Having attended TEDxWomen events in the past I was keen to explore how we could create a broader audience to ensure the ideas worth spreading did just that, spread. Pitching the TEDxWellingtonWomen volunteer team our event should aim to have a gender balance (which nobody in the world has ever done before) was audacious—as shown above, we did it!
I followed my friend Kaila Colbin as she wonderfully made heads spin about the exponential growth in technologies using the Singularity University lens (and her role as Ambassador). My part was to continue the discussion with (another pal) and MC, Sarb Johal on stage for the 300+ attendees.
The main thrust of this section of the conference was digital disruption, something which for over a decade I’ve been delivering services around relating to social and digital media. And even with the newer concepts of AI, automation, big data etc. already shared, I mainly focused on the need for understanding the importance of creating work cultures which amplify curiosity, celebrate learning, plus cultivate audacity and exploration:
“The feedback we had about DK’s “Reflections” component was all extremely positive and people were talking about the Digital Disruption Topic late into the night whilst referring to the ideas he brought up, along with Sarb and the video presentation from Kaila as well – DK’s contribution certainly hit the mark.”
John Dow, Director of “Work in Progress – Wellington’s New Collar Future” Conference
I.
Don’t.
Know.
Many state the above as line in the sand, a closing down of conversation, a refusal to explore further.
Others get excited, and lean forwards, hungry for adventure, ready to fail forwards.
These are the creatives!
Whether it be composing an orchestral piece in 10minutes from nothing:
Collaborating on a dance piece when you can’t speak each others language:
Drawing blind to spark an abstract drawing piece:
…this is the imaginative mindset at work.
When mixed with curated ideas and experience plus audacity and mad curiousity, its forms the most delicious path to potential.
Whether you’re starting a business, leading a team, beginning at a new organisation, figuring out the next steps in life, or shaping a city-wide initiative to infuse a city with creative literacies…
…saying “I don’t know” more often is a rallying cry to creative action.
After many months of development am honoured to announce Creative Leadership NZ:
Two days of ideas / insights into inspiring and managing the creative process / people which leads to innovation.
On 27th-28th November, will be heading back to The Roxy Cinema (as they hosted us so well at the beginning of the year for Speaking With Purpose).
The pedigree of the speaker / facilitator line-up is brain-tingling impressive:
Gus BalbontinInvestor – Founder – AdvisorFormer Executive Director at Lonely Planet, Co-founder of SneakySurf, Director at Roshambo, Entrepreneur in Residence at Vic Uni. |
Bop Murdoch / Sarah Tuck / Jody BurrellCoLiberateCreators of Wellington’s first Gym for mental wellbeing, the CoLiberate team are leaders in personal and professional mindhealth. |
Victoria SpackmanDirector Te AuahaMaking safe spaces for creative types to flourish at Te Auaha – New Zealand Institute of Creativity. |
Pavani Rao BoddapatiCG Supervisor at Weta DigitalPavani has over 12 years of experience in visual effects for film and has worked on numerous projects including Avatar, Planet of the Apes and The Hobbit trilogy. |
Emilie FetscherMC / Design StrategistCollaborator in residence for design-focused leaders and currently consumed as an accidental entrepreneur at StrataMap. |
Aithan Shapira, MFA PhDFounder + Leadership StrategistFounder @ Making to Think. Lecturer @ MIT Sloan. Aithan builds leaders’ creative instincts using time- and science-tested techniques from the arts to expand perceptions and accelerate solutions. |
Elysa FenenbockCreative NomadDesigner-in-residence at Google. |
DKProducer / Speaker / Advisor@TEDxWellington licensee. @swpconf creator. @creativewelly founder. @amadigital mentor. |
Nick KapicaDesign LeadDesign, customer insight, and strategy, also interested in collaborating, teaching design and innovation. |
Gareth ParryDesignerGareth Parry is a partner in PwC’s Experience Centre. Gareth has experience in architecture, learning design, digital advertising, infography, human centered design, and event creation. |
Ruth KeiryDesignerRuth Keiry runs PwC’s Wellington Sandbox. She’s framed, designed, and facilitated dozens of collaborative spaces. |
Mark BradfordBeWeDō® practitionerFounder of BeWeDō® + Senior Lecturer at Massey University, School of Design. #BeWeDō is a unique motion-led creative leadership experience. |
And here are the cheap-as-chips prices:
See you there and please assist in spreading the news to your colleagues / friends / peers / family / communities etc.
Eventbrite is one of the most popular event listing sites and is a solid platform on all fronts.
Have used it during my time establishing and managing a city-wide activation programme plus also for our TEDxWellingtonSalons (community events).
The one thing you can’t do with Eventbrite is subscribe in any way to an event organisers profile so you’re kept up to date with their listings. There’s an option to “save events you’re interested in” which is not the same, although the issue with that is folks still have to log in to see that one event and it’s only in one place.
During my recent LIANZA social media tour where I was introducing folks to the magnificent wonders of RSS, I jumped into Eventbrite to subscribe to listings. Alas, couldn’t be done.
Now this functionality could be folded in across organisers profiles with a little coding / development time, along with an addition of a little RSS icon (next to the current social icons), then a blog post and email announcement to guarantee awareness. I’d wager doing this would see an increase in click throughs to the site as clever folks would start to utilise this new (old) functionality.
So, what do you say Eventbrite, want to improve your platform for us souls who still want to use a foundational core of the social web? People who could then use these feeds with other platforms like IFTTT or Flipboard etc. as well…?
I gave a talk at the Rotary Forum 2017 this week. Unfortunately, due to technical issues my presentation video / audio wasn’t captured, *so recorded the above version.
