TEDxCalgary: "Wilderness"

As I've written elsewhere (here, for example), I used to get out a lot more. I used to go out at night, eat in restaurants, listen to live music, even leave town! Having children has changed a lot of that stuff quite a bit. I shouldn't sayI don't get around much anymore - it's just that I get around to a lot more playgrounds than night clubs. And I've loved the new places being a mostly-stay-at-home mom has taken me. I've seen a side of this city that I never saw before I was a parent.

One of the only things I miss is the chance to spend more time in Calgary's grown-up "playgrounds." So when theTEDxCalgary team invited me to come and draw some pictures at their event at theCalgary Zoo a couple of weeks ago, of course I jumped at the chance.

What is TED? I think the first time I heard about it was when I watched Naheed Nenshi's popular TEDxCalgary talk online in 2010 (back before he was Calgary's Mayor). TED describes itself on its website thus: "TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. ...TED conferences bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less)."

So what is "TEDx"? The TEDx website says: "The TEDx program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis."

So there you have it. Check out the amazing independent planners and coordinators on the TEDxCalgary volunteer team. And now take a look at my notes about what they cooked up for a handful of lucky Calgarians in January 2014!

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See? It was really sunny at the Calgary Zoo's Karsten Discovery Centre! (By the way, I have stolen most of the photos in this post from the TEDxCalgary facebook page).

The TEDx team of volunteers had set up some blackboards around the lobby, and participants were invited to write on them, finishing some open-ended statements such as, "Wilderness to me means...."

("A Hole is To Dig" was my contribution, by the way. As I've mentioned elsewhere (here, for example), I usually don't read grown-up books!)

Anyway, I went around and talked with people about how they'd finish those sentences, and here are some of the things they said:

I can't tell you how pleased I was to run into John (depicted above). He was a childhood friend of my brother's, and a long time ago he helped me to paint a mural on an enormous Calgary wall! You can read a comic strip about our swashbuckling mural-painting adventures here.

Seeing John - whom I don't run into on a regular basis -  reinforced for me how TEDx really draws in all sorts of people, from all parts of town, of all ages, of all walks of life!

This participant (above) was actually named Ted!

Glenda MacQueen is the Vice Dean at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Medicine. And Rahim Sajan (above) is TEDxCalgary's Curator!

Well, all of that was before the talks even started! We settled in for a day of engaging, challenging, provoking words and images, all of which was introduced by an impassioned spoken word piece performed by 13-year-old local poet Fatima Bata.

I took notes during the talks just for fun.

I loved listening to Canadian legend Robert Bateman speak, not just about how he paints the wilderness, but about important it is to let children interact with the wild world out there, rather than bring them up surrounded by screens. On that note - a total aside, I confess - here's something with a screen that was recently voted the worst toy of the year. You tell 'em, Mr. Bateman!

Next, Barbara Coloroso's very affecting talk about how something as common as schoolyard bullying can set the stage for bigger problems. Ms. Coloroso spoke about her work at schools in Rwanda helping to nurture a new society in the wake of that country's1994 genocide. The "1, 2, 3" points that I recorded in the image below (if I remember correctly) are the conditions she listed as necessary for a society to get itself into something as terrible as genocide.

Somewhere in there we were also treated to a video put together by TEDx team member Chris Hsiung. Here it is: "Meet the Human Race." (I'm not sure why my screen shows an image that's a few minutes into the video, but if you click on "play," it should start at the beginning.) The images in this video were beautiful and powerful! But even better, I loved the music!

Meet the Human Race

Here's an aside. TEDx curator Rahim Sajan impressed upon participants the idea that they weren't just there to soak up the information in the talks; rather, the TEDx material was meant to get participants interacting, asking questions, starting conversations, and coming away with some new opportunities for friendship, collaboration, and learning. I think Chris Hsiung's video was the "trailhead" that set me off into a particular wilderness adventure just now:

When I went to Chris's website to put up the link to his video, I took a look at a few of the other projects that his company, Hidden Story Productions, has worked on. One thing I noticed was that Chris put together the video for the song written and performed by Amy Thiessen during Mayor Nenshi's first campaign. That's a video many Calgarians (including myself) watched. Then I noticed that there was a project called "Soul of the City Neighbour Grant Proposal." (By the way, these grants are still available, and if your neighbourhood group would like to apply for one, you should - check out the information here!) Looks like Chris is proposing to document the stories of the grant recipients. (And, from what I can see, it looks like he'd do an awesome job!).

But what I also realized was that I'd met Chris before, one year ago, when I did some graphic recording for Calgary Economic Development's "Soul of the City" series. It was really early in the morning and I hadn't had any coffee - I think that must be why I didn't instantly recognize Chris at TEDx (that, and the fact that he was busy taking pictures and I was busy drawing and there wasn't really any time to talk). It turns out Chris is the person who made the sped-up video of me graphically recording the Soul of the City talks. I have pointed so many people to this video, and I never knew who made it! Hooray for TEDx solving this mystery for me. I will have to send Chris a note. But first I have to finish this blog!

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WILDERNESS to me means...

Above: something I drew while listening to the TEDx talks. (Yes. I can listen and draw at the same time!)

Then it was time for lunch, and here are some of the pictures I drew while listening to folks around the table (click on them to enlarge).

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Having never been to one of these before, I wondered a bit about how unique this particular TEDx event was, compared to so many worldwide TEDx's. Then I saw this little light was designed by Fred Maynard of the TEDx volunteer team - now how cool (and unique) is that?

I couldn't stay for the afternoon's talks, but before I left, I put all the pictures I drew up on a blackboard for everyone to see when they came out of the auditorium!

Here's Kevin Franco of event sponsor Francomedia (very cool Inglewood-based firm)

Yes, indeed - thanks, TEDx, for doing what you do!

And now one more note. I really love drawing pictures amidst crowds of engaged, smart, motivated people - it's so inspiring. But sometimes when I come home to a house full of diapers and train tracks, it is a bit hard to switch gears (as depicted at the end of this post from last year's Mayor's Lunch for Arts Champions). In this case, though, my 5-yr-old son helped me through the transition by welcoming me home with this message: