With the TEDxAmsterdam Award, we want to encourage people to think about ways to change the world. Winning the Award means that great idea gets our (partners’) support for at least a year to help them elevate their projects. On October 1st, 28 presenters competed in the ING Academy in front of our jury to make it to the top 10.
The jury scored ideas on TED-worthiness: the ideas should be original, inspirational and ‘contagious’. The ideas could be broadly divided into five categories: social entrepreneurship, energy, food, co-creation and health. Because we believe all 28 ideas are worth spreading, we want to share those with you as well. In our final episode we’ve selected the ideas centering around co-creation and health.
Co-creation
Five other ideas that competed for the Award were all about co-creation. Martine Postma would like to establish a fundamental change in the way we consume. This is why she organises “Repair cafés” where she brings together people that like solving problems and people with broken products. This way, people can use their products much longer and don’t have to buy new products all the time. Ultimately, she would like to achieve that more people will repair their products and send a signal to companies that it’s important their products become easier to repair.
- Martine Postma talks about GeefCafé
Although the rest of the ideas did not make it through, they were very inspiring to me! Marieke Hart us how she and her husband always smelled the amazing food of their neighbour. They went over to ask if they could taste one of her recipes. They liked it so much that they told other neighbours and a lot of them joined in to share their food. This is how Thuis Afgehaald started. Now, 60,000 people in the Netherlands share their food with each other with the help of an online platform. Some cook and others come by to pick up a portion. This also has the social benefit that neighbours get to know each other better.
With her Geef Café, Judith Manshanden wants to inspire people to give more to their direct surroundings. She calls this Giv-tivism, which entails that if you give more, you will receive more as well. To make this more tangible, she will start a “Geef Café” in which the pay-what-you-can-principle holds. Last but not least was Daan Weddepohl, owner of Peerby. He feels that we are now in the era of collaborative consumption. With his company, he facilitates a peer-to-peer rental platform for common items like screwdrivers or backpacks. His goal is to create a worldwide movement of sharing, inspired by Rachel Botsman’s TED talk about collaborative consumption.
Health
Last but not least, we heard some innovative ideas concerning health. Joris Knapen told us a story about his dad, who had to go to the physiotherapist instead of playing tennis because of his rheumatism. The problem was that his dad found the exercises the physiotherapist make him do were very boring, so he did not follow through with them. Joris found a solution to this problem by combining a vision camera, an app and a TV, with exercises that are fun, but healthy too. By using persuasive technologies that are low in cost, it is easy to increase the quality of life of the patient.
- The jury carefully listens to the candidates
Another tool that aims to make a patient’s life easier, was presented by Klaas Robers. Thrombosis patients have to take a different amount of tablets every day and also have to visit the hospital every few weeks to update this schedule. One of Klaas’ students came up with a smart dispenser which is connected to the internet and exactly knows what your doses should be, so that the patients are much more independent and have less hospital visits.
Massimo Mischi made it through to the top 10 with a new system to diagnose prostate cancer. Right now, the process to check for prostate cancer is painful and not always correct. Massimo developed a way to do a vascular pattern analysis by ultrasound imaging, which produces a better overview. No biopsies are needed and a precise and timely treatment is possible. Moreover, this process might also work with other forms of cancer.
The last pitch of the day came from Wouter Bruins. He and two friends made a tool called Amplino, which is used to diagnose malaria. This simple tool made out of a shoebox and a hair dryer combined with existing medical technology, is able to diagnose malaria during pregnancy, which is not possible with the most commonly used tests. This is exactly what sets Amplino apart from the other tests on the market: they are not in it to make a lot of money.
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