The theme for TEDxCanberra 2010 was Thinking Way Beyond, and in many ways, the speakers framed their talks around this theme, with some of the more polished speakers using the phrase to conclude their talks.

The fact that the day was sold out quickly (with around 300 participants) is a testament to its value, or at least it’s perceived value. Much ‘kudos’ would have rubbed off from the main TED event and the web driven video content.

First of all, I will get off my chest what may seem as trivial, but to many it would have left a poor taste (or lack of that poor taste) in the mouth before the talks even started. I’m talking about the coffee line from 8.00am till 8.45am. It was horrendous; and was the subject of many of the early tweets, including twitpics. I didn’t think that ‘thinking way beyond’ meant listening to the presentations from the coffee line, as some people apparently did. For me, I went without, which was unfortunate, but I was not prepared to miss the talks. This may seem like a minor point, but putting on good events is all about ‘sweating the small stuff’, and it didn’t work for pre 8.45am coffee! Moving on.

The day was broken into four sessions entitled: Society, Knowing, Empowerment and Change. Each of the four themed sessions comprised four or five ‘live’ speakers - including a few Canberrans - and one video presentation from either the main TED conference earlier this year or a US TEDx event. It would have been nice to see at least one video from a TEDx event on another continent (English speaking of course). One of the detractors of the TED concept for me, and I guess others, is that TED appears to be a US developed and centric conference model - and whilst a good - and obviously highly successful global model - it would be far better to portray a more international flavour. US based speakers don’t know all the answers to everything in the world, so a dose of multi-cultural perspectives would have added value (I know many of the TED speakers for example are international.

Back to the first session; SOCIETY started with a sombre presentation from Dawn O’Neill on suicide statistics and suicide prevention in Australia. Excellent talk, with a lot of great information and it would have been tough to be the first cab (speaker) off the rank. Dawn did a great job and delivered her message passionately and informatively. Mitchell Whitelaw from the University of Canberra was next with a terrific presentation on his work on visualisation and search of digital cultural collections. I loved the graphics in his presentation (there could have been more throughout the day - as this is something TED talks are known for). Mitchell was rather understated and this belied the importance of the work he and colleagues are doing with Canberra based cultural collecting institutions as they wrestle with their collection digitisation tasks and importantly his philosophical approach to ‘showing everything’. Next was Kevin Bales via a video presentation on the topic of modern-day slavery - an excellent presentation, and one that really had the mind churning, but perhaps missed an opportunity to add a ‘call to action’. I guess many of the presentations left that important bit out. Miriam Lyons was next - for me probably the most disappointing talk of the day - I didn’t get the thrust of it at all and it seemed all over the place. I got very little out of it. Mark Pesce’s talk to finish the session was a high point. Mark delivered a well thought out, well delivered and in the end, an emotional presentation relating his recent experiences and the use of technology making us look ‘in and down’ not ‘out and up’. This was the best talk of the morning, but was hampered a bit by technical audio issues and the fact that Mark stood, for the most part of his presentation, in that spot where the spotlights projected a line of light and shadow on his face. For me, this took away from the impact - I would have thought these issues would have been covered in rehearsals (again, sweat the small stuff).

After a break (where filtered coffee was readily available and eagerly consumed) the second session, KNOWING commenced. It started with Kristin Alford, a science communicator from Adelaide, who delivered a thought provoking talk that made a great deal of sense and included just the right amount of interactivity. I would definitely like to hear Kristin talk gain, I wanted to hear more of what she knew and thought. Simon Taylor (an illusionist/psychologist), followed Kristin and provided an entertaining ‘performance’ that provided some insight into how we think and what we see. I swear I heard Simon say he was going to ‘reveal’ how he did his trick, but in the end, did not - maybe that was a Freudian slip.... (It was indeed a very impressive trick). Next up was the obligatory TED Video, this one featuring Temple Grandin. Temple was an extremely interesting person, with a great story to tell that had a multitude of perspectives that could have been further explored. Her own life story was worth listening to, her thoughts on contemporary political grandiosity were thought provoking and her theories on schooling and education just brilliant. The insight she provided on the workings of an autistic mind were worth the price of admission for the day. Following the highly thought provoking Temple Grandin was Marco Ostini of Lunar Numbat. Marco, is probably a nice guy, with a sharp mind and a high IQ -- but he is not a charismatic conference presenter, and shouldn't try to be. There must be someone else within the Lunar Numbat, or White Label Space group of people who can communicate their science more effectively (they should listen to Kristin Alford). He didn’t even tell us why they were wanting to get a Numbat on the Moon (a rather cruel thing to do) nor did he emphasise the open source nature of the project. Moving on... Liz Dawson was on next filling in for Tony Calma who had a pressing engagement at the last minute keeping him from the day. Liz provided some great information in a short presentation, helped by a video presentation on a social housing program that has launched elsewhere in Australia and they were looking for support for an ACT version. For the life of me, however I can’t recall the detail. Perhaps it will appear on the TEDxCanberra website. Ash Donaldson, the next presenter reckons that flying by instruments tricks our brains and is a useful allegory for life. The rest of his talk was message-less to me and I can’t recall it’s thrust.

