Program Team member, Ana Parra, tells us a little about Emily Reach White, one of the presenters at this year's March 22 conference.
2013 presenter Emily Reach has many roles. She’s a
filmmaker, teacher, writer and student. And over the years her studies and work
have covered everything from biology to English literature, but recently she’s
been focusing on more personal topics. Through her films (link:http://parismtnscout.com/)
and blog (link:www.emilyreachwhite.com),
Emily has been exploring narrative medicine, an emerging field that has helped
her tell her story.
For many people, narrative medicine may conjure up pictures of Dr. House or healing workshops, but, simply put, Narrative Medicine is an approach that aims to treat the whole person, not just the illness. After watching her father struggle with Chronic Lyme Disease for over ten years, Emily wanted to find out what made some diseases more visible and accepted than others. Narrative medicine led her to understand that there were no cultural references to her father’s disease. In order for Lyme Disease to be visible, its story and the story of the people diagnosed with the disease, had to be told.
Emily, a filmmaker, a teacher, a writer, and a student, wants to right the inequalities that exist in the medical field. She wants to share her story and on March 22nd we invite you to listen.
Some encouragement to come "play" at TEDxGreenville March 22 Your invitation comes courtesy of Interactive Team member, Tanya Thoampson. We believe she's excited about this year's event.
A few years ago, 2010 to be exact, I recall being at work
and watching my twitter feed blow up duringTEDxGreenville. I remember feeling like all the cool, smart
kids were having this amazing experience and feeling left out of the fun and
conversation. I vowed not to miss
another one again. Then 2011 rolled
around and I was out of town, flew back just in time to experience Xperience,
the fun-filled laser lit after party.
Finally, 2012 was my year!
Personally experiencing a TEDx event is an exciting, liberating and motivating day! You get to meet some of the smartest, coolest people around doing some amazing things or they have this idea that you really can get behind. It’s a day chock full of “WOW” moments. You are forced to ‘blow up’ your boundaries and consider, without limitation, what is possible.
This year, I was fortunate to get the opportunity to support a working team creating the interactive exhibits. Clearly, I’m not an artist and I’m certainly not a technical expert, so this was quite the challenge. Through design thinking and some cool techniques, it’s been such a blast to see this team create what will surely be a memorable and fun part of TEDxGreenville this year.
Technology. Entertainment. Design. Ideas worth spreading. These are the things that change our world and inspire us to right the wrongs, fix the unfixable and do the undoable.
During one of my MBA classes this past year with Dr. Aleda Roth, Advanced Supply Chain Management, after 15 weeks of seeing what is so wrong with the world from the great pacific garbage patch and the dye in our jeans that is polluting the earth to the GMO corn and food supply issues, as a class we felt bewildered and asked her ‘who is fixing these things’ and she looked us in the eye and said ‘that’s your job.’
The community and thinking required to solve these types of problems is the kind of community and thinking that is found at TED and TEDx. You don’t want to miss this.
Tanya Thompson @thompsotanya
From TEDxGreenville Planning Team member and former Curator Marc Bolick, an introduction to Dr. Billy Campbell, one of our speakers at this year's March 22 TEDxGreenville conference.
My
good friend of many years and big TEDxGreenville fan, Deborah Crouch, nominated
Dr. Billy Campbell to speak this year. So, I just had to make the trip with her
to Westminster, SC, to meet him and hear about his Idea Worth Spreading.
I know Westminster as the small, corner-of-the-state town that I’ve been passing through my whole life on the way to our family mountain cabin in NC. So, I was really interested to stop there for once and meet Billy at his medical practice. As we walked from his office to a restaurant on this railroad town’s Main Street, our conversation began to transform my perception of Billy from small town doctor, to a worldly visionary with deep knowledge in a subject that few of us ever contemplate in a rational way.
After the three of us ate a nice meal, we jumped in our cars and drove a short 3 miles out of town, finally turning onto a small rural road. I immediately sensed the excitement of diving deep into a place of history, a place where every kid caries a pocket knife, and where having a few vehicles in various states of repair in the front yard is a symbol of membership. This is the red mud foothills that the Cherokee roamed, a place of mountain mist and spiritual connections.
We pulled into the Ramsey Creek Preserve and parked next to an old home with a few out buildings. Billy showed us the old barn that is being restored for use as a place for families and ceremonies. Then we walked a short distance down a dirt drive to a wonderful meadow opening where a quaint old chapel stood. The building was moved here from a few miles away where it served many years as a schoolhouse, and it has been wonderfully restored and converted into a place of celebration and ceremony. People hold marriages, baptisms and memorial services here.
