The Main Thing … or Many Things
Recently I received an email from the organizers of TEDxOporto, informing me that the theme of the 2015 edition would be “The Main Thing” and inviting me to submit an original idea related to it that could help to change the world, the country, the local community, or the lives of people in the audience.
In 2009 I was one of the speakers of the first TEDx in Portugal, named at that time TEDxEdges. But this time I got anyway simultaneously excited and humble with this invitation as the reputation of TEDxOporto is excellent.
TEDx events are normally great and the audience is always full of smart and sensible people that want to be part of the positive transformation of the world, looking for inspiration and for great talks.
Fear crossed me: do I have something interesting to tell? Can I do it well? However the excitement has won. I replied to that email and ended as one of honoured speakers of TEDxOporto 2015.
The Big Thing started on the day before the event, Friday April 17th, when I went to the event place to test the sound and the presentation. The staff, all volunteers, were extraordinary, professional, all with a smile on their face and passion on their eyes . They were there to create extraordinary conditions to the speakers, helping them to relax and excel. The huge and beautiful room with more than one thousand chairs inside of the old building of customs landed in Douro River. Frightening!
After those tests, there was an amazing dinner with the other speakers and the organisers. I don’t remember to be in a place with so much enthusiasm and passion. We could almost feel electricity in the air. So many people, different between themselves, but with at least something in common: they don’t want to cross their lives as observers, but as actors moulding their world.
The next day, TEDxOporto started early with the room full. Again, the incredible staff and organizers led by Norberto Amaral were all there to make all so smooth and nice. The audience was avid of emotion and cooperative with the speakers.
The smart and ultra-fast-thinker comedian Nilton was there to comment the performance or talk of each speaker immediately after each panel. I’ve been several times in big events around the world and I have never seen any with such efficiency, kindness and atmosphere. All those volunteers, some of them were working together for the first time, excelled! I believe that their reward was purely the satisfaction of being able of, together, making more than one thousand people happy and inspired. Their goal was achieved.
As CEO of my company, Kinematix, I am always interested in knowing how to motivate and drive people to achieve common goals. TEDxOporto is a case to be studied.
It would be unfair to distinguish one or two speakers, as I loved and learned from all of them. The subjects covered were very diverse: sculpture in plaster, autism, colour blindness, science and technology, neuroscience, violence against women, bullying, design, the most dangerous animal in the world (the mosquito), the richness of the Portuguese language and poetry, how failure can teach us so much to make life a success, sexual therapy, street art, the life of a political cartoonist in Jordan, the IoT (Internet of things).
One thing chased my attention: all the speakers explored the positive side of their stories, without complaints or criticisms, even the ones dealing with heavy problems, like children with autism, as brilliantly Joe Santos has done. This was not pre-aligned or pre-defined. Simply that group of people see the bright side of life, even in tough situations. If you are one in look of hope and were not in TEDxOporto, you lost a great opportunity of getting some, as those women and men are healthy pragmatic optimists.
The positive human energy inside that building was amazing. All the people there, organisers, audience and speakers, most of them have never met in their lives, were connected. I am always excited with the human talent and capabilities, with the diversity of things we are able to do, but I always get surprised why we don’t apply those constantly to build a better world to all. I believe that the TEDxOporto 2015 has contributed to have more people applying their energy in that aim.
I was there to talk about my Main Thing: how to explore the information extracted from movement to improve our lives, but at the end of the event that Thing evolved. Now my Main Thing is also to contribute to that energy of TEDxOporto is transformed in positive actions, everyday, everywhere and by a growing number of people … or maybe I just want Many Things.
Cheers,
Paulo
P.S. All the above pictures were taken by the fabulous photographers Rui Farinha (the one from the dinner) and André Henriques (all the other) during TEDxOporto 2015.
