Category: think

TEDxOverlake Reflections And Thoughts

tedxoverlake

The TEDxOverlake was everything a TEDx event should be : inspiring, challenging, personal, educational, awakening…

Here’s the experience summed up in a glorious Twitter technicolour :

#tedxol over – brain melted – soul ignited – heart overflowing… thanks to all involved!less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet ReplyDK
justadandak

I was invited to attend as a back-up speaker (never got on stage as everyone turned up), but the ones who left a permanent mark in my head / heart from the great lineup were :

  • Merilee Wilmore—how even without a traditional education you can have something to teach and share. Provided a great question around what is more important : what you know or who you are?;
  • August de los Reyes—stated that everything we design is alive. There were other gems plus the fantastic quote at the end of this blog post;
  • Christian Long—provocative and engaging. Reminding us all to ‘fall in love an go’ and how failure is a way forward;
  • Susan Scott—wicked thoughts along the lines of ‘leadership is not a title but a behaviour’ plus how radical optimism and transparency would transform organisations;
  • Krissy Moehl—honest, heartfelt, triumphant (in her achievements of ultra-trail running);
  • Alex Kummert—was fortunate enough to share a giggle with Alex over lunch, then he gets on stage and blows my sides off with stories of how comedy has taught him valuable and life-long lessons;
  • Dr. Gary R. Gruber —calling upon seven decades of learning Dr Gruber was a perfect final speaker, leaving us with a wonderful challenge to ‘pay attention to the sacredness of human beings’.

Many thanks again to Greg, Ryan and Megham for hosting / organising the fantastic event (plus the other wonderful backstage peeps).

“The future is a race between education and catastrophe.”
H.G. Wells

UPDATE: All videos are now live

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Starting A New Job | Focus, Worries & Excitement

The video above shows what happens when 5,000 residents of Grand Rapids, Michigan collaborate on proving to the outside world their city is not dying.

It also sums up the outcome I will be trying to achieve with my my new job as Social Media Manager for CORE Ed in Christchurch, New Zealand : a collective adoption and support of a shared goal (in this case, social media use).

How I do this will form part of many future blog posts.

Now I haven’t had a *proper job in over seven years so there are a couple of things I’m worried about :

  1. having a boss—my new one is pretty awesome and we already have a great relationship but it’s still going to be odd to have a line of authority above me (luckily the culture at CORE Ed is very autonomous so I don’t think it will be too much of an issue);
  2. office politics—never been good at this and just not a fan. Luckily the New Zealand attitude is very straight and to the point so again thinking this will be another one to be aware of but not worry too much about;
  3. what to wear—seriously, what do I wear? There is no dress code so I might explore wearing the same set of clothes like my minimalist crush Nina Yau did. What do you suggest I wear for this?

Coupled with the concerns are things I’m really excited about :

  • inspiring change—this is why I get up in the morning;
  • being part of a community—one thing you miss when you work for yourself is that sense of place. Really looking forward to embracing this side of package;
  • theory to practice (on a large scale)—with over 100 employees internally plus all their partners and affiliates etc this will be a big challenge. I can’t wait!

Most importantly I can’t wait to be creative and explore building on the skills already in house to fashion and progress the organisations goals.

*Haven’t had a proper job as been running my own businesses (Phatgnat and MediaSnackers).

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