The Engaged Consumer

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a unique event called TEDx Boston.  If you’ve heard of the original TED Conference (Technology, Entertainment and Design), this is a variation on that theme. Essentially it’s an independently organized version with a focus on local talent.

Having never attended a TED event, I know about the content only through the numerous videos I’ve watched from the event. From what I can imagine, however, this inaugural version in Boston, MA probably felt pretty similar (minus the celebrity sitings). With that as a backdrop, below are some high level notes and pictures I took at the event. If you have additional thoughts or questions, feel free to leave ‘em in the comments section below.

Oh, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a giant shout out to Sean Belka and Danielle Dublin of Fidelity Investments for organizing the event. Let’s just say that they did an amazing job with both the logisitics, the speaking talent, and the quality of the attendees. Hopefully this public display of affection will be enough to get me on the list for next year’s event.

David Edwards, Culture Lab, Catalyzing Innovation through ArtScience

David is a fascinating character — one whose mind obviously never shuts off. He talked a bit about the art of innovation. Highlights from his talk:

• We are very curious when the page is blank (so we learn)
• One of the things that David created was “inhaled chocolate” called “WHIFF” (more on this at the end of the post)
• Ideation funnel: Conceive, Translate & Realize
• Spend a lot of time focused on art and not-for-profit projects
• Have a shop that gives public access to experiments that didn’t work
• Changing cultures makes you pay attention
• http://artscience100k.org – making a bet on Boston school kids

Patricia Maes (head of MIT Media Lab)

In her video below (a must watch), Patrica or “Pattie” Maes shows off an amazing new device that combines camera, projector and mirror with banded colors on your fingers. Allows users to do real time research, take pictures, project anywhere, call, and create personal tag clouds for people. Key here is REAL TIME INTERACTION WITH OBJECTS AND INFORMATION

Alexa Scordato – Reverse Mentorship

It was a proud momen for me to see Alexa up on stage. I don’t mean that in a “Father Knows Best” kind of way but rather it was a pleasure seeing such a poised, smart, woman up on stage in such a public venue. I had the pleasure of hiring Alexa at my old company, Mzinga in a fairly public way (link to CS Monitor article).

Based on her year plus experience at Mzinga working as a social mediast and assistant to CEO/founder, Barry Libert, Alexa learned a thing or two about reverse mentorship. To kick things off, she started with one of Barry’s favorite quotes:

Easier to change the people than to change the people.

Alexa also stressed the importance of Millennials in the future workforce — something I think many companies still aren’t paying enough attention to (read more about the coming Age Wave if you need a little convincing) LINK

Ryan Chin – PhD Candidate at MIT Media Lab, Smart Cities Group
This was perhaps one of the most thought provoking sessions as it demonstrated some true outside the box thinking.For one, Ryan and his team are rebuilding cars, scooters and bikes from the ground up — not just making minor incremenatl improvements to the existing product. The focus of Ryan’s talk was on on foldable, stackable cars and how they might help with a more holistic plan to revolutionize the “last mile” of public transportation. A few highlights:

• Most existing automobiles take up 200 square feet of space and spend 80% of their time parked
• No surprise here but most cars are still petroleum-based and major polluters — this is important because 50% of world’s population lives in cities (and growing)
• Transoportaion and building operations typically account for at least 60% of urban energy use — 40% of gas is wasted circling looking for parking during peak times [AMAZING!]
• Public transportation helps solve some of these problems but “first mile/last mile” issue (or need to carry something) still exists
• “Sharable” cars/bikes have started to solve these problems (like Zipcar)

MIT is focusing on foldable “Roboscooter,” “Car” and “GreenWheel” electric bicycle. On a nice day, you could ride an electric bicycle to the grocery store and then take a car home. Each vehicle starts with “recreating the wheel.” Vehicles rely on “in-wheel” motors which allows for less weight and better foldability.

One of the trickiest issues to solve is the economics of mobility (avoiding bottle necks for drop off, pick up, parking, etc. Trying to solve through appropriate economics i.e. expensive to drop off in places where many people want to park/drop off.

With bike – can recharge motor by: 1) plugging in, 2) pedaling, or 3) going downhill

Chris Middleton – Fidelity Future Stage (Boston Latin)

Chris Middleton is part of a program called Future Stage. According to the site, Future Stage “prepares students for future stages in life through a unique music and theater education program — enabling them to learn firsthand from renowned actors, directors and musician.” If Chris is any indication of the success of this program, Future Stage has hit a home run because Chris possessed an unbelievable voice, uncanny knack for song writing and great poise in front of a large audience. Pay attention to him because he’s going places.

Hugo Van Vuuren: Following our Passion – Lighting London < Lighting Africa

Hugo’s demonstration showed that sometimes the best solutions to big problems are the easiest ones. A few highlights from his talk about bringing light/electricity to many of the developing areas of Africa:

• Africa has a distribution problem. It should be capable of providing everything it needs.
• The team that was working on solving this problem realized that they could collect enough energy from dirt based on the act of biodegradation (more moisture is better). To that end, they created a battery using energy from a bag full of dirt. [Yup, a bag of dirt]
• They key to this proram succeeding was going grass roots – that way if the government goes caput, the technology continues on.
• In order to do this, they needed to empower people locally – this helps alleviate some of the issues of distribution
• Massive opportunity in Africa – 900 million people, many with a disposable income

[started to run out of steam a little here...]

George Whitesides – Diagnostics for All

• Medical care — particularly diagnostic — is much too expensive. Is there a way to make it cheaper?
• One solution is to use paper vs. a needle. Use urine vs. blood. = less expensive and less dangerous (no risk of pricking someone with an infected needle)
• Medical worker of the future – unemployed 18 year old with a back pack full of medical test kits and an AK 47

Tom Hadfield – Le Whiff

Tom Hadfield "Whiffing" chocolate

• Over the centuries, we’ve eaten smaller and smaller quantities at shorter and more frequent intervals
• With a mix of culinary art and aerosol science, they are able to deliver the particles to the mouth without getting it into the lungs (chocolate without the calories).
• Will be available for mainstream consumption later this year.
• Even cooler – we got to “whiff” – first mass whiffing ever