TEDxUW: Living on the Edge

On November 18th, Waterloo hosted its second TEDxUW event in which Waterloo students and faculty independently organized a licensed TED conference. The event featured Waterloo students, professors, alumni and local entrepreneurs who gave talks around the theme of “EDGE”: what gave them the edge to succeed, what to do as a society on the edge of catastrophe, and how to climb up to the edge after smacking into the wall. Overall, the event was a success. The talks were largely motivating and eye-opening, with fresh perspectives and new spins on old adages. Although the DC Live Event was not as populated as anticipated, this is in spite of the strong effort put in by the volunteers who were enthusiastic, cordial and hardworking. There were special features for attendees of the Live-Stream including a special networking event, but these did not commence until later in the day, making it difficult to draw a crowd in the early morning when viewers had the ability to stream the talks from home.
The newly-opened Quantum-Nano Center was definitely the perfect choice of venue for such an event. The atmosphere reflected the spirit of innovation and forward-thinking for which TED events are famous. The décor featured stylized blocks spelling out “EDGE”, an interactive Red-Room in which attendees were encouraged to write their thoughts on EDGE on blank canvases, and a photo-shoot area. The catering was excellent and, needless to say, was taken advantage of to its fullest. There were booths and demonstrations from various Waterloo clubs and organizations including the Nanorobotics Group, the Arts Student Union, the Institute for Quantum Computing (whose demonstration of Quantum Key Cryptography’s inclusion of cute plush dinosaurs as ‘Alice’, ‘Bob’, and ‘Eve’ was much appreciated), and many more.
The main event was opened (and reopened after breaks) by Waterloo’s a capella groups, The Unaccompanied Minors and UW Water boys, who were talented and entertaining as always, though it would have felt less incongruous if their set selection was more in-line with the day’s theme. The Master of Ceremonies, Denise Donlon, did an overall good job of keeping the event running smoothly despite a few gaffes here and there. Regardless of his forewarning regarding an inability to publicly speak, TEDx chair Prashanth Gopalan introduced the event with such a genuine belief in the spirit of TED that it was hard to not be infected.
The first talk was by Andrew Wong, a student, who at the ripe-old age of nineteen, organized a youth delegation to Rio de Janeiro for a UN conference on climate change. Wong led a group of youth from across Canada and the globe to write a report on climate change and presented it to the UN where they met the likes of Ban Ki-Moon and David Suzuki. It is unfortunate, however, that Wong did not spend more of his time on stage discussing his report, or what the world leaders which he met had to say about their report. Although Andrew Wong spoke about how his belief in his ability to change the world drove him to succeed, it is regrettable that his talk focused on with whom he earned the honour of meeting, and less about the impact these meetings had in his commendable fight against climate change.
If there is one talk that every student should see it is probably Bill Tatham’s (of Tatham Centre fame). Tatham talked about his experiences in the Healthcare system following his wife’s diagnosis with breast cancer. As a citizen and as a businessman, he was distraught to discover the 50% correct diagnosis rate, the redundancies in paperwork, the lack of intercommunication between different Healthcare facilities, and the use of ineffective and expensive consult-outsourced software. As a solution, Tatham built a cloud-based platform to better integrate, organize and educate so that each individual could build their own personal health plan. It would observe diet, exercise, medication, and health-information to better pinpoint what the problem is, when it arises, and why it happened.
Andrew Maxwell delivered the next talk on his research, drawing from CBC’s Dragon’s Den, to assess how trust is an integral element of the relationship between the entrepreneur and investor.
Although this may sound like common-sense, Maxwell goes much more in-depth. He talks about ways that we build trust, that we damage trust, that we outright lose trust, and how these are affected by a multitude of factors, both internal and external to meetings between entrepreneur and investor. This talk is a great resource for anyone interested in starting their own business and actually acquiring money to pursue it.
Ami Richter gave a talk about “matching your career to your DNA”, and no, she didn’t mean your ATGC’s, she used the term “DNA” figuratively to mean who you are fundamentally as a person. Richter talked about how, by really discovering who you are, you find the EDGE to succeed. By being true to herself and listening to her calling, Richter even landed a spot on Oprah Winfrey’s coveted O-list. We would have liked to hear more about how she found herself, or what about her approach gave her the EDGE to recognize her calling, and less of her laundry-list of accomplishments as we were drawn to her success story, but found the takeaway message a little vague. Nonetheless, Richter’s talk told a great story and is worth hearing for yourself.
Heather Dale is a recording artist and record label owner that got into showbiz without insider connections. Her secret: finding her tribe. Dale originally had a hard time getting her music out due to writing songs that didn’t matter to her but rather what she thought the general populace would enjoy. After discovering her passion and others that shared it, she was more comfortable focusing on songs that matter to her.
This is when dedicated fans, from her tribe, started appearing and have resulted in her touring across North America and Europe. Dale phrased it best when she first met members of her tribe and enthusiastically proclaimed “there are more of us.”
