Manchester loves TED and I couldn’t be happier.
I use Meetup a lot. So much, in fact, that I’m confused as to why I haven’t written a Chapter on the thing yet. But today is not that Chapter. I’ll talk in more detail about Meetup in the future and for now you can do your own research. Just know that it’s one of my favourite ways to meet new, like-minded people, as well as attend some great events.
On a separate but not unrelated note, I also watch a lot of TED Talks, because they’re utterly top notch.
So, when I found this little Meetup group a few weeks ago, I couldn’t have been happier:
See, I try to talk to my friends (and sometimes family) about the TED stuff I consume, but no one I hang out with regularly actually watches and/or enjoys TED Talks. I have so much to discuss, but almost zero people to let it all out on. It’s a source of pure frustration in my life.
Which means that once I discovered a chance to watch a TED Talk with loads of strangers and then discuss that talk with said strangers, it was like a dream come true. Plus, my friends and family don’t need to listen to me bang on about any new and interesting TED Talks I’ve found now because I have somewhere — once a month — to vomit everything out. Everybody wins.
The Meetup group itself is managed — and all events hosted by — Craig Millar, who runs Resonate Speech Writing. Basically, he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to speeches, and TED Talk speeches specifically.
So, tonight was the second Manchester TED Talk Discussion Group event, and my first. And it was actually pretty good. Super busy too, Manchester loves TED it seems.
To begin with, Craig talked about TEDxLiverpool, which happened back at the end of June. Then he showed us the brilliant Ukebox, who performed at the event.
It was a bit of an energy-booster, because after a long day at work, Ukebox is exactly what you need. Seriously, if you’re reading this sentence without having watched the video above, watch the damn video. It’ll make you happy as a clam.
After Ukebox, we got down to the reason we were all attending the event: to watch (and then discuss) a featured TED Talk. August’s feature was a talk from Frank Warren called Half a Million Secrets.
Frank does a good enough job of giving context for what he’s chatting about in his talk, so I won’t waste your time attempting to explain it through written prose. Enjoy
Bit of a rollercoaster of emotions, right? Absolutely cracking talk.
I’ll leave it there for today, because if you’ve watched both videos and read all of my words, I think that’s enough Content From Ell (Trademark pending) for one day. As for the after-talk discussion, I’ll save that for Chapter 80.