It is in this wonderful setting that Billy and his wife Kimberley have designed an amazing ecosystem that is, literally, cradle to grave. With the help of Upstate Forever they have permanently protected 37 acres of wild lands as a natural preserve, where their goal of reconnecting people with the land takes many forms. The most prominent way this connection is made is by using exclusively natural burial techniques: no embalming, no burial vaults and only biodegradable caskets or shrouds. And, since Ramsey Creek lies on former farmland where cattle and crops depleted the land, each burial serves to replenish the soil and restore the organic nutrients needed for the revival of the natural habitat.
Billy has an amazing story to tell attendees of TEDxGreenville. As we hiked through the Ramsey Creek woods I strained to take in his deep knowledge of ecology, regulations, business, medicine, history and much about the international green burial movement. He is a passionate advocate for a different way of designing the end of our physical bodies, one that combines a sustainable economic model with conservation principles and a beautiful reconnecting of people with the earth. I can’t wait to hear his TEDx talk!
I was completely surprised when the members of the TEDxGreenville Interactive Team adopted me as a team member. By “adopted,” I mean, “assimilated.” I wasn’t allowed to leave until I promised to participate. But it was an easy decision to make because these are some of the most creative, innovative, and fun people I’ve had the privilege to meet.
I showed up to that first meeting to simply answer some questions about cool projects some members of the Greenville Makers Group were working on. Turns out, the committee was looking for exactly the kind of things to exhibit that the GMG loves to make: things that are fun, interactive, creative, inspiring, and even whimsical.
My task became making the connections between the GMG project leaders and the TEDx event so that some really cool people could bring some really cool projects to show to even more really cool people at one of the coolest events ever. That’s quadruple-cool.
Over these weeks I’ve had some vivid discussions and brainstorming with both groups. I’m impressed at how creative, diligent, and competent the GMG members are when they’re set with a challenge. Their ability to be resourceful in using and reusing old things to make new things is the tangible result of pure imagination, creativity, and purposeful design. And I love being around quick, positive, visionary people on the Interactive Team that say, “Yeah! Let’s do that!” Those kinds of people fuel my excitement to design things.
I remembered British writer Arthur C. Clarke’s three laws of prediction, and I am amazed at how well they describe what is happening:
As the planning and organization continue, my experience is stunningly parallel, and sometimes I find myself playing both parts of the “elderly scientist.” Even though you believe a design is achievable, It’s still a real challenge to wholeheartedly lead the chase into the impossible to prove something is possible.
Finally, when we finish the struggle of creating, innovating, and purposefully designing something, let’s meet the challenge to make something that is indistinguishable from magic.
Thanks to Rob Green with our Program Team for giving us a peek at the performance of Kyshona Armstrong who will be on the Kroc Center stage on March 22 for our TEDxGreenville conference.
you...well...truly FELT something. I would know. As a self professed live music aficionado (read: dork), I have seen/heard many gigs that were very good in the moment but became mentally invisible beyond the drive home.
After an artist had to cancel at a venue I'd booked her into, she informed me that she had someone who could fill the slot. “Sure”, I thought. I’ve had the filler act before only to be undelightfully surprised by the open-mic caliber hacker. In most cases we simply gut it out and move on. I clicked the link to Kyshona’s music and realized I was several neighborhoods away from open mic. I was impressed, but then it occurred to me I would have trouble describing the genre. Was it blues? Country? Soul? Maybe that’s what made it so cool. Think Aretha meets Alison Krauss with Norah Jones as a stepchild. We knew she had the gift.
Most would assume she would take this gift, develop it, and hit the stage, which she did, but Kyshona is also one of the lucky ones who has gone beyond the stage and found a way to use her gift in a non-traditional way. She’s a Music Therapist. She had an early love for both music and psychology but didn’t think there was a way to combine the two until she met a Music Therapist in Columbia SC. After graduating from the University of Georgia, she set out to use her new found combination to help make adifference in the lives of others.
