EDITORIALS
TEDx Boulder: I'm Not Smart Enough for This
Sometimes even Boulderites forget how brilliant the city’s most brilliant minds are. Between PhD astrophysicists, startup mavens, ad industry revolutionaries, forward-thinking restaurateurs and curve-bucking environmentalists, this place is next-level intelligent. Yet it’s not a stretch to suggest that those various schools of practice are often sequestered into little groups, rarely coming together to pontificate amongst each other.
Then there’s TED.
It’s hard to believe this meeting of the minds isn’t a Boulder original; putting that aside, it’s conversely easy to be sure that Boulder was going to become a TEDx satellite city sooner or later. Beautiful, destination-worthy, and educated as fuck, Boulder and its ethos provided the perfect backdrop for this type of event. And when it came to intelligent, succinct, broad content from true industry thought leaders, this particular instance of TEDx (the first in Boulder) didn’t disappoint.
I only wish that it had been as entertaining as it was informative.
Spending the past couple of years attending events like Ignite—and even speaking at one of them—I’ve come to expect a certain relaxed atmosphere from Boulder’s brightest minds. As a 25-year-old upstart marketing peon with a strong penchant for dive bars and free-flowing brainstorms, that’s to be expected. Still, my assessment of TEDx Boulder is not a glowing one, and here’s why: it wasn’t really all that fun.
I sat down for the event at the spectacular Chautauqua Auditorium (which was curated beautifully by the event planners) a couple minutes after it started, just as Niel Robertson began giving his talk on “The Future of Work.” Hang on. I shouldn’t leave out the second half of that title. It was “…A Return to Taylorism?” Maybe I’m not qualified to review this event but I had to look up that terminology on Wikipedia.
The same thought repeated in my mind as the talks progressed: how relatable is this material? I mean sure, some of the presenters took their talks more lightly and shook things up a little. (Grant Blakeman created a handful of cute little icons as companions to his talk about minimalism, and Carmel Hagen completely threw the room for a loop by bringing harlequin romance novels into the mix.) It’s just that, a few talks withstanding, I found myself disconnected from the content and often more confused or disengaged than ponderous. When I watch TED talks on YouTube, I ponder the shit out of them; why the hell didn’t I ponder at TEDx?
And this, at its most basic, is the problem. Sometimes people are too intelligent for their own good. They become fascinated by topics that often approach unintelligible heights for the common listener (using ‘me’ as the benchmark for ‘common’) and they lose us very quickly. Like I wrote before, I may be simply unqualified to assess this event. I really think, however, that many of these brilliant speakers failed to connect with an audience of listeners—much of it young and eager to learn—and therefore had their concepts lost on it.
All this being said, what did you think of TEDx, if you were there? Am I really that dumb? Go ahead, say it; I probably won’t even realize you’re degrading me until it’s way too late.
Chris Reinhard is copywriter at Motive, a freelance writer/strategist and a former music snob ruined by Lady Gaga. He loves Colorado and is interested in dismantling the traditional advertising model piece by piece.
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I personally liked how the speakers were speaking up to the audience, many of them had great introductions and lead ins to their work or passion, but didn't fear going for the real substance in their point. Niel, for instance, spent half of his talk describing who Taylor was and then went into why that mattered. As high level as it was the speakers did a pretty good job setting it up.
Perhaps we can watch them when the videos go live this month :)
Another way to think of it, nothing connected to you. If we dove into the science of branding or design in relation to fonts on the web you might have wanted more.
Andrew - You couldn't be more right about it. I do wonder, though, if more people from various circles found the content to be out of reach for them as well. One thing I will say is that I hope to have as much of a grasp on my own industry as many of them do.
I think the proper thing to do would be to have a clear niche, like design or sustainability. Although, that could get pretty tired.
Thanks for attending, glad you enjoyed it!
I liked the variety of topics and that they weren't all about design or marketing; it made me think outside of my little ad/design world. But the quality of speakers was very hit-or-miss. The science-y dudes in the second half were too obtuse and complicated for the audience, and some of the speakers seemed to have a thesis of "I did this. What can you push yourself to do?", which felt hollow. But Pete McGraw and Eric Farone were engaging, interesting and funny, which opened the door for me to actually learn something. Also: a monk, even Alex Bogusky's monk, isn't a great candidate for a TED talk.
Hey, sorry to interrupt a deep debate for a superficial design note. Weren't the screenprinted posters and letterpressed programs awesome!?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peggydyer/4878222150/lightbox/#/photos/pegg...
Hey Chris,
I didn't go to TEDx but big-ups for having the steel to put a name and a face with your editorial. I understand that anonymity gives Egotist writers a chance to rag on the Denver ad community without push-back, but still.
Good Apples - I really, really should have commented on the programs. They were AWESOME.
Jamie - Thanks! I love the anonymity of TDE but I felt like if I was going to deliver something that might be construed as negative, I might as well own up to it.
