Feb
27

TEDx Waterloo Rocked!

By DW

Gus, Eric, Karl, and I attended TEDxWaterloo on Thursday. Fantastic experience. Great crowd, great talks, great afterparty.

Here we are at The Gig theatre (the old Highland cinema), lining up to get in.

More after the break…
Spoiler: Amy Krouse Rosenthal was my fave.

My two partners in crime… Karl and Gus.

Got there early enough that we beat most of the crowd. Then Gus said “We’re sitting in the front row! This isn’t church!” You can’t make this stuff up Shortly thereafter we were booted back to the second row ’cause we’re not speakers. Great seats.

Stage looked great.

Very TED-like.

Got to put a face to the Rob Gorbet name. Hopefully Rob’s going to bring his students out to the lab soon.

The place was packed to the rafters.

Jaclyn Konzelmann, our co-host, did an awesome job.

Terry O’Reilly had some interesting observations about friction as a positive force in marketing. Maybe we should keep that in mind as we design kits for makers. Friction can be the interesting part of a product.

Philip Beesley talked about his Hylozoic Soil project (a fragment shown here), its organic inspiration, and its freakishly complex construction. I really connected with this talk through my own work on my Animeyes project.

Ray LaFlamme did an awesome talk, encouraging us all to be curious, which totally resonated with us as makers.

Our co-hosts, Matt Gorbet and Jaclyn, then turned us loose…

for a break, and food, and…

chatting. Here’s Gus getting the skinny from Ray on quantum super-position. What a very nice man. Very approachable, friendly, and generous in his explanations of quantum physics to us in the hallway.

Paul Saltzman talked to us about hanging with The Beatles in India and finding your way in life.

Caroline Disler debunked the notion of superiority of western civilization and connections of languages.

Madhur Anand talked poetry + science.

Michael Sacco talked chocolate. And then we took another break.

Darren Wershler talked about the constructs of science fiction.

Marty Avery, who sat in front of us and chatted with us, later invoked our names in a Romper Room magic-mirror-bit that transported me back to 1972.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal was my absolute favourite. Check out her The Beckoning of Lovely project. Her videos rewired my brain. She has shown the power of ideas to connect ordinary people. What a great gift. “Make the most of your time here.” Amen, sister. I was very lucky to be able to speak with Amy at the after-party and share our kwartzlab story. Thanks so much, Amy.