TEDx Debut at St. Joe's a Success

Every now and then, schedules simply get overrun with things to do, meetings to make and events to cover.

That's my excuse for missing the first-ever TEDxSJU event at St. Joseph's University's Maguire Campus in Merion on Oct. 13—I put it in my calendar for the 14th. 

I was extremely bummed about missing it. I've been a fan of TED for years, and am far from alone. Short for "Technology, Entertainment, Design," TED is one of the most thought-provoking gatherings—and web sites—on the planet. With the tagline "Ideas worth spreading," and self-described as "Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world," both are right on the money. 

(If you are new to TED, start here, with Jill Bolte Taylor's "stroke of insight" lecture—it is 18 minutes of pure, spellbinding, fascination.)

TEDx is a sort of franchise version of the original, described as "a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience."

There was also a TEDxPhilly ("Rethinking the City Together"), held at Temple University in early November.

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I was reminded of the St. Joe's TEDx event this week when I heard the Huffington Post (which, along with Patch, is owned by AOL) is partnering with TED to "ring out the year with an online idea-thon."

HuffPo and TED will jointly feature 18 of the best onstage speeches from TED’s  year-round global events, and will be called “Best of TED 2011: A Countdown of 18 Groundbreaking Ideas to Reshape the World in 2012.” (Access them through the link.)

These TEDTalks—on science, art, music, tech. you name it—will be combined with “new blog posts written by the people who delivered them, examining how their ideas were impacted by being shared with a global audience.”

Eighteen speeches were selected because TEDTalks are refreshingly limited to 18 minutes. Friday's featured speech was Kathryn Schulz, who used her own tattoo as an example of an all too familiar human emotion. ("Don't regret regret.")

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But back to Oct. 13, at the Maguire Campus, where the atmosphere was "filled with the entrepreneurial spirit of nine community-minded self-starters as they [talked] about turning passion for social change into successful nonprofits," according to a statement from St. Joe's.

The event, free and open to the public, was sponsored by the school’s Communication Studies program. Presenters came in from around the country, and interacted with students who were enrolled in a fall 2010 social media class taught by Aimée Knight, Ph.D., an assistant English professor. It was through the efforts of Knight and her students that the TEDxSJU event came to be.

The speakers are listed here, with descriptions of their topics provided by the university:

• Sheena Matheiken, The Uniform Project
  By challenging herself to wear one black dress for 365 days, Matheiken uses fashion as a catalyst for sustainability, philanthropy and social commerce.
• Olivia Bouler, Save the Gulf
  An aspiring ornithologist, Olivia Bouler, 12, gave over 500 original bird-drawings to people who donated to wildlife recovery efforts. She has since been awarded several national honors and written a children’s book.
• Chase Whiteside and Erik Stoll, New Left Media
  Students at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, Whiteside and Stoll cover contemporary politics through citizen journalism.
• Rita J. King, Dancing Ink
  A journalist and entrepreneur, King uses the Internet and digital environments to innovate work, education, and outreach.
• Jerry Paffendorf, Loveland
  Loveland sells single square inches of a land plot in Detroit to fund the development of the city and its community organizations.
• Lynn McConville, Power Up Gambia
  Power Up Gambia’s mission is to bring electricity and water to healthcare facilities in the Gambia through the effective use of solar power.
• Dan Morison, Citizen Effect
  Promoting civic engagement, Citizen Effect allows people to take control of their giving experience by choosing a project and communicating directly with the community they serve.
• Tenaya Darlington, Madame Fromage
  An associate professor of English at SJU, when she's not teaching food writing at the University, Madame Fromage promotes artisanal cheese through online and print media.

“The class looked at individual entrepreneurs as examples of how to effectively use social media in social justice and nonprofit settings, and that involved interacting with those entrepreneurs in a variety of ways, including Skype,” said Knight. “The direct interaction led the students to seriously consider the possibility of a TEDx event at SJU.”

According to Patricia Allen, senior associate director of University Communications at St. Joe's, Knight wrote emails to each of the above entrepreneurs, to detail the program, gauge their interest, and ask if they’d like to participate.

Within 24 hours, all of them accepted.

“It was an absolute shock that they all responded so quickly,” Knight said. 

"The speakers were very inspiring," said Allen, adding that she believes there will be more TEDx events at the school in the future, given the debut's success.

If so, we'll try a little harder to avoid the dog-ate-my-homework excuse and cover it here.