Amélie Attended The TEDx Conference In Boulder

If you aren’t familiar with TED, you need to remedy that right now. TED stands for Technology, Engineering and Design, and brings together the brightest people from those fields (and more) to talk for around 15-20 minutes on a chosen subject or theme.In the case of TEDx (x = independently organized TED event), the theme was “beauty & truth.”

The event was held at the Chautauqua in Boulder. The event hall would have been great had it not been for the soaring temperatures and absolutely no A/C. That was one of two small gripes we had (Alex Bogusky dropped out too, one of our prime reasons for going).

The talks that night covered a vast array of subjects. The environment and energy conservation, music, design, education, conservation, crowdsourcing and even the inner self were all topics on the menu.

The most entertaining talk of the night was “What Makes Things Funny?” in which Peter McGraw analyzed the science of what actually makes us laugh. As it turns out, it is the overlap between the benign and the violation. Check out TED.com in future, it will be uploaded within the next month or so.

On the other side of the coin, Mike Pascoe talked about “the ultimate gift – leaving your body to science.” It wasn’t until he reached into his bag and pulled out a human heart that he really got the attention of the sweating crowd. The music from director Jonathan Spottiswoode was great, and Vienna Teng sang with a voice that rose high above the rafters of the barn.

All in all, it was a great night of learning, collaboration and fun. And thanks to Evol Burritos and Goodberry for the free food and drink that kept me from falling over. The lines for the food stretched around the building.

On a final note, please check out this inspiring Dave Eggers talk that was shown during the intermission. I’m still thinking about it.