Closing Thought. Opening Mind.

Someone described TED as “somewhere between Davos and Burning Man”.

I haven’t been to either (too old to go to BM, not rich enough to go to Davos), but it's a good sound bite.

I feel extremely lucky and I feel incredibly grateful that I have the ability to indulge in an event like TED. I say indulge like it is a luxury, and it is, but it is also a necessity. As a leader of a creative organization, I am constantly working on “what’s possible” in terms of exploring creative marketing for our agency and clients. Going deep into an environment like TED is not only inspiring, but it is graphic and authentic evidence to keep pushing, pushing, pushing. A large part of creativity is mashing up influences and stimulus to create something new and cool and surprising. And at TED you get to witness, nay jam your skull full of, new and cool and surprising all week. Who wants to be merely a bystander to that?

As I mentioned earlier, my favorite part of the conference is the surprise talk, the one I didn’t expect anything from, the one that quite literally blows my mind. It may not be the most entertaining talk – for instance Sarah Kay is riveting performance theater – but it is the talk that (excuse the French here) fucks me up in a good way.

This year, I give The Talk That F’ed Dan Up In A Good Way to . . .

Deb Roy

Deb started with a simple idea – simply record both audio and video of every minute of daily life for five years. From that all sorts of crazy things came out of it. Speech development – how it is connected and informed by spatial influence – and how that eventually laddered to the thought that all televised content can be measured and illustrated with social media activity. This could have a major impact on marketing and advertising.

I’ve always thought a (significant) flaw with marketing research is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Which, to over-simplify, is the mere act of observing affects and/or changes the results. Calling people into focus groups environments and asking them to comment and reflect on content is a false construct to me – it only measures their behavior in situation that they know they are being observed, i.e., not reality. Whereas with social media chatter and activity -  as measured intensely as Deb Roy’s crew at MIT - we can, theoretically, get real-time behavioral response from content. The phone is the ubiquitous remote control to the world.

Now it’s time for a little thing I call: Questions I Want To Ask Myself If I Could Interview Myself. 

WOULD YOU GO BACK?

Yes. I’m curious to see what the Long Beach TED is like. Palm Springs has a great vibe and I love the people there. I mean, that’s the reason to go frankly, since you can eventually see the talk online. But TED takes on a depth and dimension that you can get lost in where you physically commit to it. It is exhausting and a couple times I get overwhelmed and just want to curl up with my wubbie, but I think an immersion into an event like this is worth it. 

WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME?

I would completely check out of work. I didn’t this time, nor last time, I feel it’s a disservice to both. I mean, if you’re gonna go, GO, right?

I would slow down. I worked on managing the haunting feeling that I had to participate in everything and go to every talk. It’s hard not to feel this way, because the one thing I have learned is that you get surprised when you least expect it at TED. And the more you open yourself to talks, events and people, the more you get out of it.

I would open myself even more to meeting people. This is the best reason to attend. And I will say that, at least in Palm Springs, the vibe and culture of the conference makes it easy to meet and engage with other people. It’s really up to you how much you want to do that. Obviously people are what make it what it is and the more chances you take reaching out, the more rewards you get.

OUTSIDE OF THE TALKS, WHAT DID YOU LIKE THE BEST?

I was invited to a dinner one of the nights that was “curated” (there’s that word again). In fact, it was called a “Jeffersonian Dinner”. What’s that you ask? Well, it is a dinner where the host puts forth a question and the rest of the dinner the guests grapple, expand, discuss and build on the topic. I think if you can assemble the right group chemistry, it made for a super cool dinner.

Our host put forth the question – “What is authentic leadership?” – a question that inspired a 90-minute conversation with full active participation from about 10 people. I would like to repeat a dinner like this – mind you with the right crowd and the right question.

WHAT DIDN’T YOU LIKE ABOUT TED?

Lack of sleep. Didn’t exercise. Plenty of healthy food options, but still made crappy choices.

Regret that I didn’t go out to the desert party on Thursday night.

Missed a couple talks due to work conflicts and/or travel schedule.

Also couple of the talks were disappointing. They felt like commercials and not TED talks (obviously I am not anti-commercial, but I am anti-self-serving-un-self-aware commercial). TED talks have high expectations and if a speaker takes a wrong step it can be painful. A couple of them did that. #fail.

HOW WILL YOU APPLY IT TO YOUR WORK LIFE AND PERSONAL LIFE?

 Well, one of the things we did at work was tap into the webcast and broadcast it on our creative floor. I can’t wait to get back and talk to my co-workers to see if they were able to watch any of the talks. I’ve been blogging the event with them in mind as my primary audience as a supplement to the webcast. I want to give them my personal POV on the talks and the conference. Obviously there is other coverage and analysis of TED out there, but I’m hoping, by knowing me, and my biases, they will get some texture and tone of the conference itself in addition to the content of the talks.

Also, I have been talking with the agency about creating famous work this year – what does that mean and how do we get there. I am outlining famous as Smart, Surprising and Social and I feel like it aligns with the TED “Ads worth Spreading” contest this year. They were looking for creative work that transcends advertising and becomes content that people want to share. I think that’s the goal for our agency, to create content that people like so much they interact with it and share it. Content that adds value to their lives in the form of smart and surprising information, entertainment, resource, knowledge – some form of relevant utility.

Personally, I can’t wait to share with my family and kids a couple of the talks when they come on line. Aaron O’Connor is just such a cool charismatic nerd that I can’t wait to show the kids (already riffed on this in an earlier post). And there are a bunch I want to share with my wife because she is into science, education, compassion and art. I guess I just can’t wait to “nerd out” with my family.

TED used to send out a DVD package of all the talks after the conference. I don’t think they are doing that any more. But that used to be our family movie night content. Make some popcorn, pop in a TED session. Good times. Now with the hub on line, we can just go there. God bless Apple TV.

HOW DO YOU FEEL APRES-TED?

 Good. Like I’ve said, it’s an overwhelming experience to sit and listen to intense performances and significant content. I do think there is a saturation point and TED can definitely drown you. But you have let go and just enjoy the drowning.

But I’m ready to come home. Just not ready to stop thinking big.

And, hallelujah, I won’t.