#TEDxWaterloo 2012 was a great time

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TEDxWaterloo once again delivered an amazing experience.  So good to catch up with old friends and meet a whack of new friends.  An unreasonable amount of pictures follow…

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Like a summer day…

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out…

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here…

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waiting.

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This year (third for me), I convinced…

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my bro to go.

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Hey Councillor Karen Scian!

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Centre in the Square.  Packed.  Great venue.

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Mr. Jack Jackowetz (2nd from right).

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Cool stage set up…

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with giant 4-foot high foam letters spelling “disconnected”.  Now who picked up these letters in the charity auction at the end of the night?

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Ramy got us started…

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with Matt as our co-hosts.

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Comic artist Scott Chantler up first.  Told us about story-telling.  Very cool and somewhat analogous to what I try to do here on makebright.

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After his talk, Scott set up in the wing and drew out a concept panel for each speaker.
Right on!

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I really wanted this big d for the office.

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Playwright Shannon Blake

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talked about delivering theatre with street-involved adults.  Loved what she said about when you’re presented with a rock and a hard place, look for the creative third option.

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Props to the media crew.  Nice job.

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Bilge Demirköz joined the event via a pre-recorded video…

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encouraging a fusion of science and art.  Yes, please!

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Space balloon camera rig for ~$400 from…

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maker Mathew Ho and his team, captured…

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these amazing pics…

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from SPACE, yo!  Mathew had a great message encouraging us to break our limits and “try the ridiculous”.  He also made a super-important point, saying that his team did not invent any of the approach they used (aside from attaching a Lego figure).  They used hand warmer packets to keep the gear warm.  They used (presumably) CHDK scripts to drive the cameras.  All not new ideas, as Mathew said, BUT they actually DID it.  They didn’t just talk about it.  They didn’t get stuck when launching in high winds.  They persevered.  Respect!

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Ok, my personal fave: Mr. Krister Shalm, physicist and extraordinary cross-domain thinker…

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with help from magician Dan Trommater

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used Smarties and…

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some mind-blowing lindy hop…

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to illustrate…

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the idea…

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of quantum…

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entanglement.

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And if that doesn’t blow your hair back, he also…

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organized and inspired scores of peeps from around the world (on screen) to learn/perform/record this dance as well, spreading the good word on all things quantum.

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Yes, this is the same Krister that leveraged some Harry Potter twist to teach kids about the quantum world last year.

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Respect**2.  Take a bow!

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Break…

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time.

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Scott’s doing well on the comic panels.  Nice!

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and I get a closer look at these giant foam letters.  Curious who has the giant hot-wire foam cutter that cranked these out. Update: Kubik made these babies (thanks Stephanie).  Now *that* would be another visit/post I’d love to do on makebright.

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I thought the house was pretty much…

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empty, but then I saw…

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this guy!  Bravo for injecting the surreal.

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Snacks!

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And of course…

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it was jamming!

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So I sought higher ground for some…

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meta-photography.

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Organizer Christine Hamon.  Nothing up her sleeve.

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Drink?

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Yes, please.

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And time to check in with our friends from IQC who always bring cool gear.

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Connected with our friend Evan for the quantum crypto demo here.  Thanks Evan!

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And IQC researcher Rolf Horn is here too, spreading the good word.

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Carlos!

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Lots of chatting.

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Paul!

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Recharge for Apple devices.  And RIM kicked in a whack of batteries so you could just swap out your BlackBerry batt for a freshly-charged (and new!) one.

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Where’s Brohemus?

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More meta-photog.  Christine Reid (right) and her posse.

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There were a *lot*…

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of cameras here.  Bastow!

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M. Jean Béliveau described…

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his round-the-world…

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walk.

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That’s right.  Walk.  11 years.  54(?) pairs of shoes.  These shoes above are the last pair he used on his journey.  I’m still thinking about this talk.

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Roberta Hunt

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plays…

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a helluva piano!  Passion!

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Glenn Anderson on drums.

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Help me out readers: who is on sax Update: Toby Hughes on sax (thanks for the info, Jaime)…

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and who is on bass?  Update: Chris Banks on bass (thanks Roberta!)  Nice set.

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Up next was Dear Photograph’s Taylor Jones.

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Great to hear Taylor talk…

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about how he got started on Dear Photograph and where it has taken him.  As a rule, I don’t post personal stuff on makebright, but the DP-inspired post I did last month here got an amazing response.

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Sarah Williams from Columbia University…

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connected data visualization and social media data feeds to make some interesting observations about why we do what we do with facebook and foursquare and how that data might be understood and used.

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A visit from the TED mothership to talk about…

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TED-in-a-box and TEDxWaterloo’s donation of a rig for that program.  Readers: can anyone help me with a name here? Update: Becca Pace of TED here.  Becca runs the awesome TED-in-a-box program (thanks again for the info, Stephanie)

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I now understand…

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what all the buzz was about, when…

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Peter Katz played The Registry Theatre last year.  Awesome set.

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Hey nik harron!

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Getting the box dinners from EVO was a great idea to speed throughput.  I’d like to think the BOX Art Show popularized that approach.

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Alicia Raimundo talked about struggles with mental health and the importance of being an intentional superhero.

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Karen Morris borrowed from at least a few songs including What’s Love Got to Do With It.

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Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish gave an amazingly passionate talk on not letting hate rule your life.

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Wow.

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And at the end of the day, Scott Chantler delivered…

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the talk-inspired panels.  Love the one of Jean walking across the bottom of the piece.

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Lots of chatting at the after-party and…

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some time for reflection before…

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heading out into the night.

So, I gotta ask: what are you going to do differently?

Happy making,
DW

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10 Responses to #TEDxWaterloo 2012 was a great time

  1. Hey Darin – awesome post as always! Pics sooo much better than the ones I took with my phone. 🙂 The letters were made by Kubik and Becca Pace of TED leads the TEDx in a Box program. Cheers!

  2. Pingback: TEDxWaterloo 2012 | RQ Magazine

  3. Jaime Almond says:

    Hey Darin,

    Amazing pics!! Beautiful round up of the day, you really captured it so well.

    Toby Hughes is on Sax with Roberta.

    Also for Krister’s talk – peeps can watch all the videos at http://www.projectq.ca.

  4. Your coverage continues to get better and better if that’s even possible. The pic of Dan Trommater is outstanding. Bravo! I’m going to walk more, hate less and perhaps learn the lindy-hop. Nik Harmon walked away with the n.

  5. Holly says:

    Amazing write-up and great captures. It was wonderful to be a part of TEDxWaterloo. Thanks for sharing the day from your perspective!

  6. Incredible write up! And your photos are just fantastic. Thanks for the comprehensive coverage of a great event!

  7. Roberta Hunt says:

    I think I will write an album full of songs to convey the thrill, excitement and community this incredible event sparked. Sharing talents in such an inclusive way – love it!
    Darin, your photos are incredible and capture the spirit of the day. Congrats!

    Roberta

    PS – Bass player is Chris Banks. Thx

  8. dw says:

    I really appreciate all the kind words and the help filling in a few blanks on names. To me, this feedback is the start of a conversation within the community, which is what this is really all about, after all.

    DW

  9. Stephen Preece says:

    Hey Darin,
    Thanks for the vicarious tour…so inspiring–would have loved to have been there (damn day job!).
    Keep it up.
    Stephen

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