I completely agree with you Chris. I found myself lost in many of the speakers content and approach... "I found myself disconnected from the content and often more confused or disengaged than ponderous." (couldn't have said it better myself). I was initially intrigued by the variety of content and choice of speakers, but only a few of them seemed to approach the opportunity in a way that was relateable and intriguing to the young and eager audience members like myself. Not to say it was a complete waste of time, Grant Blakeman's minimalism speech was great, and it was hard not to appreciate the beautiful scenery and well designed program. I will probably be back next year regardless, just hoping for a different experience next time. Thanks for you 2 cents :)
Chris,
Thanks for your commentary. I can relate to a little of this frustration and also couldn't decide whether it was my lack of intelligence or the speakers lack of ability to engage an audience.
Overall I think the event was a success. A good mix of subject and speaker type, with a little light-hearted musical entertainment thrown in for good measure. Most of it made me think, some things I related to, some I learned new, others I was just so lost and confused that my brain hurt. My opinion is that you will find a mix such as this at any given conference, good, bad, indifferent. My experience with the Ted speakers posted online is that they usually come to me through some other source/friend, and therefore most likely pre-qualified for my particular interests. Maybe that's the difference, as opposed to having to sit through the whole night.
Either way, much thanks to the organizers for what I think was a stellar first crack at this event. We have to remind ourselves that at the end of the day it's out of the hands of the organizers and up to the speakers to provide relevant information in a compelling fashion. You never can tell if someone is going to use this platform as a soap box (of which there were some) vs. a furthering of the world through information sharing.
I'll go again and encourage others to do the same, if only for the letterpressed lanyards, craft beer and socializing, but that's just me.
Chris,
I love your article. It's honest, heartfelt and critical without being negative. Thank you
Fernando
I chalk it up to fatigue, somewhere in the last hour of the 6 hour event, I was asked to to think about the '11 dimensions'....I got to be honest, I was so excited for the presentation when I read about it...and then when we got there I was exhausted. I swear I WAS smarter at the beginning of the evening. I'll be fine tuning my (newly awakened) smarts to that channel when the videos go up... The type on the poster is impeccably letterspaced.
Well there is no comparison between TED and TEDx and it's priced accordingly (25 dollars vs. 4k+ for TED). Just speaking to what some of you have seen online and expectations of what this should/could be.
I'm in the same boat as a lot of you as far as the brain capacity at the end of the speaker list. I don't know if I would have made it through if the speakers were reversed though. It was indeed a well put together event and a phenomenal start to what I hope will be a regular event... There is going to be some hit and miss at any "conference" kind of event. I also believe that TEDx itself is in it's infancy in general.
Thanks to everyone involved. I heard a rumor that there might be a Denver TEDx as well. Is there any truth to that?
i went up there too, chris. and i felt the same way about a few of the talks. that made me think that the presenters didn't get the ted memo or take the time to research other ted talk. they thought they were giving an academic talk or a business pitch (that one was pure yuk).
a few of the presenters slayed it like fo sho.
rick, grant, david and shawn gave amazing talks. and peter killed it. made me want to go back to school so i can study in his HuRl and JEDI labs.
can't say i ever had an expectation that 22 talks would be stellar. i for one was quite happy for the few that were great. well worth a weekend evening and 25 bucks.
I understand your frustration with some of the presentations, but I'm sure that different presenters spoke to different audiences. I probably wasn't interested in all the talks you were and visa versa. I think that is okay and if we only attend the ones we preview and self-select then I think that destroys the potential of the whole enterprise. I would rather have some hits and misses and not be talked down than repeat Ignite in this forum. I'm glad to see the depth increased and the "entertainment" turned down a bit.
I've watched almost all of the TED presentations online
and could follow every single one- TEDx on the other hand
was definitely hard to follow in comparison. Good communicators have the ability to make things within reach of the dumbest people, like me.
I was so, so happy to see this come to Boulder. While I too couldn't track with all of the content the time flew by as I tried to keep up, apply key principles to my life and my client's brands and push my boundaries. For v1.0 it was pretty bad ass.
We cannot help but wonder
what you would have presented
and how you would have fared.
@bouldergirl: I have no place up on that stage, but had I presented I would like to believe that my first guideline would have been to make the content as relatable as possible.
Videos have been posted: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztByMvaABp4&p=A9A1EA9EB4AADD0D
Cheers!
Whoops, full playlist here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A9A1EA9EB4AADD0D
Apparently.
If Andrew Hyde had anything to do with this......you know it was all ego, less brains, a school talent show and not in reality
Just typical Boulder. I didn't review, but I imagine Jeremy Bloom & Chris Goldie Hawn's son presenting. Yawn.
We've taken all the notes and feedback from TEDxBoulder '10 and wrapped it into what we believe will be a strong presentation. We also cut the presentation time down from 6 hours to 3 hours + a 30 minute break. That should help keep the crowd fresh and engaged.
Eager to hear what you think of this year's TEDxBoulder.
Cheers
George
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