Sunday, August 07, 2011
To Our Female Friends...
...And Those Who Love them.
Yesterday we attended San Miguel's second TEDx event. For those of you who aren't familiar with the concept, TEDx events use the TED brand identity (Ideas Worth Spreading) and follow the general format of the large international TED conferences, but are independently organized and for the most part, are locally focused.
As you might expect, several of the presenters were less than captivating and the event was plagued by minor technical glitches, but overall we were really impressed and inspired. We heard from a man who does "transformational art," teaching kids in the poorest neighborhoods of Mexico City to create colorful caterpillars -- socks filled with soil and seeds, that when left out in the elements, sprout into living vegetable gardens. Another young guy discussed his efforts to bridge the huge digital divide in Mexico by setting up pre-fab computer centers in poor neighborhoods to provide access and training for local citizens. We heard from a lady trying to transform Mexico's huge, bureaucratic education system and from a passionate South African director who's making a film about ordinary citizens in Mexico's Sinaloa state who are are standing up to the drug cartels. The composer who created the soundtrack for the The Piano, Wonderland and a bunch of other films, spoke and played. And we watched a video made by Deepok Chopra specifically for this San Miguel conference.
But once again, as you might expect, the most riveting presentations were taped talks from previous international TED conferences, the best of which was delivered by the Chilean author Isabel Allende. If you haven't seen it already, I urge you to watch it here. And then pass it on to every young woman you know and love.
Yesterday we attended San Miguel's second TEDx event. For those of you who aren't familiar with the concept, TEDx events use the TED brand identity (Ideas Worth Spreading) and follow the general format of the large international TED conferences, but are independently organized and for the most part, are locally focused.
As you might expect, several of the presenters were less than captivating and the event was plagued by minor technical glitches, but overall we were really impressed and inspired. We heard from a man who does "transformational art," teaching kids in the poorest neighborhoods of Mexico City to create colorful caterpillars -- socks filled with soil and seeds, that when left out in the elements, sprout into living vegetable gardens. Another young guy discussed his efforts to bridge the huge digital divide in Mexico by setting up pre-fab computer centers in poor neighborhoods to provide access and training for local citizens. We heard from a lady trying to transform Mexico's huge, bureaucratic education system and from a passionate South African director who's making a film about ordinary citizens in Mexico's Sinaloa state who are are standing up to the drug cartels. The composer who created the soundtrack for the The Piano, Wonderland and a bunch of other films, spoke and played. And we watched a video made by Deepok Chopra specifically for this San Miguel conference.
But once again, as you might expect, the most riveting presentations were taped talks from previous international TED conferences, the best of which was delivered by the Chilean author Isabel Allende. If you haven't seen it already, I urge you to watch it here. And then pass it on to every young woman you know and love.
# posted by goots @ 10:38 AM 
