A Weekend at TEDxBeaconStreet–An Adventure Catalyst Experience
I just attended my first TEDx event overseas, the famous TEDxBeaconStreet in Boston. It’s been an incredible experience! Travelling on its own is usually nice, but sharing accommodations (and life) for four days with people from Canada, France and Spain, sharing emotions with people of different backgrounds, but similar ambitions and expectations as you have, that’s a whole other experience.
Here are some of my impressions, after getting back home.
The Adventures
An adventure is an excursion on steroids. It’s all about watching state-of-the-art ideas in action, sometimes even interacting with them. For instance, it’s a visit to a place with someone telling you nice and interesting things about the place and the things they do. It’s visiting these places in good company, and commenting over what you see. Do you remember when you were a kid and your school took you on excursions? Well, this is more or less the same, although now your fellows are as interested as you are in the topics and in the places you visit.
Our marathon of adventures started the day before the event with a pre-dawn excursion to the New England Produce Center (known as the Chelsea Produce Market), hosted by Chelsea Creek Farms, with a first-hand look at the early morning operations. Then breakfast at Google. A visit to the MIT Nano, to hear the super talk by Vlad Bulovic. On to the JFK Library and Museum with a visit to the museum (including some special rooms) and lunch included. The visit to Fenway Park, baseball stadium, home of the Red Sox, a behind-the-scenes peek at the Lincoln School prior to the events, and the Escape Velocity Party for speakers, volunteers, Adventure Catalysts, and organizers.
The adventures continued after day one of the event, on Saturday night, with a party at Bobby Sager’s place–probably one of the best views of Boston, over The Common.
And then, after day two, on Sunday evening, we celebrated the completion of our own particular marathon by visiting the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and having a drink at the Social Club of a local pub.
The Adventure Catalysts
Coming from 5 continents, representing 21 countries (such as the US and Canada, but also Spain, Russia, Lithuania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Nepal, etc.) and 19 different US States, the Adventure Catalysts are TEDx organizers from across the globe who join the TEDxBeaconStreet’s annual conference to learn the format of community engagement through the Adventures events.
We take the pledge to further the mission of spreading ideas and putting them into action in our own communities around the world.
The Venue
William H. Lincoln School was the location of the event. The whole ground floor was taken by TEDx. From the rooms close to the theatre, to the sports center, the corridors, the canteen… all was TEDx-ized.
The fact that the venue was a school made the event different, with lots of families with children coming to the event, a lot of diversity. The theatre was really small (more or less 200 people), so they made us get up and abandon the space after every session of talks. However, they had a simulcast lounge and a couple more spaces where attendees could follow talks. As sessions were non-stop, you could go out, get yourself something to eat, watch that session on TV, and then line up to get into the theatre for the following session.
They also had a big room for speakers (with someone taking care of make-up), a room for photography, and one for volunteers (where we could leave our things, as Adventure Catalysts.)
The Food
Basically if you wanted to eat or drink, you had to get out of the school, to one of the food trucks (there were three: two Chinese and one Italian), and buy your things. If you wanted coffee, the closest Dunkin Donuts was “around the corner”–a mile away.
This was very different from other events, free or paid, I’ve attended.
The Bag
No bag for attendees, just an accreditation badge with your name on it. Nothing was given for free except to the volunteers, who had a t-shirt, and the Adventure Catalysts, who had a sweatshirt. In both cases this was because we needed to be different from the general audience.
The gift bag is something that is usually given out for free to attendees at TED and TEDx events. It might be a backpack full of commodities or a simple mug, or a fabric bag with the logos.
The Sponsors
I felt their presence pretty much everywhere. They made great use of social media and took full advantage of their alliance with TEDxBeaconStreet, not a usual site.
The Event
Very familiar and very different at the same time compared with other TED and TEDx events that I’ve attended. I felt it as a controlled chaos. During the weekend, the school received more than 3,000 attendees. This, together with the available space for interaction, made engaging people difficult. However, people were very engaged with some of the talks.
The talks were conceived for engagement in a video format. The organizers obliged some of the speakers to repeat their complete talks (or part of them) to have them well recorded, and to produce the video after the event. If you only watch the video, it’s all good… if you’re sitting at the theatre, it’s really weird.
With 12 sessions spread over two days, and for two different events (TEDxYouth@BeaconStreet and TEDxBeaconStreet), with more than 80 talks, including some great performances, you feel literally overwhelmed by the format and the TEDx spirit of spreading ideas, and putting them into action. I’m pretty sure that some of the talks will end up on the TED.com site, just as Robert Waldinger’s did last year.
To conclude, it has been another amazing TEDx experience, the first one abroad–not counting TED conferences–surrounded by fellow TEDxers, and by other people that, just as us, really believe a change is needed. Let’s work on it.
“One, two, three… NICE!”