After a brisk walk along the windy shores of LBG and sampling a well earnt flat-white from the lakeside kiosk (near GAD) under greying skies, I returned with anticipation of more stimulating and thought provoking speakers. The third session - EMPOWERMENT started with what I rate as the best presentation of the day, from Francis Owisu. Francis is an engaging and dynamic presenter, with a great story to tell (of the past), impressive resume of current work he undertakes and a dream and mission to drive him onwards. This is what TEDx is supposed to be all about. He also had the wow factor by virtue of the dancers and music from the guys in Kulture Break. By far the best of the day, left me wanting more -- and enlightened scheduling by the TEDx team to have this on immediately after the lunch break. William De Jean probably knew after the rehearsals on Friday that following Francis and Kulture Break would be a tough gig. William is a polished and professional presenter, with a good story and learnings to relate. However, I felt right the way through (his sometimes impassioned talk) that this was an ad for his mates in AVID. it was however, a good story with a positive and possibly transformative message. Melinda Gates followed William via video from (if I recall correctly) TEDxNew York. Melinda’s message was simple and to the point. International NGOs need to market themselves like huge multinationals to become more effective. Full Stop. It filled in eighteen minutes, and provided a few examples, and showed cut-aways to former presidents in the audience, but it was a simple message effectively ad passionately delivered. Was this talk relevant to the TEDxCanberra audience? Were they learning something here that could be applied for ’good’ by the attendees? Who knows. Pete Williams hopped up on the stage next and gave us an inspiring, and hyperactive presentation about his role in helping, and the role of the stubborn locals in their efforts during the 2009 Victorian bushfires, to save their town, and then rebuild. The talk highlighted the power of online social and collaborative tools, and the importance of ‘connections’. Pete’s talk left me with a sense that it’s often about ‘who you know’ more than ‘what you know’ (and he seems to be linked in some powerful circles), and that online tools are great to help coordination and cooperation when rebuilding a burnt down rural town. Pete was an ideal speaker for TEDx; passionate, lively, entertaining, strong messages and a good story teller telling a good story. This was unfortunate for Sunny Forsyth who followed Pete. Sunny’s story was simple and motivational (to a degree),but his delivery was flat and uninspiring. I applaud his commitment - the idea he has in Abundant Water is terrific and potentially game-changing, but again, maybe not the right person to tell this worthy story.

After another coffee and a sugar hit from a piece of slice to keep me focused it was back into the theatre for the final session - CHANGE. Julie Posetti led the charge. As a local, well-known and well-respected academic, Julie knew her stuff. However, what was disappointing was that she was the only presenter all day who stood behind the lectern and read through her research findings, only to occasionally look behind her to make sure the PowerPoint presentation was at the right page. Great message on the impact of new social media on journalism, but let down terribly by the presentation method. Catherine Mohr via video was next in a short clip about building, or re building her own house and assessing environmental impact through energy usage for each stage. Very informative, and would liked to have seen more than the few minutes shown. Ed Bosworth from Westpac was next cab off the rank. While Ed had an interesting story to tell - it was a rather dry, non passionate talk that you would expect about any economics subject. I am not sure this model of talk really fit in with the day and the objective of inspiring people through Ted talks, although as a bit of a numbers nerd, I did quite enjoy the content. it was probably inappropriate for the day’s host to mention that Ed was his best man at his wedding (relevance?). Will Steffen, the well known and respect climate change academic (from ANU) was next to hit the podium. Will’s talk was extremely informative and full of useful and very convincing arguments. I learnt a great deal, including a new word; Anthropocene. A useful and valuable addition to the day’s agenda - and added to some of the other environmental themed talks. The final Ted talk for the day was Pat McGorry, the current Australian of the Year and mental health advocate. The theme of mental health neatly book ended the day but I have to say - and I probably will be shot down for saying this - I didn’t find the talk inspiring at all. Perhaps it was the end of a long day, trying to be attentive to the 20 odd speakers before hand. There is absolutely no doubt that Pat McGorry does fantastic work and is an inspirational person, but I didn’t get that from his talk. Perhaps I was too busy trying to remember how to spell Anthropocene, or trying to remember the nine areas of human living that we need to put borders around to save our planet - for ALL humans, not just those afflicted with mental health issues.

In summary, I thought it was a excellent day, thought provoking, and inspiring at points and aside from the odd speaker, very well delivered. On reflection, I would have liked to see more Canberra focused themes or topics, given that this is where we live, but I guess that’s part of the TED philosophy is to think big picture and talk global.

A great effort in organising and running a well delivered event as a result of the dedication and commitment of the large group of volunteers. Many of the 300 or so attendees (most of those a bit younger and less worldly cynical than I) would have been inspired and empowered to walk away from the day wanting to change the world for the better.

I would though have much preferred a model which allows time to question the speakers. It is all well and good to sit back in awe and be inspired by some of these stories, but much more could have been extracted from these inspirational speakers had the audience had the opportunity to throw some questions at them. I mention this as I recently have read a bit of Clay Shirky (and others like him) that have postulated that the era of being a passive receiver is over. Those citizens who want to make change in the world and contribute, now want, and expect, to be able to contribute to the discussion. Being a passive audience is so last century, TED needs to take this on board and allow for a two way dialogue (maybe a panel at the end of each session) I am sure we would all learn more with a model such as this.

The chief organiser, @trib (aka Stephen Collins from Acid Labs), committed to hosting the event again next year, and at the same venue, the NLA. This seems a shame, and not because it was a bad venue, indeed it wasn’t - but I believe spreading good ideas and forward thinking should be accessible to as many people as possible. Based on the success of this year’s ticket sales (sold out in 48 hours) and the already positive vibe coming from the Twitterverse and Blog summaries (much like this one), I would have thought a venue that fit perhaps 400-500 people may have been more appropriate.

All things being equal, I will be one of the first to sign up to attend TEDxCanberra 2011 and would encourage others to do so as well.