How TEDx can change a workplace: Steve Garguilo at TEDGlobal2013.

Bringing a TEDx event into the workplace can transform a corporate culture. TEDxJNJ organizer Steve Garguilo shares stories of how his event opened up a new avenue for communication -- exposing employees to one another's work and reinvigorating their spirit for the work that they do together. TEDx is an international community that organizes TED-style events anywhere and everywhere -- celebrating locally-driven ideas and elevating them to a global stage.

Watch the talks at tedxtalks.ted.com or find an event in your area at ted.com/tedx.

[TEDx Workshop at TEDGlobal]

I think most of us who have done
our first TEDx event

- mine on 10/10/10 with Rives at PSU -

remember that feeling we had,
that sense of excitement

that boundless energy,
and I definitely had that.

Then I went to work
for Johnson & Johnson,

a company with an inspiring vision,

they make vital medicines
that help people to be well,

medical devices, and yes,
our famous baby products.

But I wanted to think, once I join J&J,
how could I bring TED into J&J?

How could I bring that same
sense of excitement,

and so I started talking to people, you know.
'Have you heard of TED?'

'Do you know what this is?'

'Do you watch talks?'
We started just screening some talks,

and found that what we really wanted to do
was create this space for ideas,

this opportunity for people
to come together,

to share their ideas,
and to connect.

So we started by just doing
a few small salon events

and ended up doing salons in six
different countries

over the course of just a few months.

And there was a lot of
genuine excitement around it.

Ken, one of our speakers, we found out,
had escaped from Colombia as a small child

and his main goal,
his driving force in his life,

was that he wanted to create
a telemedicine solution

for his family back in Colombia.

And so he shared that dream,
and then someone in the audience

who works for one of our
Medical Device groups

connected with him,
and they are now working on an initiative

which is doing just that
in Colombia and Turkey.

Or Sue, one of our speakers,
who just had a passion for gardening

and so she started a garden
at her local site,

with some land right next door

and taught people how to create
their own sustainable food

and now there are employee gardens
at a bunch of different sites.

And so we had a lot of this momentum
and this energy

that helped us to do this global
main event experience

which we did on 12/12/12,
kind of pulling off

from some of the 10/10/10 experience,

where we actually had
700 people together

in New Jersey at
the Liberty Science Centre

and then people in 39 different
countries around the world

in sites from Cairo, Lima,
Shanghai, Auckland

coming together and being part
of that experience

we had over 2,000 J&J associates
coming together.

Celia is a 66 year old woman
who works for J&J.

She said, 'It wasn't
the best day of my career,

it was the best day of my life.'

She was dancing with glow sticks,
and she was kind of going crazy.

And she works in R&D for us.
I don't know exactly what she does

but if she went to work
the next day like that,

much more energised and engaged,

and she's working on the cure
for some disease

like who knows where
that is going to lead.

Or one of our speakers, Krishna,
who is working on an artificial pancreas,

with the Juvenile Diabetes
Research Foundation,

said that the preparation
to go into his TED talk

to learn how to be succinct
and how to use story-telling

and put together a really
quality presentation,

helped him make a pitch to JDRF

that has expanded their partnership
and increased the funding

and the potential impact that they
can make through that project.

And we get feedback from people, like
'I fell in love with J&J all over again',

and 'For the first time in years
I was excited to go home

and talk to my kids
about what I did at work today,

and we stayed up all night
watching TED Talks,

and now my daughter is learning
how to programme

and she's creating this game',

and like all of these little secondary,
tertiary benefits that come out of it.

I think the lesson is
that people really want

to engage, they want to connect,
to feel like they are part of something.

They want to have this
genuine conversation,

and this permission to share ideas.

And I think TEDx at corporations
can be a great way to get people there.

Thanks.
(Applause)