Quotes and Photos from TED: Day 1

By on February 29, 2012

Prior to arriving at TED I knew I wanted to share the experience with you by way of Twitter and the Ketchum blog, but I don’t know that I anticipated it being quite so hard to choose what to share.

I mean, this is TED, the land of only great content. It’s kind of like a person that loves every type of candy standing in a candy store trying to figure out which candy to pick – not easy!

But alas, here are a few items that stuck with me throughout the day.

Give Your Viewer Some Credit

  • Andrew Stanton on storytelling: “Give your audience two plus two….don’t give them four. Let them put it together. Your audience wants to work for their meal.”

Delving into the White Space is Scary, but Necessary

  • Julie Bernstein on “loss” in creativity: “We need to embrace loss in order to create — stand in space between what we see in the world and what we hope for — looking squarely at rejection, heartbreak, death. We call this “the tragic gap” — not because it’s sad but because it’s inevitable. You can hold that tension like a violin string and make something beautiful.

 Humans not Only Rise Under Pressure, We have No Choice

  • Paul Gilding on the fact that the earth is full (need 1.5 earths to sustain this level of living)  ”…But when we feel fear and loss we are capable of quite extraordinary things. We do love a good crisis… sure if we get it wrong we could face the end if civilization. But if we get it right could be part of a new civilization. This could be our finest hour.”

While those are just three quotes, I could literally go on and on with noteworthy items heard throughout the day.

Thus far, my key takeaway is this: TED is a fusion of paradoxes — amazing optimism combined with huge world crises. You are exposed to back to back talks that seemingly contradict each other. This format forces your mind to expand in uncomfortable, refreshing directions — and embrace conflict/scary questions, and the amazing (and absolutely, inevitably needed) possibilities of human capability when we come together to catalyze change.

Now for some photos from along the way…

That's me on the left, and the other female is my colleague Betsy Quinn. Of course we were doing a little networking!

Here I am checking out some facial recognition software. I promise I wasn't in a bad mood!

Like I said, they are constantly forcing you to think.

Yes, music counts as mental stimulation.

 

About Sarah Unger

Sarah is a Creative Catalyst in Ketchum's New York office, providing creative and strategic counsel. She works closely with team leaders to catalyze the creative process and evolve program concepts from idea to execution, developing key research-based and target-relevant insights that help lead to clear strategic vision. A committed cultural enthusiast, it’s hard to find something that doesn’t interest her. You can follow Sarah’s random musings on Twitter @sarahjane047 and her blog, So Five Minutes Ago.

All posts by Sarah Unger