As you’ll hear / see, my response was to challenge us to think about Wellington becoming:
The most creative little capital in the world.
A lofty goal.
Raising the creative literacies of a city / region to ask better questions sounds impossible although wonderfully audacious.
Something I’m working towards with (the two “common soon” projects of) Creative Welly and Creative Leadership NZ (reach out if you want to know more or subscribe to blog posts on the right hand side there).
Thanks to the event organisers for the opportunity to have voice:
DK gave an inspiring address to the Rotary Club Forum: “Achieving the ‘Impossible Dream’ for Wellington: the city and region” on Tuesday 1 August 2017. His themes included creativity, innovation, compassion, empathy and branding. He challenged the audience on achieving a “creative Welly”, connecting the creative capital, providing leadership across the sectors, an independent collective and a community that is simultaneously globally minded and locally focused. He personifies the quote of “Life’s too short not to be audacious.” He set the stage for a Forum that was bold, diverse and audacious about achieving ‘Impossible Dreams’ for Wellington.
Dr Roger Blakeley Chair, Wellington Rotary Club 2017 Forum
Image credit for sketch note – Sketchability NZ.
*not the same flow and impact of a live talk so apologies for the lack of intonation and delivery (I’m much better in front of a live audience).
Speaker line-up / order
References
…a conference focused on inspiring and managing the creative process / people which leads to innovation.
A two day cross sector / industry event aiming to amplify creative literacies via keynotes, workshops, masterclasses.
Held at the end of 2017 for those looking to accelerate their personal and professional development.
Interested? Sign up to receive the blog post updates via email (on the right hand side there).
Facebook recently blocked me for the same reason it did nearly ten years ago.
When attempting to log in a couple of months ago to check the TEDxWellington Facebook page, was notified that access has been denied and to rectify the situation a scanned image of a government issued ID was needed (rings any bells?):
As you can see the reason cited was due to someone challenging my name.
I doubt very much that it was a person.
More likely, an algorithm.
One which noticed I wasn’t using the site much and when I did it was via a proxy (to protect my data, more will be explained).
Data accumulation is the only thing Facebook cares about as fuel to stay alive and also thrive. However, the need for more is exposing the hollow brand priorities and weak foundations of this mighty but fickle empire.
Facebook was always intended, not to be a utility for its users, but a mechanism for mining the information it’s users share on it, then leveraging that against other data most doesn’t know it collects, along with other zeros and ones it has about someones friends, what sites they visit, the weather that day, which mobile phone you use, where you bought something online and what and when etc, which all increases the return for shareholders as it maximising eyeballs for their advertisers and other agencies it sells the insights of all its users to.
Simples.
Jeff Hammerbacher used to lead the data team at Facebook (citation / image credit).
Now to return to my situation: for a company built on information, not knowing my name has been challenged before and was also rectified seems odd, right? Any human would look at the evidence I gave back then and in response to the most recent enquiry (which included links to this site plus highlighting the previous time they disabled my account for the very same reason nearly a decade a go), then pretty much straight away would have enough details to re-instate the profile and let me on my merry way. Granted, a human would have to click and read and watch a little, maybe, although the outcome would be swift and obvious. And there’s the rub. No human is now involved in making these decisions.
And the ones which are left makes for cringeworthy reading via the recent Guardian expose which deconstructs the platform moderation rules. These guidelines are dangerously naive at best, sickening at worst, and a further example of how misaligned Facebooks principles are against the perceived and current reasoning for users to be on it (all of the Facebook Guardian articles).
Add to that a few things like how Facebook:
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask.
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
(Redacted Friend’s Name): What? How’d you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don’t know why.
Zuck: They “trust me”
Zuck: Dumb fucks.
And of course the argument from users is always: they don’t care about little old me, sharing pictures of my cats and kids plus random Star Wars gifs.
You’re right, IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU. It’s about you times 2 billion and the data which is cross-referenced against you based on the evidenced shared above.
Facebook is not a social media platform, it’s a casino. The house always win and of course it will make you feel special with free drinks if you’re playing, showing off all the pretty people in front of faux scenery, but you still have to pay-to-play and the odds (algorithms) are stacked in their very favourable favour.
So I’m out.
I have tried not to be though.
Have sent a few follow up emails and completed forms online asking me to be reinstated:
…but alas, no reply. Have hit up two Facebook employees I have contacts for as well, no response either. There’s not even a facility to even delete my account. I remain in a virtual limbo.
I’m a tad gutted as some relationships and communications were carried out solely through the platform, plus I set up the TEDxWellington page there which after this years event I’m seriously thinking of not using further (we’ll just direct folks to sign up to our email newsletter / blog). A massive decision as last year we got 250,000 reach just on our event announcement plus we use it to connect with our amazing community—ethics has to trump convenience.
I know nearly all those who digest this will be FB users and I’m intrigued of the reaction when reading through the links provided above which cites credible evidence on why the platform is toxic…
…remember, as a service, they are banking on you not caring. Literally, taking it to the bank.
And if you don’t care, why should they on what they can get away with.
For those based in Wellington and NZ as a whole, I graciously invite you to register to attend TEDxWellington 2017.
As you can see from above we’re trying exploring different categories. We’re very excited about the ‘Pay It Forward’ options in which folks can buy two spots and gift one to be distributed to one of the local charities we’ve partnered with.
Our theme is “What’s Your Perspective?” and the creative vid above needs to be watched all the way through, trust me!
Please, please, please share far and wide as this year will see us taking over the St James Theatre to enable the largest TEDx ever in the capital (1,000 curious souls will be in attendance).