Dr. Geoffrey Fong’s talk regarding smoking, bridges and democracy was probably one of the most stirring and provocative of the day. Dr. Fong explained how his research on anti-smoking measures finds that the reason smokers keep smoking (despite the indisputable negative side-effects) is that before each cigarette the smoker conducts a cost-benefit analysis, and in the short-term the benefits of smoking outweigh the costs of withdrawal. Of course, in the long-term it is greatly in the interest of the smoker to quit, but “myopic reasoning” is what holds them back. He then proceeded to liken the situation to that of municipalities deciding whether or not to renovate bridges. On one hand, one could invest the money necessary for repairs but on the other hand, “it’s all too easy to put off maintenance until next year so that you can spend the money elsewhere this year”. Of course a bridge which costs $15 M to repair could cost $235 M to replace upon collapse, but such mistakes are the nature of myopic reasoning. Lastly, he draws his research to democracy and points out the inherent flaw in electing leaders every few years. Namely that, by design, such a system will reward short-term thinking and policies with short-term costs and long-term benefits will lose out to short-term benefits and long-term costs. When asked after his talk, Dr. Fong admitted that he may have appeared to be advocating the elusive benevolent despot, “but too often you get the d without the b”. He went on on to explain that while he offers no perfect solution to the problem at hand, he stressed that he believes in working within the framework of democracy so as to not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Dr. Fong’s talk was more of a warning and a call for people to search for a solution before we fall off of the EDGE of calamity with such crises as global warming just on the horizon.
Model, dancer, and engineer, three things that are not typically associated to one another, but yet are all self-defining of Cassandra Cole. Cole came out of a near death experience at a young age with a bucket list and a passion to follow her new-found love of racing. Being a woman in engineering may not be the easiest path to take, and the addition of a misinterpretation getting out of hand and reaching the hands of media outlets did not help. With the struggle of having damaged her relationship with her SAE teammates, she decided to “choose crazy” by facing her fears and coming back with her “head up high.” She is now a team lead and came out with a lesson on the importance of perspective, and how people can misjudge you even if you had the best of intentions.
It is without a doubt that one of the event’s most anticipated talks was delivered by Kickoff’s Bill Thompson. Thompson gave a talk on the dangerous “2/3rds” point in a journey — like an undergraduate career — where people will often hit a wall: past the point of excitement and optimism but before the point of that last dash to the finish line. In his line of work, it should not come as a surprise that Thompson has seen this countless times. In his talk, the audience is presented not only with journeys he’s been told about, but his own collision with the dreaded wall. But it’s important to remember that this is just “the beginning of your end-game, not the end of your game”. This talk is resonant with the student population, especially so for those of you starting to find “the bitter senior” staring you down in the mirror every morning.
In a self-proclaimed continuation of Larry Smith’s popular TEDx talk from last year’s event, Michael Litt’s message focused on the need to fail to succeed. We’ve all heard the saying “you learn from your mistakes,” but Litt has lived it in his journey to market his biodiesel and unabashedly failing after being privileged enough to meet with the transit authority of the GTA region. Litt presented the audience with examples of common optical illusions that tested one’s lack of confidence in presenting their opinions out of fear of being mistaken. Litt believes in embracing these mistakes to point out “you will fail to have a great career, unless you fail to have a great career.” Litt had a good message, but it would have served him better to not hitch it to Larry Smith’s wagon, as doing so only invites undue comparisons. Litt’s words were strong enough to stand on their own, and Smith’s talk was a conclusive one-off performance best left to Larry Smith.
The secret to life in Naila Keleta-Mae’s eyes is not a secret at all. She phrased it best as “secrets do not protect us forever, instead they hold us captive.” Her moving life story revealed how she stumbled on this life lesson after rising back up from a depression brought on by the burden of keeping secrets. Accompanied by her beautiful voice, her talk was “so nice” and inspiring, while teaching us to be more comfortable with ourselves.
Starting his talk with a video of a young man whose stutter was so debilitating that he could barely mutter, Richard Holmes surprised the entire audience when he elegantly articulated that the the video shown was taken only a year prior to his talk. Holmes talk was a definite highlight of the day’s events. His talk was moving, inspiring, and educating, all the elements of a good TED talk. He spoke about the stigma and difficulties that arise when growing up with a speech impediment and the prejudices and misconceptions which led people to think that he was antisocial or unintelligent. He eventually found mountain biking, a passion that would allow him to express himself without the use of words. His hard work and diligence led him to master this skill and become a professional biker and coach at the Whistler Bike Park in BC. As an adult, he decided to take his drive and apply it to his stutter, enlisting in the help of the Speech and Stuttering Foundation in Toronto. Using the same technique of daily practice and exercise, Holmes mastered this old foe in a talk that is certainly worth listening to.
Olympic gold medals don’t come easy, but Heather Moyse taught us there are many different paths you can take to earn your own gold. Not starting bobsledding till the age of 27 while her fellow gold medalist and driver started at 17 reveals the truth behind her point. Even with starting late, she preferred to be mentally stable rather than leave her comfort zone and move to Calgary. She made up for this with creative training such as pushing a car in a parking lot, teaching us that you don’t need to make many sacrifices if you’re truly dedicated to your goals.
TEDx organizer Renjie Butilard perhaps put it perfectly when he said, “The best TED talks capture the essence of an idea, weave it into a story, and mesmerizing the audience.” There were a lot of talks at the TEDxUW event which effectively captured what EDGE meant to the speaker and how it led them to succeed. Do yourself a favour and be sure to watch the talks yourself at www.tedxuw.com, and hopefully they will help you to develop your own “ideas worth sharing”.