#TEDxSanAntonio 2011 Live Blog

The day of TEDxSanAntonio 2011 has finally arrived. We’ve put a ton of work into this and hope you find the experience extremely rewarding. For those of you who can’t attend the event or watch the live feed, feel free to follow along with our live blog here. Leave your comments and join the conversation. We hope you enjoy. Also, feel free to watch the live video webcast at http://www.tedxsanantonio.com/webcast/.

Episode 6: Interview With Todd O'Neill

I happened across Todd O’Neill about a year ago at a Gemini Ink discussion on immigration. His extremely calm, yet focused, demeanor struck me as interesting. The co-owner of C4 Workspace, O’Neill is all about strengthening community by bringing minds together. He is the license holder of TEDxSanAntonio, a conference that has created a great deal of conversation about what people are capable of doing when we think beyond ourselves.

Resources:

• Twitter: @toddfromnj
• Download the video

Download Episode 6

#TEDXSanAntonio is back

For the second consecutive year TED is returning to San Antonio in the form of TEDxSanAntonio. If you are unfamiliar with TED talks, I urge you to check out their website and videos at www.ted.com. As an attendee last year I found tremendous value in the speakers, attendees, and sense of community. There tagline is “Ideas big enough to change the world,” and that they are. While the talks were great, some of the most engaging conversations took place outside of the auditorium. Some of the people I met a year ago have grown into friendships and others have turned into colleagues.

This year I am fortunate enough to be able to help plan and organize this iteration of the event. We hope to make this year’s TEDxSanAntonio more accessible to the entire San Antonio community and have both speakers and an audience that is more representative of the population as a whole. The work is hard, but the dedicated, forward-thinking people who form the company of volunteers make it worth it. Also, it’s great to be a part of something so positive and influential within my community. There are plenty of volunteer opportunities available. If you’re interested in volunteering, our next meeting will take place on Thursday, June 16th, 2011 at the Tripont YMCA located at 3233 N. St. Mary’s, San Antonio, TX 78212. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions and I’ll put you in contact with the right people.

Resources:

TED Website: http://www.ted.com

TEDxSanAntonio Website: http://www.tedxsanantonio.com

TED on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tedtalks | http://twitter.com/tednews | @TEDTalks | @TEDNews

TEDxSanAntonio: http://twitter.com/tedxsanantonio |@TEDxSanAntonio | #TEDxSanAntonio

Organizers:

Debbie Curtis	Todd O’Neill	Donna Tuttle	Susan Price	George Riley	Chris McDermott
@kitestringbyday	@toddfromnj	@writeontime	@firecatsue	@griley	@BeardyMcD

We Need More Taglines Like This. Thanks @griley

Last night I attented the TEDxSanAntonio mixer and was fortunate enough to meet George Riley (@griley), one of the people that makes the official TED happen. At the end of the evening, he passed me his business card. This is the back of that card. If only more businesses had taglines like this. If only more businesses lived this type of philosophy. If only more businesses operated like this. Think of what we could accomplish together.

Other people I lucky to see again included:

@doingmedia
@TEDxSanAntonio
@writeontime
@kitestringbyday
@julianaperez
@benyc440 

TEDxSanAntonio Was Awesome

This Saturday I was fortunate enough to attend TEDxSanAntonio. I wasn’t familiar with TED conferences until I met Todd O’Neill of C4 Workspace while attending an immigration discussion hosted by Gemini Ink. He explained to me the types of speakers, attendees, and content that showed up for these events and I decided to apply to go…and I’m glad I did. There were great speakers who covered topics from the death penalty and glass children to bionic exoskeletons and obesity. Mayor Julian Castro spoke on the power of education.

However, what I found most valuable was the group of attendees that were present. The speakers were great, and the content was amazing, but I really appreciated being among a number of people who were excited to learn and engage their communities in meaningful ways to foster positive change. I ran into several familiar people and met others. The conversations we had over breaks, lunch, and the reception were simply fascinating.