalyst and on Twitter.

Tags: conference, Detroit, guest blog, networking, TEDx

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30, 2009 at 8:36 am and is filed under Career, Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.