That Jolie Girl

TEDxConcordiaUPortland - Some of my favorite talks

 

It's been almost exactly a month since TEDxConcordiaUPortland's event this year.  It's really taken me this long to fully process that extraordinary day.  For the entire week after the event, I floated on a TEDx high.  So many inspiring people with so many inspiring ideas kept swirling through my brain and the positiveness of it all just felt good.  Now the videos have been posted and I've re-watched them all and a few I've seen many times.  It's really wonderful to have the talks accessible online to re-hear and re-learn at anytime. I'm so honored and proud that I was on the planning team that created such an amazing event.    

I'm a huge fan of The Circus Project.  I was at their big performance held at the Portland Art Museum last December and highlighted in the short video that is shown during Jenn Cohen's talk. The aerialist who performed at TEDxConcordiaUPortland was truly extraordinary and received a well deserved standing ovation.  

 

 

 

The only other standing ovation of the day went to Governor Barbara Roberts.  I was so grateful to hear her speak. She became Oregon's first female Governor when I was a junior in high school.  She has always been a big inspiration to me.  It was great to hear her talk about how she overcame incredible odds to better the life of her autistic son and then to go on to become Governor.  

 

 

 

 

Goodnight Billygoat's stop motion movie accompanied by live music was another highlight for me.  Each minute of video takes about 1 month to create.  Their dedication to their art is so incredible.

 

 

 

One of the funnier talks was Colleen Wainwright.  I had met her last year at the World Domination Summit and she is such a hoot!  She went from a self-proclaimed selfish asshole to raising over 100 thousand dollars for WriteGirl to celebrate her 50th birthday.  

 

 

 

Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls is such a great organization.  My good friend participated in Ladies Rock Camp and loved it so much that she is going to do it again.  It was great hearing more about this organziation and seeing one band perform.  The singer has a crazy good voice.

 

 

 

Mark Frohnmayer's talk about the future of the automobile and the crazy cool cars his company is creating definitely got my husband and I thinking.  We've always said that the next car we buy will be electric.  Now we are thinking about getting a car from Arcimoto, his company located in Eugene, OR.

There were many, many more wonderful talks that occured at our event that you can access here on YouTube.  I hope you get the chance to watch them all.

 

TEDxConcordiaUPortland - Some of the pieces I touched

 

I took this picture at the TEDxConcordiaUPortland rehearsal, the night before the big event.  Sitting in this near empty room, surrounded by planning team members finishing up last minute details such as putting name tags on lanyards, I was overwhelmed by all the greatness.  Attending meetings or working on projects at my house is one thing, but to realize that I am one part of this incredible event which is so much larger than the sum of its parts is extraordinary.

 

Photo credit: Armosa Studios

 

My main contribution was coordinating the gift bags.  I took this on, because I thought that was one area that I could do well.  I also completed three big projects for the gift bags that you can see here, here, and here.  

 

 

I was blown away to see this picture up on the two very large projection screens during the event.  I tried to take a picture of my picture, but I was too shocked to get my camera out in time.  The thank you card activity was a big success and it was fun to collect many of the cards people had filled out at the end of the day.

 

 

 

Eugene Lee is a medical student at my school.  I encouraged him to submit a design for the promotional material.  The team loved his fish paintings and a mascot was born.  Bubba is the orange fish and an example of how the ordinary always has the potential of becoming extraordinary.  Eugene's work was used on the posters, programs, t-shirts, and elsewhere.  

 

 

Kin Trio, Eugene's band, was our house band and played at the beginning and end of each of the 4 sessions.  Concordia's Library had an exhibit of Eugene's paintings in their gallery.

 

Photo credit: Egg Press

 

A few weeks before the event, the company who was going to print our program covers fell through.  I helped arrange for Egg Press (who also donated 100 thank you cards) to letterpress the covers. They generously donated their time and money to us.  They are amazing people!   The program covers are gorgeous.

 

 

I collected thousands and thousands of Acupuncture needle tubes for the stage art installation.  The concept sounded really cool, but I had trouble picturing it in my mind's eye.

 

 

It's stunningly beautiful in real life.  At rehearsal, the lighting guys took the time to coordinated the colors to every speaker's clothing.  The end result was spectacular.  Note how good it looks in every talk you watch.  Crystal Shenk's talk on why she created the Aurora is so moving.  Also after hearing her talk, her choice of using Acupuncture needle tubes made perfect sense.

 

 

During Joe Smith's rehearsal, it was realized that he needed a garbage can for his talk.  Michelle Jones, Organizer Extraordinaire, called out to me and asked if I could get a garbage can.  Sure thing! Definitely watch this short talk.  It's a very simple idea, but presented in such an entertaining way it has definitely stuck with me.  I now Shake and Fold everytime I wash my hands and everyone I know who was at TEDx still does too.  Joe's talk was the TED.com talk of the day, today.  It's kind of cool to think that people all over the world might see my garbage can.

 

Photo credit: Armosa Studios 

The day of the event, I manned the registration table.  After the initial check in, I was able to see every part of this extraordinary event.  I left with a sense that I was part of something greater than myself and that is such a magnificent feeling that I will always be grateful for.