Comments on: TEDxWaterloo – February 25, 2010

By: Simon Clark

Simon Clark — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:03:11 +0000

I think I understand your reasoning, but I cannot agree with it. Trying to micromanage your audience for some vaguely perceived benefit is a mistake. Ignite had a wonderfully diverse crowd with no such machinations. You pick your crowd by how you choose to advertise the event.

Any selection process beyond first-come-first-serve or a random lottery is inherently biased and goes against the principles of openness and inclusion that I deeply believe in. You're welcome to hold such an event, but I will not be there.

Best of luck with the event.

By: Jaclyn Konzelmann

Jaclyn Konzelmann — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:35:37 +0000

I appreciate that you will be lobbying for making Canada 3.0 more open to students and people that may not be able to afford the current ticket price. It was a great experience and I wish that more people had the opportunity to go, so I am very happy to hear that.

In terms of the process and spots for TEDxWaterloo, we want to make sure everyone that is passionate is able to make it out. That is part of the reason we choose the Gig over other venues - it has a larger capacity which means we can have even more people come out and enjoy the event. As for the criteria, we really want to get to know the people coming out. If they want to come out for the right reasons (ie. are passionate, excited, want to contribute) then we want them out, it is in everyone's best interest to get them out. If they want to come out simply because it is a free event which includes free food and entertainment then this may take away from the experience. At the end of the day we don't want to come off as being overly elitist. which is why we are trying to respond to everyone's concerns as well as the good things being said. I strongly urge you to make it out to the event this year and ask people what they thought of it after it is over. Then please get back to us and let us know if there is anything that we could have improved or if anything was done that did not live up to peoples expectations.

At the end of the day we want to make sure that we are bringing an amazing event to Waterloo, because as you mentioned in your blog post, Waterloo is an amazing community!

By: jrodgers

jrodgers — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:25:02 +0000

Yes Canada 3.0 had its issues… and it needs to be free or low cost or sponsored spots for students next time. I am going to lobby hard for that.

All I ask with TEDx is that you are open about the criteria, the rationale, and the number of spots that there is in total. I think you are sort of doing that in this discussion and thanks for that. However, at this point I don't know enough to know if I can contribute in a meaningful way given the number of commitments I already have. Maybe next time.

By: Jaclyn Konzelmann

Jaclyn Konzelmann — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:04:32 +0000

Canada 3.0 had a lot more space to allow for more people to come out. Speaking personally, I had applied to volunteer for that event and was initially turned down. My other option was to pay a couple hundred dollars, which, as a student I did not have. I know a lot of people that wanted to make it out to that conference that were unable to attend because of these barriers. It is true that there was a diverse crowd, however, there were also a lot of people that would have loved to make it out but could not afford to.

TEDx is trying to eliminate the barrier of cost by providing this experience free of charge. The guidelines do ask for applications and this is something that we are in no way trying to associate with being elitist. I am truly sorry if this is the way you are interpreting it. As stated before, if you feel like you could contribute in any way to make this event as great as possible we would love to have your support and help.

By: jrodgers

jrodgers — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:34:13 +0000

In the last 5 years of running and participating events locally I have seen the most diverse and passionate group of people come out to each and every event. I haven't witnessed the problem you seem to think applying to TEDx solves.

Probably the most amazing example of that was the Canada 3.0 conference that initially looked like an elite group of big company/government/education folks and instead was an incredibly diverse collection of brilliant people from across the country that left the event energized, connected with new people, and hungry for more.

You can't force that to happen, you can only encourage people, remove any barriers, and provide a location.

By: jrodgers

jrodgers — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:27:18 +0000

I understand your perspective but I disagree with what TEDx seems to encourage. Perhaps a more open process might make sense but I fairly certain “amazing experience” means something very different to me than it does to you. That isn't a bad thing. With BarCampWaterloo, StartupCampWaterloo, IgniteWaterloo, etc I have plenty of community events to help out with and I am excited to see students taking an interest in contributing to the community.

Best of luck with TEDxWaterloo and I do hope it is a great success.

By: Renjie Butalid

Renjie Butalid — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:23:27 +0000

I would agree with Jaclyn, and sincerely hope that both you (Simon) and Jesse reconsider and put in an application to attend TEDxWaterloo for the reasons that Jaclyn stated above. Also to note, members of the organizing committee as well as our volunteers are giving their time, energy and commitment towards making TEDxWaterloo a success, driven by a passion for TED and ideas worth spreading. All of us do have other full-time commitments, such as jobs, school, families, etc. so putting on TEDxWaterloo is a project driven by passion and our desire to connect more broadly with and across the Waterloo Region community. Our diverse range of speakers, many of whom are very well recognized and well respected in their fields, are also giving us their time and energy because they also believe in sharing their ideas and experiences with the community.

By: Jaclyn Konzelmann

Jaclyn Konzelmann — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:05:36 +0000

Hi Simon, I understand your concern and I want to assure you there is no board somewhere deciding upon a person worthiness for attendance. We want to make sure that the audience is diverse and passionate. Opening up registration to a first-come, first-serve basis typically results in the same networks being tapped and the same attendees at different events. We want to ensure that TED is attended by a diverse crowd that offer different perspectives. This is why the application period is open for a long period of time – to ensure we can reach out to a diverse crowd that may not be the type of people that hear about things the minute they come out. It is not a matter of being worthy or not, it is a matter of ensuring that we get passionate people out that want to be at TEDxWaterloo to learn and share. I sincerely hope that you applied because by the sounds of it, you are the type of passionate person that we are looking to get out to this event!

By: Jaclyn Konzelmann

Jaclyn Konzelmann — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:45:05 +0000

Great to see so much discussion going on! As one of the main organizers for this event, and a current Engineering Undergrad student I am very excited to be part of the team bringing TEDx to the Waterloo region. I know there has been a lot of discussion regarding the application process, and I think Renjie's post helps to clarify why that is in place. It is true that this event could be run for a lot less money – but it would not be as big or as amazing as the experience we are trying to create for the attendees and everyone who logs on to watch it live. Jesse, we would love your help raising sponsorship if you feel that this is not a hard task. We are always looking for enthusiastic people to help out and would welcome you to our team.

By: Jesse Rodgers

Jesse Rodgers — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:20:21 +0000

That is a silly comment to make… the fact you need “tens of thousands” of dollars is even sillier. You can do the same thing for a lot less money — and getting sponsorship isn't hard. Maybe I will run my own unTEDx :p