Thank you, love Immy.
TEDxBrum 2014
I am completely, utterly overwhelmed and thrilled. You all make me who I am.
It’s Sunday, its the day after TEDxBrum, I have washed my hair, and am literally under a blanket on cloud 9. I keep trying to write a text, a message, a tweet an email that starts to say thank you, and then I delete it as I remember a whole stream of other people that I want to say that to also, and then wonder how to even start to reach to everyone. So, I am a completely overwhelmed state right now. I have to say thank you somehow, because its brimming out of me, and I can barely breathe and get on with anything else or even trying to put my feet up. I will warn you, its long, its personal, its gushing, but I have to put it out there, because you have given so much love and I cant even begin to wonder how to reply. I wont apologise for the length, this doesn’t even go close to far enough to what it should be, but its from me, from my heart, and the best way I know what to do with everything in my brain today. It’s completely self indulgent and the only way I know how, please accept it with the love it is sent with. If, I don’t my heart may well explode.
There are probably over a 1000 people to thank and to say we couldn’t have done it without you to, I don’t know where to start but I need to try, I need to try and say that without you, this wouldn’t have happened. Without you, this wonderfully hope filled life we are living would not be possible, and that without you I don’t know where I would be today. So, here is a little try to from me personally about my thank you’s, I know every member of the TEDxBrum team will begin to roll out their own, over the coming weeks, each will be different, each will mean something different and each will have people who have a special meaning to them. I hope that you will all somehow get a piece of understanding what this means to us all, and how utterly overwhelmed we all are.
Thank you.
Thank you Anneka for handing over your baby, trusting me with it. Thank you for genuinely supporting and congratulating us on each step. Thank you to all those in the teams of 2012, 2013 — you built this, you taught me everything.
Thank you.
Thank you. I don’t think I even know the final number of our team anymore, because you are all so generous and continuously bringing in someone to help and grow this. But, for over a year you have all believed in this, in this city, in me, in my ridiculous way of making this happen, but you were here. Through all my ups, downs, stresses, exhaustion, exhilaration you have been rocks.
Indi, Joy, Andy, Gav, Simarjeet, Lauren, Carys, Claire, Ian, Nikki — you built teams that were literally mind blowing. At every turn, creative, talented, passionate fabulous people were working so hard to make this happen, whilst simply looking after each other, giving strength, excitement and support to each others idea. Thank you Claire, for making everything look so beautiful. Probably, 100,000 whatsapp messages later, I cant recall a time where I didn’t wake up and be completely energised by the love in this huge team. It has all been so much fun too, and full of belly laughs. Will you ever know, how much this means to me, probably not. Will you ever know how much you filled my being with the energy to carry on, will you ever know that some days the only reason I can make it out of bed is because of what hope you give me, probably not. Let me just say try to say however I can, without you all, I don’t know where I would be. To the whole team, every single person. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Anisa, Rory & Jerrell. Thank you for hosting the day, thank you for representing the vision through your own lens, thank you for bringing your family of incredibly talented, inspiring, creative superheroes to me. You held everything together in such a unique way, and I couldn’t think of anyone else I would have wanted up there. Anisa, thank you for being a rock, always. Thank you for hours of conversations about the complexity of collaboration, thank you for your endless commitment to trying to work through that. Thank you for bringing your entire BeatFreeks family to any idea I have, always. A personal thank you to Amerah Saleh, I am not sure why, but she makes me feel loved and that when she is around, everything is ok, she believes in me I think, or at least I felt it from here. Thankyou.
Thank you.
Kat, AnneMarie, Debi, Lee, Leigh, Rick, Heidi, Ed, Raymond, Nicholas, Mike, Indy, Emma, Merici, Dominic you came with your hearts, humbly and worked with us, our process and graced the stage with a beautiful eclectic array of inspirational, insightful and heartfelt talks. We, have hardly created anything compared to your incredible work, but somehow you were thanking us. I am pretty humbled by the fact that this is how you felt, we were honoured and humbled to have you with. Some of you have come to be friends, mentors and supports. You know who you are, you connect with me, you give me love, support, and encouragement. I feel so lucky to have this, thank you for every individual hug, word of love and thank you gave yesterday. I was pretty bowled over by this dynamic. I feel like I should be the other way round.
Simarjeet Kaur, you led and curated a series of creative performances, that in my opinion was world class. Every person I met, each band, each performer again thanked me for the opportunity, please understand all of you, that I could never dream of knowing or finding such talented people, we are lucky to have you, please, please, please putting yourselves forward, please keep sharing your talents so I can carry on coming to know a world, I could only dream of.
