On September 20, to coincide with the United Nations summit on the Millennium Development Goals, a global event organized by TED and the Gates Foundation took place in New York. In Amsterdam, a remarkable group of individuals joined to watch the live TEDxChange Webcast together, and listen to speakers like Melinda Gates, Graça Machel and Hans Rosling.
The 100 guests then listened to eight people that travelled to Amsterdam to present their work in Africa during an interactive dinner. Arjan Erkel, Consolata Ndayishimiye, Pascal Katana, Tonee Ndungu, Bill Liao, Marlon Parker, Boldewijn Sloet and Ndubuisi Ekekwe (who joined by Skype) shared their desires and passions, their ideas and achievements, and then asked for support. Money was not requested – the currency at this event was skills, knowledge and time.
Where can we start to describe the special evening some 108 benevolent change agents took part in last Monday at TEDxChange? There seemed to be a natural ease of exchanging information and knowledge between the guests and speakers. And if the ever rising room temperature reflected people’s burning desire to make that positive change the world needs, we can be reassured. Here are some typical moments you could have experienced.
Fighting malaria with creativity
Arjan Erkel, speaker: “You know what I believe? We can stop malaria spread more effectively if we partner up with multinationals. It must go faster than with governments only – I mean, why wouldn’t Unilever or Shell spread mosquito nets and condoms with their distributional power?”
On a venture to push creativity, table host Steven Kop told his dinner dates that he wanted to stop the thinking part of their brains. How he did it? Distracting the ratio by immediately answering questions like “What would you do if you could breathe under water?” Steven built up creative pressure to find answers to how participants could add something brilliant to Malaria No More!
When Arjan asks if one of his dinner guests possibly knows an office location for the group’s action day (October 8 ) in Rotterdam, one guest is able to arrange a location with a view to the Euromast. Easy does it.
Winds of change
Marcia Luyten, moderator (introducing Bill Liao): “This Bill guy is remarkable: he walks the talk. It took him two days to get here by car, boat and probably some hitchhiking too. He stopped flying altogether to minimize his environmental impact.”
Bill swept away the audience with catchy one-liners and an intriguing exercise: he asked us all to close our eyes and imagine we were the wind, rushing over open fields and spreading warmth. When I secretly peeked around, almost everybody was making a self-induced trip through nature. You might want to check the pictures for some nice images of this visualization.
A little too ironic…
Andrew Makkinga, moderator: “The problem isn’t the innovations, it’s getting through to Western business people. Take Pascal Katana – he just told me about the need to launch a digital product in New York, just for credibility.” Doesn’t it make a bad impression when a microphone battery dies? Let’s face it, it’s uncomfortable for everyone. However, when Pascal Katana was about to present his pitch for smart mobile chargers and the mic stopped working, laughter blasted through the room when somebody shouted “you need a charger!”
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