Kyshona now assembles the pieces of live performance into a therapeutic process that helps a wide range of people. From infants, to inmates, to the elderly and to autistic children, she makes a profound impact on the lives of these patients. (And I thought that I was the only one she’d made an impact on!) That impact is achieved through a complex mix of genres. Turns out, her sound is more diverse than an 80’s Benetton ad. As eclectic as the mix of people she works with, her music is a powerful blend of bluegrass, country, and soul that may not make sense untilyou hear it. The vocals are heavy and pronounced, the tunes have a message without being preachy, but, even then, you may still find yourself requesting a witness during songslike “Home Again”. Heck, everyone needs a witness, am I right? Live, she provides a musical fourth
dimension and reminds you why her other job is music therapist.
I’m not entirely sure that she doesn’t “treat” her audience at every show. Come to think of it, I DID feel better afterwards. Hmmm, Therapy. Is that a genre? It is now. Oh, about that witness..........
Our Marketing Team Lead, Whitney Walters, explains why she nominated Perry Tuttle to present at TEDxGreenville 2013.
I was about eleven when I first met Perry Tuttle. We had driven to Clemson for Fan Appreciation Day, where my brother, Tyler, and I lined up with hundreds of other kids (and adults alike) to get autographs and pictures in the hot sun. Even though the day was long and the uniform was hot, and he was probably tired of smiling and posing, there he was. He spent a little while with us just talking, asking us about school, what our hobbies were, and grinning in that authentic way he has. All the time, looking us right in the eye. Even though so many looked up to him, he always had a way of making everyone around him feel like the special ones.
Flash forward, I'm in my twenties and I'm picked to host the Tiger Tailgate Show (pre-game football radio show). My co-host is none other than Perry. In those three years, I was witness to the grace that he brings to every situation, the humor that he uses to make others feel comfortable, and the humility that he has in everyday life. For someone who has had so much success, he has handled it beautifully.
About a year ago, Perry told me that he is going through a health challenge that has changed his life and the lives of his entire family. I’m not going to tell his story here; that’s part of what he’ll be presenting at TEDxGreenville this year. But I will say that his story is inspiring beyond what I could relay even if I tried, and it’s much more than a story about disease. It’s a testament to the way that he handles everything, with the grace of a champion.
Eddie Smith, a member of our hard-wroking Program Team, offers a little insight into a talk by Tim Tv, one of Greenville's favorite Funk Masters. We promise, it will get clearer as you read on.
You may think you’ve got it all together: the way you dress, act, talk, and walk. That’s great. But… maybe it’s not.
Maybe you’re a victim of a serious cultural problem—one that no one seems to be talking about. Are you sitting down? Good.
Because this might be hard to hear…
Maybe—just maybe—somewhere along the way, you were de-funked.
No!!!!!
Oh yes. And it’s OK. The hard part is over. You’ve admitted it. The next step is recovery, and I have some really good news. Circus performer, speaker, entertainer, artist, and philosopher, Tim Tv, is here to help.
Whether you’re a funkless whiteboy or, more generally, feel trapped in the web woven by that metaphor, you should be paying attention to Tim on March 22nd. Close attention.
Because on that date, he will unleash his Hetero Whiteboy Fashion Victim Recovery and Rejuvenation Programme on the audience at TEDxGreenville 2013—and then, the world.
Rest easy, hipless heteros. Funk is not dead. Funk lives… in each of us. And Tim’s going to restore it.
Planning Team member, Maxim Williams, who is also the Lead Curator for our monthly salons, writes about the last salon of the season and about inclusion, the predominant theme behind these salons. He is also Director for Community Relationship Building at Bon Secours St. Francis Health System. An important bit of information that you may not be aware of is that Maxim was one of the presenters at the very first TEDxGreenville in 2010.
TEDxGreenvilleSalons are a series of monthly TEDxGreenville events that allow the growing TEDxGreenville “tribe” to continue sharing Ideas Worth Spreading after each annual TEDxGreenville main event. At each TEDxGreenvilleSalon you can expect to enjoy one or more TED (or TEDx) videos and a presentation or performance organized around a specific theme or topic- and there will always be ample time for discussion afterwards. It’s all about spreading great ideas, sharing perspectives, and helping surface amazing stories and talent from right here in Greenville.
The Salons are all about Inclusion. See, in order for diversity to really work and matter, people have to feel like they belong. That their ideas belong. That their talents and gifts belong and can contribute to the broader context and community of Greenville. People have to feel a sense of belonging and freedom to express who they are in order to feel a part of something. This allows for new relationships, new insights, and new ways of doing things to emerge that can only enrich our City. Otherwise, we will lose talented people to other more inclusive parts of the country that figured out how Inclusion enhances relationships, culture, and economics.
