Okay, I admit it. I worked an angle. When my friend Krissy first shared with me (well, ecstatically pronounced is a better way of putting it) that she had been approached to talk at an upcoming TEDx conference, it was impossible to not get carried away with her infectious enthusiasm. The only problem; the event was by invitation only and had a cap of 100. What to do? Playing the “I want to be there to support a good friend” card would hardly work with a group of extremely successful, intelligent, and motivated individuals as an audience. I thought that my position as Product Manager of a creative department (at the time) would be enough merit to get me a spot with a group of like-minded individuals in the audience, but I couldn’t be sure. So I decided to play the adoring-fan-travelling-from-afar card just to be sure. It worked.
TEDx seminars are independently organized events designed to engage the audience in creative thinking around a central topic. Although the format does not include Q&A during the presentations, the idea is to encourage active communication with the presenting speakers as well as other attendees during scheduled breaks, with the goal of creating a more learned community through interaction. The topic of TEDx Overlake was: How People Learn: At Work, At Play, At School and the Overlake School could not have provided a better stage as host of this event. The campus is absolutely stunning and the facilities first class, which subconsciously fostered a sense of power and the ability to affect change. That is precisely what I was looking to get out of my day.
My life, through intentional design, is all about learning. I have discovered that as soon as I become comfortable with a task, instead of polishing it to complete and absolute perfection as would, say, a master jeweler, I become bored and yearn to move on to something new. When interviewing for my current position as Sales Manager for Montrail, I made it clear to the Executive team that I wanted it as much for what I wanted to learn as for what I could immediately bring to the table. Since TEDx Overlake was focused on how we learn, the topic couldn’t have been more appealing, nor the timing more perfect. 16 speakers of astonishingly diverse array were assembled to talk about their experiences in learning – from hell-yeah-I-just-graduated-High-School-last-week! budding stand-up comedian Alex Kummert and nationally acclaimed Youth Violinist Kirsten Peterson from the Overlake School, to accomplished writer Nancy Rowles who's echoed words of Eleanor Roosevelt “you must do the thing that you think you cannot do” have rung in my head ever since she took the stage. Each speaker was hand-picked precisely because of their message and the medium through which their knowledge was obtained; as a result, the audience was exposed to a tremendous amount of diversity which constantly reinforced the title – How People Learn. Having been a completely mediocre student in the traditional school of learning, University, I find myself increasingly open to informal and unconventional methods of learning - usually through a combination of simple observation and active participation. People always ask me what draws me to running Ultra-marathon’s; the answer is, of course, extremely multifaceted but is generally driven by a need to learn more about myself and what I am truly capable of achieving versus the imposed limitations set within my head. I don’t mean to discredit the power of formal education; in fact, I think it is a critical component in the success of any individual because even if he material itself becomes irrelevant or obsolete over the course of ones life, the process of instilling a level of discipline is essential. However, as demonstrated by Christian Long and Merilee Willmore, there are other extremely effective methods of learning outside that of the formal education process that may simply work better for certain individuals. Western society, especially in the US, values titles, and typically the only way to garnish these is through formal education. However, some of my most valuable life lessons have been taught outside the classroom. Which makes sense, because human beings have been learning through personal experience and observation since the dawn of time. In fact, it has long been proven that the growing brain of a child is far more malleable and adapted to learning than the adult brain – leading to numerous studies focused on figuring our how to prolong this stage of development into adulthood as spoken about by Dr Sara Goering. The intention of TEDx OL was to bring all methods of learning to the table and allow the audience to select those most applicable to them – which the organizers did with utmost effectiveness.
My original intention in attending TEDx OL was simply to support my friend. I came away having learned so much in one day that it will take months to process everything. My tactic to get in to TEDx OL paid off in spades. I am a better person for it, and I hope that my interaction with fellow attendees was as valuable for them as it was for me.
I highly encourage you to replace a few moments of your day spent doing other potentially unconstructive things to listen to what the speakers from TEDx OL have to say.
Links to my favorite speakers:
Christian Long
Nancy Rowles
Krissy Moehl
Merilee Wilmore
Larysa Slobodian
Susan Scott
August De Los Reyes
