TEDxWaterloo 2011–in a word: fantastic!

This was a great event.  Met a ton of people and reconnected with lots of friends too.  I didn’t know if it was possible to top last year, but the team took it up 120%.  Venue was perfect, production quality was flawless, super food (go Steph!) and the speakers were top-notch.  Wow.

Bit of a break from the DSLR today because conversation was the priority, so kicked it with the P and S today, now featuring artistic blur.

Folks filtering in.  Happy I got there early and thanks to @CanvasNotHouses for dropping me off limo-style.  I heard parking got crazy.

As soon as I see wires and test gear, I’m in.

Martin Laforest (left) doing the good outreach for IQC.

My buddies, Jacqui Murphy and Kurt Wissent…

and Christine Hamon, also a show organizer.

Some cool VR stuff.

Chattin’.

Brendan at right.

Speaker trading cards.

The kwartzlab posse.

These seats are really comfortable.

The visuals were stunning, what with Christie Digital, Quarry, and other groups coming together to contribute.

Karl doing what Karl does: talkin’ to the people.

James and Jack also shooting pics.

MC1: Ramy Nassar.

MC2: Matt Gorbet.  And the our speakers…

A word about these modular display cubes that were knit together on stage and displaying graphics and speaker names: sweet.

Miriah did a great talk on data visualization.  Great examples.

Playbook in action.

You are…

dismissed for the first break.

Pretty easy to meet people at this density.

meta…

photography of JB.

I think that is pharmacy Masters graduate, Stephanie at left who I met later.

I think I see Melissa Tait here (1 o’clock from centre), who I met tonight.  She was shooting the show with some really nice Canon gear and, having stumbled on her website last night from a link on Ramy’s, I said hello.  Great talent.

Wandering people were making cool patterns below.

Dave Swart, centre?  I think.

My good friend, Roger Farwell at right, and Laurie Wonfor Nolan painting…

Ben Grossman rocking the tunes.

Sooo thirsty.  And then round 2 of speakers…

Shelley raised some great questions around our Canadian identity.

Colin’s talk had me laughing.  Place matters.

Trained for 6 years, 3 sherpas killed, on climb to Everest.  I could listen to a French-Canadian accent all day.  Jean Francois is a great story-teller.

And then…

an…

experiment!  Amy Kraus Rosenthal, a great speaker from last year’s TEDxWaterloo and our very own Hilary Abel, skyped in from Palm Springs at a concurrent TED event.  Choppy transmission, but great to see these guys.

Wait!  And here’s Dan from TEDxToronto, too.

Laurie’s on a roll.

More Playbook: now in the lobby.  Having demo’d Playbook for 3 days at the RSA conference in San Fran 2 weeks ago, it was hard to not jump right in there.

Third and final round of speakers…

Abby did a great job.  I would have melted at age 16 speaking in front of 900 people.

Vicki schooled us to a new level of understanding tenacity.  Swimming for 4 hours with no headway.  And kept going.

Dr Bondar had a real presence.  Consider the self-discipline required to achieve what she has done.   18 years of post-secondary education.   Blows your hair back.

And the engaging Edwin Outwater, with…

a…

few (go Dave!)

friends.  The piece this string quartet played by Beethoven plugged right into me.  How have I not been to the symphony?

A million thank you’s wrapped up with the core organizing team on stage: Amy, Jennifer, Maria, Matt, and Ramy.

And what night is complete without Karl dashing out with a basket of apples in hand?

Happy making.

DW