For me personally and professionally, diversity and inclusion must stretch beyond the 9 to 5 work day. I grew up in a multicultural and international environment and I carry those experiences and that global mindset into whatever I’m involved in. I feel I am a more conscientious and compassionate person as a result and I hope that the Greenville community, through the Salons and TEDx Greenville continues to form new relationships across our differences to discover that we in fact, aren’t so different after all.
Our Salons have touched on everything from sustainability and community garden concerts; to the healing power of mushrooms; the wisdom of our young people; and the sage advice from our senior community; to entrepreneurs from all walks of life; and showing the power of being differently abled. Our final Salon’s theme is “Luv Schmuv.” It will be held at 3715 E North St Greenville, at Label Nightlife (formerly Studio 54) on February 7th at 6pm. A diversity of performers from vocalists, slam poets, and salsa dancers will share their artistic interpretation on love and relationships.
As with each Salon, you will get to meet and interact with the presenters as well as with your fellow audience members. Falling in “luv” is not required, but I do hope you form new bonds, new relationships, and feel a more colorful sense of community! Stay tuned for the 2013/2014 season! If you’re interested in joining the Salon Squad, feel free to contact me! See you there!
We have an interesting and talented mix of performers for this year’s conference on March 22. TEDxGreenville Program Team member, Rob Green, tells us a little about Haley Dreis. While she lives and works in Nashville, she is originally from Columbia, SC, and graduated from USC with a degree in violin performance.
I book a lot of music, especially for MoeJoe's in Clemson. In October of 2011 I received an email from Haley Dreis.
Like many of the other emails I get with requests to play MoJoe’s , Haley had heard of our venue from other touring artists and was passing through from Nashville to Columbia. She needed a stop.
Our venue doesn’t have many rules but the first one is you must play original music. Cover bands are not allowed.
She fit all of our requirements, so I gave her a listen. The sound was full, eclectic and fresh. Her voice was distinctive. Clear. Refined. Okay, we’d loved to have her.
Then I heard and saw her live.
What can best be described as a one-girl musical assembly line, Haley uses two guitars, a ukulele and violin woven through a loop machine that essentially takes 3 or 4 bars and loops them. She starts each song with a story and a single instrument and layers each instrument, one on top of the other, like that badass sandwich you used to make on Sundays. They end up beautifully crafted pop songs with a message about strong women and a determined spirit, and, by the way, she’s the only one on stage.
The ephemeral nature of live music plays into Haley’s craft as she must reconstruct her songs during each performance and, with that, comes the ability of the audience to bear witness to the building process. Before you know what is really happening, you’re listening to a full bodied performance with 3 instruments and vocals. Then, in an instant, it’s gone.
Dave Grohl’s Grammy speech notwithstanding, this IS real music played by a real person. Haley uses artistic license to shift time via the loops and stack her sounds. Much like a single painter mixes and layers color, Haley blends strums, picks, bows, and voices better than most. It may end up coming out of a machine, but it’s real. All Haley. All live.
Phil McCreight, our Interactive Team Lead, has a few thoughts that he'd like to share with you about the design process as it was used by his team in building interactive exhibits and activities for this year's conference.
When I first assumed the responsibility of facilitating TEDxGreenville’s Interactive Design Team I thought I had a good grasp of Design Thinking. After a number of years immersing myself in articles, blog posts, and even reading Tim Brown’s book, Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, I considered myself well versed in the concept. Having a number of years in the manufacturing industry, it was process, efficiency, and deadlines that ruled my world. And then I was awakened. After a few sessions with my wonderful team members in our visioning, brainstorming, and seeing the world through the eyes of our participants, I truly saw the heart of Design Thinking.
One of the fundamentals of Design Thinking is letting the ideas grow; mature organically; not just pushing for completion. Pull, not Push. I am honored to present our diverse Interactive Design Team that range from Architect, Art Professor, Musician, Graphic and Product Designers, to Inventors: Bridget Kirkland, Tanya Thompson, Lisa Corley, John Digney, Joel Van Dyke, Joel McCreight, and Joey Loman. You can read more of their profiles here.
The vision of our team is to ultimately empower by designing engaging and captivating experiences for participants, equipping them to make a difference in their community.We hope to accomplish this through building community, capturing ideas, fostering connections, and the development of spaces for
interaction. That's the formal explanation, but in the deepest part of the team’s heart we want the experiences to explore and engage your inner child.
