Kelo Kubu: The idea of sharing ideas is actually not a very popular or common thing, at least where I come from. Halim Madi: Beirut is a strange cocktail. We don't have oil like the other Arab countries. All we have are the people. And our only asset are the ideas we have. Hanseok Ryu: Most of Asian countries, like Korea, [didn't] use to have this kind of chances to speak on a stage like TED. Tahee Pantig: The great thing about the TEDx platform is that it's like a beacon of hope, so that other people in the community can see, "Wow, there are some really incredible things that I can take part of and help change where we live." Krisztina "Z" Holly: We're talking about how it might be possible to bring that TED experience to campus and see if we can do an independently organized event. Lara Stein: The mission of TEDx is to spread great ideas across the globe, and tap into local voices within local communities, and give them a platform. Jim Stolze: TEDx is a way for people in their own local community, to give their community a TED experience. HR: Holding a TEDx event is not only about introducing whole new ideas which were introduced from TED.com, but I think it's really all about community. LS: TEDx is the ability for you and your community, to tap into some local thinkers and voices and have a real dialogue about how to make a difference in the world. Suraj Sudhakar: The world of development, what's happening, what are the latest findings, is often not shared with the very people for whom we really want development to work. Once we decided we're going to do a TEDx, then we thought about who are these different speakers. One was a person who would come and talk about microfinance. Another person we found would talk about technology and the phenomenon of mobile phones. We found an artist from Kibera; with stuff he finds in and around Kibera, he creates art. We actually took this TEDx to different slums around Nairobi. We use this as a platform to share ideas across communitites. Richard Hsu: I think it's the basic nature. If you come across something good in your private life, you just say, "Oh God, I wish my friends see it. I wish my parents were there. I wish my brother was here." This is just something incredibly basic. TP: I think for an idea to spread there needs to be a personal connection. HR: Yeah, stories! I think stories are such a powerful tool because a story changes people, how they think. Stephen Balzer: I think it's a part of the secret of TED, the personal touch, its storyline. Rodrigo Cunha: With TEDxAmazĂ´nia we had this girl, she was a researcher in the Amazon. And she was washing clothes and then a crocodile emerged from the river and took her, and took her leg. And we asked her to go there and give us a talk about her experience. And at the end of the talk she said, "You don't have to be afraid of the storm. You have to learn how to dance in the rain." When we did go to the break, there was this huge tropical storm coming in, and people were dancing on the floor. Alison Whitmire: It was in the ugliest part of the recession. The people I work with are CEOs of small to medium sized businesses. And they were suffering. I thought, "That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to have a TEDx that reconnects these CEOs with the passion that helped them start their business." KK: The willingness to say, "Here is how I got here. This is something that I will share with you. You take it and see what you can do with it." SB: They really take action. They have energy to change something. Presenting these ideas to people is really what brings up change in peoples' minds and the countries as well. It's not top-down but it's grassroots. JS: So what we've done in 2010 was to look for four ideas worth doing, to see how we could get those ideas further. They're working on those ideas for the whole year, and at TEDxAmsterdam 2011, we're going to present what happened in the last year. TP: They all know that they can change the world. Not only do they want to, but they just know that they can. They have this unwavering confidence in the fact that what they're doing is special and is contributing something to the world and to their communities.