The Acceleration of Serendipity
Facilitating positive coincidences at TEDActive
It’s usually the third day into TEDActive when you settle into a groove. You know the best bean bags for watching talks, you’ve caught up with old friends and introduced yourself to dozens of new acquaintances, you know the perfect time to hit the coffee bar for an afternoon jolt, and where the after-after-parties will be for the next few days.
And that’s when things really start to get interesting. For it’s once you get settled in that you can truly open yourself up to the magic of a TED conference. You can dive deep into a discussion without worrying about missing out on something else. You can wander without intent and bump into that person who is working on a project that aligns with yours. You can join an ad-hoc workshop about solving a critical challenge like Ebola, learning from those who spent time in the field (seriously, my TEDActive roommate had just returned from Liberia).
See, the word “conference” is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to TED. Ties and suits are replaced by sweaters and board shorts (depending on the year’s location), business cards replaced with big name badges that you scan with the
TEDConnect App.
And TEDActive takes this one step further by injecting a more relaxed and celebratory spirit into TED. While TED Conference goers convene in Vancouver, TEDActive attendees watch a live simulcast of the talks from Whistler (previous years were in Palm Springs and Aspen), along with TEDActive-only talks from folks like Esquire’s A.J. Jacobs and Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran. But many of week’s best moments of the week take place outside the theater.
The days seamlessly transition into nights, with dinner events, pub crawls, and late-night concerts or talent shows. Spontaneous group discussions on the merits of an idea presented on any given day can last until the wee hours.
So, yeah, it’s kind of like summer camp for adults — in the winter. It’s a lot of fun. But this isn’t what brings me back to TEDActive.
The real power of TEDActive lies in the idea of “accelerated serendipity.” Serendipity is often portrayed as luck: you randomly bump into an investor in an elevator who loves your idea, you end up sitting next to your future mate on a bus. It’s the coincidences that can change your life.
But what if you could speed this process up and increase the possibility of something magical happening?
If you could take 600 super interesting people doing disparate but important work around the globe, stick them in a room together, and bump them into each other like smashing atoms in a particle accelerator. Inevitably, some of those atoms will end up colliding and fusing together to create something new. That is TEDActive.
In the busy-ness of our everyday life (how often do you tell someone you’d love to catch up but you’re busy this week, or think about attending an event but realize you’re too busy with work?) we rarely have the opportunity to let serendipity play a role in our lives anymore. And our eyes are ever-more glued to our phones and laptop screens.
TEDActive is the antidote to this. It forces you to disconnect, infuses you with new ideas and perspective on things you may not have even known you cared about before that moment. I met more than a few people this year who have started down completely new career paths since I first met them at TEDActive in 2011. I love asking attendees to tell me about the countless lasting connections and collaborations that came out previous TEDs.
Part of why this can happen, I think, is the diversity. At TEDActive 2015, more than 60 countries were represented, including TEDx organizers from every corner of the globe: Japan, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, and India, to name just a few. Attendee ages ranged from 18 to 70. There were no cliques, invite-only dinners, or secret gatherings for a select group. In fact, every year TEDActive selects “Hosts” whose sole job it is to make introductions between attendees. Even if you’re an introvert not yet accustomed to TED, you will meet people. Lots of people.
These connections have taken me inside the MIT Media Lab, behind the scenes at NASA’s JPL facility to visit the Mars Curiosity Rover, and inside maximum security prisons in Africa. I’ve collaborated with photographers, programmers, and even a scientist building robots to clean up our oceans. And I’ve met individuals whom I’ll call friends for life.
TEDActive 2015 wrapped last week, and I’m still processing everything that happened. The new ideas presented on stage, the new friends, the new perspectives on both my work and the world at large. It’s often referred to as the “TED crash” or “TEDache,” but I think of it more as a slowing back down. For I just spent seven days with 600 others in a state of accelerated serendipity, and I can’t wait for next year.