In future posts our team will share their journey of discovery of Design Thinking in the process of building the interactive projects that we all look forward to sharing with you at the event on March 22nd.
TEDxGreenville is coming to the Kroc Center in downtown Greenville. Mark your calendars for Friday, March 22, and come
TEDxGreenville is coming to the Kroc Center in downtown Greenville. Mark your calendars for Friday, March 22, and come join us in celebrating some of the Greenville area's thought leaders around the theme of By Design.
We believe design changes things, because design empowers purpose.Joel Van Dyke, AIA (Principal Architect, Freeman & Major Architects, Greenville, SC)
Joel is a member of our Interactive Team, one of many volunteer teams working together almost year-round to bring the TEDxGreenville conference to Greenville in a one-day event once a year. It's surprising, isn't it, how many people are involved in the building of a program and all of the essential accoutrements, which becomes TEDxGreenville.
Over the next several weeks, we will be sharing thoughts and information with you about the talks, the people, the ideas which will come together on March 22nd as TEDxGreenville.
See you there!
Despina Yeargin, Curator
We have lots of news: New license-holder and organizer, new curator, new date, new speakers and performers, new teams and a new theme. Same venue.
Our new license-holder and organizer is Russell Stall with Greenville Forward.
Our new curator is Despina Yeargin. She’s been on the Program Team for the last two events, so she’s not really new, but we’ll let her enjoy that new curator smell for a while.
Our new date is Friday, March 22, 2013.
New speakers and performers…AHA! That’s where YOU come in! Please click here to nominate your By Design Speaker or Performer for TEDxGreenville 2013, and tell other TEDxers that you know to do the same.
Our new theme is By Design. We are looking at the new theme as a way of life, a way which guides us forward with intention, therefore, By Design = with intent.
Same venue: You told us that you liked the Kroc Center, so we are going to do our TEDxing there again on March 22, 2013. Thanks for the good feedback! We do listen to what you say, unlike your mother-in-law.
New teams. The amazing people who made things happen for TEDxGreenville 2010 (the very first one in the entire state of South Carolina), for TEDxGreenville 2011 and 2012 wanted to move over and let others bring their energy and ideas to the TEDx table, so keep an eye out for a few new faces, but with support and guidance from the wisdom of our experienced folks. Thank you to Marc Bolick, Aaron von Frank, Susan von Frank and Brenda Laaskso and NEXT, you’ve given us three successful TEDxGreenville events with lots of Ideas Worth Spreading. For your time, energy, creativity and wisdom, the people of the TEDxGreenville community that you’ve built thank you! We appreciate and recognize your efforts. WTG!
TEDxGreenville Program Team member Lisa Corley would like to share a bit more about CalebSuttles and the message he’ll be sharing with you at TEDxGreenville 2012: Breakthrough. Also, Caleb will be on ”Your Carolina with Jack and Kimberly” this Friday morning at 10am (Channel 7) discussing “Pre-Do” (his first film), his next film, and more.
What can we learn about life from a college freshman? Pffffttttt, you say? Um, excuse me. Stick your grown-up arrogance on a shelf for a minute. Pretty please. At 15, insightful Anderson teen Caleb Suttles was bothered. He wanted to be optimistic about his future, but…..well, you see, most of the adults around him constantly expressed disappointment that their lives didn’t pan out like they’d imagined. Obligations began to overwhelm them, hopes were abandoned, and realities melted into lackluster days, week, months, years — decades. Could it be that sacrificing childhood dreams was just a rite of passage? Should he abandon the idea of fulfillment in life and simply concentrate on avoiding regret? Within a couple years, Caleb had white-knuckled his passion for filmmaking and tackled the subject head-on. He filmed dozens of Upstate SC residents, interviewing them about regret and what they would do differently if they could travel back to the days of their youth. As a high school senior in 2011, Caleb debuted his two-and- a-half-hour documentary “Pre-Do: Foresight in 20/20.”
At TEDxGreenville 2012, we’ll hear Caleb’s breakthrough epiphanies and how they continue to perform in his life daily. Will we see bits of ourselves in his disillusioned interviewees? Might his story embrace our own? Will the lessons he learned hold potential for all of us? Brace yourselves. Link to his film: http://calebsuttles.com/pre-do-film