Highlights of the day: TEDxJohannesburg 2009 Experience


Samantha Lewis	Connecting with so many inspiring people, was a true blessing. I was absolutely blown away by the compassion for human nature and our planet. I felt so motivated and inspired to continue working on my projects. Thank You Alicia, Thank You TEDx Johannesburg, Thank You Speakers.
Maz	Being there, being a part of TED was a highlight of my year. not because I was there, but because I was included. I was among visionaries, artists, dare I say peers! I felt as though I had found a place. A place to dare to make a difference, to say "We are the people we have been waiting for!"
kenneth.kalmer	Being absolutely amazed at the selflessness of others and how far individuals and companies go to help other people and the environment. I left inspired and am now actively seeking the way I'm going to change the world, one person at a time...
John Churchill	It was an awesome experience. It makes me proud to be a South African. It is HERE! It is NOW! It is WOW! Act NOW!
susanwoolf	The TEDx Johannesburg “Uplifting Communities” was much more than an event it was an experience and mind blow deluxe! There was a genuine admiration and camaraderie amongst the speakers and the audience and there is no doubt that Alicia Thomas-Woolf, Rodney Kuhn and Andrew Thomas-Woolf had given their all to making the event a success. Theirs was a the kind of caring and generosity that uplifted each individual speaker and took every detail into consideration. A behind the scenes contribution made by several generous individuals and sponsors whose names are too numerous to mention here, also made a difference. The excitement was genuine as one speaker after the next captured the admiration of the audience in the Theatre on the Square, a perfect, professional yet intimate venue. This was a space where ideas were flowing and Alicia kept reminding everyone to connect, collaborate and network and to take their projects further than they ever could have dreamed. We were constantly reminded that although nothing worthwhile is ever instant or necessarily easy, individuals can make an astounding difference in uplifting communities with a good deal of persistence, imagination and lateral thinking. All About Food was a treat, making the gastronomic experience both visual and mouth wateringly exquisite. The speakers had been invited to meet each other the night before, interact and experience a unique tasting experience which Shaun had created to surprise and delight us all. My mind was spinning, firstly from nervous energy and constantly from pure admiration for the good that people do. Well I am back to earth now, yet still on a roll and I want to say a big thank you to all of you who bring sunshine into the world with the difference you make. I am all the richer for it.
andrebruton	Not the last one, the one before.
Gavin Moffat	Isn’t that the point? TEDx Johannesburg - a Starting Point. So of course I know about TED. And you probably do too. Watched the videos, loved them, inspired by some of them even. Know someone who has been. Along came TEDx Johannesburg and I figured it’d be nice to attend. You know. See what it’s like. Ambled on over to the web page and discovered that the organisers actually wanted me to fill out a form! With questions and stuff. OK so why would you want to know that? Answered the questions and hit submit and then thought not too much about it. But I was chuffed to get the email saying that I would be attending. A little buzz started within me, belying my cool and detached attitude toward the event. Sunday rolled around and we made our way to the venue the long way due to the 94.7 Momentum Cycle Challenge. As an aside, we made excellent time and were not much inconvenienced by the race and actually like cyclists and the race (#wannabecyclists). Our expectation was a room of young geeks as opposed to our 40-something geekness. First assumption knocked on its head. There was a wonderful melange of people. Young and old. Grey and not. Women and men. Very little stereotyping. Each attendee was issued with a nicely printed board on which you had to write your name and include a line on what you wanted to do before you die. Excellent ice breaker that allowed people to sidle up to each other and nonchalantly say, so you wanna go to the moon hey....... Mine said to dive the wrecks of Bikini Atoll. Should be doable. The event kicked off with a nervous host laying out the day and we were off. Back-to-back talks from people I had never heard of. Subjects that I would not have considered interesting at all. From Iain Thomas talking about his experience with the site www.thisisforyou.co.za, to Hennie Eksteen digging deep with earthworms, to Annah Mabunda and her clinical work, to Claire Janisch blending with biomimicry. Topics ranged from dung beetles, a desk for your lap, or should that be for the lap of those students who don’t have desks. From the Broccoli Project to Moments of Inspiration and Playful Interventions from Marcus Neustetter. A perspective on taking reading for granted from Nhlanhla Buthelezi to Prof. Clarke Scholtz telling us why you shouldn’t drive over elephant dung. For full coverage of the event trot over to master-wordsmith Ivo Vegter’s page – www.ivo.co.za. Whilst this will be sufficient to cover the verbal side of what took place it is the meeting of minds, the applause, the spirit, the intentions, the gravitas of meeting these strangers and sharing their stories with them, and them sharing their stories with us, that makes attending an event of this nature so extraordinary. My leavebehind for the day? There are lots of people who are consciously making and trying to make a difference. Often starting with nothing more than: I would like to or how can I make a difference? These people invest of themselves. They persevere. They have passion. And isn’t that what it’s all about. A dream. A passion. Doing something because you really think it’s worth doing. And if many of us do this. Who knows. Something might happen. Things might get done. So TEDxJohannesburg is not the end. It’s really only a facilitator. It’s a starting point. And from that perspective it was awesome.
