TEDxWarsaw

Origin story for TEDx - independently organized TED events.

So, once upon a time, these people who were really smart and did really smart things decided to get together and talk about the smart things they do. Thus TED talks began. To go to a TED talk, you have to be personally invited. Then you have to pay 7,000 dollars. So, after a while, some poor people who were also interested in smart things got together and decided that they wanted to do the same thing, but... free.

These are all over the place. There was TEDxNotreDame, though I never heard about it. There are online TED talks. I subscribe to the podcast, and some of them are really fascinating.

That was not necessarily the case at TEDxWarsaw.

Lola and I figured out that there were TEDx events in Poland because some of our fellow Fulbrighters were going to them in other cities - Poznan, Wroclaw, etc. So, I googled TEDxWarsaw and found that it was coming up. I submitted my application, and Lola submitted hers. Even though it's free, you still have to be selected to attend.

A few weeks later, we received notice that we were among the few, the lucky, the selected. So, when there was an optional "networking" event, Lola and I thought "Why not?"

The networking event was on Tuesday. It was interesting, to say the least. It was three hours of figuring out whether it's worth it to talk to everyone you meet or stay in contact with everyone you meet, on establishing internet presence, etc. While it was useful to hear someone talk about these things, they seemed really obvious. I don't consider the three hours wasted - at the very least, it was good practice. However, the networking event raised some questions when I was dissatisfied with the TEDx event (more later).

TEDx itself started fairly well. As usual, Lola and I were running late. The first and last panels were in English. So, we obviously wanted to maximize our understanding of the event by getting there before the first panel (which we did). We did attend some of the Polish panels. I even understood parts of them! Though, there were some that I couldn't get with my grasp of Polish. For example: the astronomy talk on why we are all astronomers by the cute University of Warsaw guy. I was sitting there expecting to hear "blah blah blah Koperniki" over and over. I was wrong. I guess Poles can still surprise me.

The event itself was organized beautifully. There were apples at the breaks. The venue seemed ideal. The gift baskets were pretty awesome, though I worry about the extra weight that one little coffee cup is going to add to my luggage when I return home finally.

So, the problem was not the organization. Nor was it the speakers, even. Each speaker had something that would've made their talk "a TEDx talk." But, of the speakers I understood, none nailed it. They didn't capture the elusive "it." (Suddenly, I'm taken back to Jack Kerouac, Dylan, and the Beats. Giamo would be proud of how often that class comes into my life.) Outside of the talks, instead of discussing the merits of the various speakers or the implications of their ideas, people focused on networking. I have business cards from people who are starting their businesses or want to know more about the American market for this or that. The fact that I'm basically an academic didn't seem to factor into their thoughts.

Some people weren't the best at networking. One man came up to me, squinted at my name tag, and commented on how rare the name "Amanda" is in Polish. When I replied (in English, because replying in Polish was beyond my ability), he then squinted at my name tag again. At this point, he apologizes, saying "I assumed you were Polish." Then he asks, in French, if I speak French. So I reply, "a little." Which is true. I do speak a little French. Granted, I understand and read French much better than I speak it. At this point, the rude man says, "It's interesting how many people here say they speak French and don't." What does someone say in response to that? At least I didn't put down that I'm fluent in Polish when I just function in Polish.

A key aspect of TEDx events is that there is no question and answer session. This makes sense to me, but I assumed that the breaks between events would give us the opportunity to analyze things. I suppose this comes from my academic focus - which is very different in America than in Poland. It's a struggle to get my university-level students to do anything.that involves thinking critically. Scholarship here seems to revolve around the recitation of facts instead of making arguments and challenging other people to improve their ideas. In my experience, being challenged isn't a negative thing. It's positive. It means that you can become better. Anything I said critically about the TEDxWarsaw event on Twitter was met with instant negative (and frequently cruel) response from complete strangers.

So, I guess my main criticism boil down to: I expected something more like an academic conference, and I got a networking event. My second main criticism was that none of the speakers nailed the TEDx ideal speech - based on the ones I've watched online.

It doesn't take much to make a TEDx talk. It's about "ideas worth spreading." Instead of getting an idea worth spreading, I got... a whole range of speeches - from inspirational Oprah crap to "here's a list of books I've read about dieting, and you should go on a vegan fast." The woman with the vegan fast recommendation was interesting. She mentioned some unhealthy dieting practices but didn't focus on how common those sort of things (like laxative teas) are for women in Poland (a country where gym culture is just beginning to catch on). She had the whole basis for her talk in a fascinating comment she made in answer to "Why did you decide to be vegan?" She said, "Because I'm selfish." With those three words, she revolutionized the idea of "selfishness." That is something I would listen to a 15 minute speech about.

Another example was the Oprah speech. A woman climbed the seven highest peaks on each continent. That's pretty freaking cool, right? She has to have fascinating things to say about it, right? Well, she did have interesting stories to tell, but she didn't necessarily tell them. Each of her mountains represented something she learned "Perseverance," "Motivation," etc. She became one of those black and white motivational posters. At the same time, frequently the indigenous people who helped her climb each mountain factored into her speech. What a fascinating concept: mountain climbing and the local economy - people who work as pack mules, basically. The people who make it possible for the wealthy to do extravagant things like climb mountains! Instead, there were some casual comments about the cannibalism of the local culture, which - I'm 90% certain - ignored the intricacies of the issue for the shock value of "cannibalism."

I could go through each speech, but my thoughts on some of them are less charitable than others, and it does no good to go into that depth this far after the fact. I'm still confused about the guy who went to Asia to paint Scottish murals at the winery. It was in Polish, but I couldn't tell if he wasn't prepared or if he was incredibly culturally insensitive or both. Every time someone laughed, I was like "I could make a similar slide show about Poland." However, I'm completely a relativist. I have hard time saying one group or culture is better than another. Still, based on decades in the states, some of the things in Poland are really strange.

Anyway, TEDxWarsaw was a fun event, and I'm glad I attended. At the very least, it will be a fun addition to my scrapbook and to my coffee mug collection!