Ted 2007: Final Day Wrapup
Saturday morning kicked off the last day of the conference with a mini-concert by They Might Be Giants— it was definitely the earliest rock concert I’ve ever seen in my life, and surely the earliest these guys have ever been awake. They played a set with 15-20 second snippets of dozens of their most famous songs as a little taster. I was a little underwhelmed by them but it was still great to have them in attendance, they’re clearly musical explorers.
Richard Branson’s session was a bit different, Chris Anderson (the TED curator) interviewed him on stage. It was clear that Anderson wasn’t a professional interviewer but i thought he still did a pretty decent job. Branson came across as soft spoken, humble, and surprisingly honest. He spoke a bit about how he dropped out of school, some of his adventures and what drives him. He was elevated to ‘hero’ status for me for nothing more than the undeniable fact that he just rolled up his sleeves and did it.
Bill Stone is both a cave explorer and space explorer– he does multi-day trips into the center of the earth, into caves miles below the surface of the earth. The slides of his expeditions were very fascinating. He also spoke a lot about space exploration and how he feels nobody has really pushed the boundaries in space travel because everyone is concerned about getting home. He says the ideal party would go to space with just enough to get there and would find fuel in space to return, if at all. He showed slides of where he’s convinced fossil fuel exists on the moon, etc. He announced at TED that in the next few years he’ll be leading that mission– the first to ever travel to space without enough fuel to come back.
Zahah Hadid was unfortunately an no-show for some reason, no word on why but that was disappointing.
The real gem of the last day was story teller Ben Dunlap— fascinating guy and extraordinary story teller.
Keep your eyes peeled for this years TEDTalks available online, this was an unbelievable and life-changing conference. The amount of information, passion and inspiration is still just sinking into my brain, and heart. I’m already counting down the days until TED 2008, even though it’s sold out a year in advance, I hope to see some of you there next time!