IngridLotze	The Johannesburg X-factor? TEDxJohannesburg brings Ubuntu to life. The poem ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_if.htm has long been an inspiration for man and was treated as a guideline for behaviour in my household whilst growing up. I have however seldom seen all the virtues in one place at one time – until recently. The twenty speakers all spoke in the spirit of TED with “Ideas Worth Spreading” but the most moving thing for me was the obvious demonstration of the virtues outlined in Rudyard Kipling’s prose and the move towards putting Ubuntu into action. Most South African’s are familiar with the Zulu word Ubuntu which translates as ‘humanity towards others’. Ubuntu revolves around the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation and teaches us that everything is interconnected and that when you do well, it multiplies and benefits the whole of humanity. Many of the stories told in first person at TEDxJohannesburg clearly showed individuals doing the things spoken about in the poem - trusting themselves when there was doubt and making allowance for their doubting, yet daring to dream but not losing the common touch and not doing things for themselves but touching others in the process. We learnt about the enormous role earthworms play with their ability to create, sanitise and fertilise soil; the lap-desk; the “menstrual cup”, an alternative to sanitary towels; dung beetles and how if insects disappeared, the environment would collapse. There was the panty project, the broccoli project, the water project and Biomimicry where nature-inspires innovation. It was a gathering of just a few of Africa’s leading thinkers and doers and listening to the diverse range of ideas brings home the realisation that we are people with creativity and extraordinary talents and a powerful ability to connect to one another. TEDxJohannesburg was the beginning of what I hope will become a large local community of different people, from all walks of life, who all have the same purpose – to quote TED “to seek a deeper understanding of the world, and hope to turn that understanding into a better future for us all” in South Africa we call it Ubuntu and it runs deep in our veins.
johannds	Northern lights emulation by Marcus Neustetter, the silent conductor, and the talk by Prof. Clarke Scholtz.
Tuism	I suppose one cannot say that the whole day was a highlight, but it really was a privilege to be part of such amazingness. If I had to really pick my cherries (and many there were in this fruit basket), it would be first of all the Silent Conductor. It was such a simple yet profound performance that demonstrated that we don't need the tower of Bable - we all already share a common language that crosses languages. The Jill Botes speak on her stroke was absolutely touching to the core. I found myself crying, touched by the tragic of logic, the hope of love, and that one day, we might never even CARE about understanding, yet be truly happy about our being. Possibly, it is not curiosity that drives us, but love. Richard's speak was superbly shocking and profound at the same time. His energy and ever-vigilant preparedness to ask why and why not really resonated with myself. Buthelezi's piece was a great showcase of his passion and a great example of great personal stories becoming ideas. Now it just needs to be formulated. Hennie's talk on Earthworms was incredibly profound and insightful - hearing about our backstage miracle workers of nature is wonderful. There is simply so much more to lyricise about, but in the interest of leaving a negative space for the filled-in solid to shine (as highlights should), I shall stop here. Again, congratulations on a great TEDxJohannesburg - looking forward to the next one... And I shall work towards creating some amazingness of my own in the mean time. Thanks again!
AliciaTW	Each speaker won a place in my heart. The food was superb. And the attendees... the expressions, the exclamations, the fire of inspiration that made beacons of people's eyes (not to mention all the hugs at the end!) these were for me the highs of the event. And post-event, those beautiful, humbling e-mails that we received. I'm still on a high.

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