Ideas Impacting the World | TEDGlobal 2011 Presentation

TEDx Organizers from all over the world: Brazil, Canada, the United States, South Africa, Lebanon, South Korea, The Netherlands, Germany, Kenya, China and Taiwan, speak to their experience actualizing a TEDx event, and the impact it has had on them, and their community.

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 TEDxAmazônia
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.