Becci, Karl, Allison, Matt, Missy & co I rocked up to your lovely creative homes in the city rather nervous whether you would want to do something with us, and you trusted us and came with all your creative glory and love. Thank you for the trust, thank you for planning your workshops, thank you for trusting and doing this with us, with nothing in return — I can’t even begin to describe to people how generous the people in Birmingham are. How much of their own money, resource, time and love they put into this. Yesterday, was just a culmination of all of you.
Thank you.
Thank you Mummy, Daddy, Raje, Lauren, Amrit and Indi. You are rocks, and have all been involved as my family, team members, financially and in every way night and day. Indi, thanks for picking me up, pretty much every hour — you are exceptional. You all are exceptional, unconditional and forgiving. Thank you.
Thank you.
All of you, those on twitter, those on the live stream, those in audience, those across the world who wished me and us love and luck over the last few weeks and especially yesterday. Everywhere I turned, there was a hug, a hello, a thank you, a well done — my brain was exploding with how many smiles and love surrounded me. Its a dream, its unbelievable, its something I never ever want to take for granted. There is probably about 500 of you, there is probably 1000 tweets from you all, I cant even begin to name each one, but seriously you need to know. I am because of you, I exist because of days like yesterday, because even if it sounds ridiculous. I believe a world like yesterday can exist permanently, even if the world changes every day for a handful of people through hope, excitement, love, laughs and feeling part of a family who want to work together, this really is so much for me. Seriously, you know the least of everyone how important every moment is to me. Thank you.
Thank you.
Apart from a few crucial things, everything yesterday was put together by the most generous partners, sponsors, and people through their own cash and in kind gifts. Some partners meant we were able to do things we could only dream of. Joy, Andy & Dan you have bought so many people on board, and created a group of people committed to building amazing things with citizens — I cant even begin to imagine what the future will look like when we start to do more together. If you support us, you were largely behind the scenes, got the least thanks, and do such a lot of leg work. If you lugged equipment around, if you put up with me coming in and saying ‘that doesn’t look right’, if you lugged equipment round in the rain, if your van broke down because of us, if you bought emergency equipment when our live stream didn’t work, if you answered a panicked call from one of us, if you cared as much as us about making this happen — thank you. The event is one thing, the commitment to doing this with us, and a bright future is what makes my brain sparkle. Thank you.
Thank you.
There are now 100’s of people I haven’t mentioned, how can anything I say begin to reply or appreciate all of your love and support. I hope you will know one part of how much this means to me.
Yesterday, was a dream. Your love was completely mind blowing, everywhere we turned there was just love and support for each other. I think Anisa Haghdadi summarised the whole of where I am at right now into one sentence yesterday ‘TEDxBrum isn’t really an event, today is just a glass window into the life we are living and creating everyday’. Emma Mulqueeny tied this thought up by saying ‘young people are just living what feels most natural to them’. Whilst there are so many quotes from yesterday I could take to describe how I am feeling, this wraps it up. Yesterday was an event, but it was just what Anisa said. A long while back many of us decided could we created something like TEDx, could the spirit of TEDxBrum be something that always exist, rather than being a single day that you leave and return back to normality.
I have been blessed to live and be part of large bustling welcoming family home’s my entire life, when you work into my house, nothing is too much trouble for my mother. You leave full, brimming with love, happiness, support, courage and hope. If you need something — her big kitchen to make jam, her sewing machine to fix your dress, its there, if you stop as feel a bit bad for intruding, she tells you to stop being ridiculous and make yourself at home. If you need my dad, be careful the minute it comes out your mouth that you need his help, thats it you kind of have him in full flow and ready to help you with whatever resources he has. When I step in my best friends home, she makes me feel like a million dollars, whether its a 10 course meal or a cup of tea, I feel like a star in my own movie. I am utterly blessed to know this as the norm, not just in my own home, but my family and friends. I have watched my whole life, what it means to go out of your way to make someone feel welcome in your home, and to make them from stranger to family. I kept thinking about this yesterday, if I take all the heavy weight analyses out of it, it was simple. This team, the people who made this happen in every single way are a family, Birmingham is our home, and we just wanted to make everyone feel welcome, and say please come and join this family. Why? Because, really there isn’t any going back to normality for us, this is normality. A place where we live, work, play, love, support each other however we can, whenever we can and whatever resources we have. It sounds airy fairy doesn’t it, but for most people I know, this is what we know, its not unnatural — the change we want to create starts here, its starts with these core principles, it starts with each other, its start with love, support, courage and hope.
Somehow, yesterday felt like that — a family that believed in each other. Even if, one by one someones experience of daily life was changing. For me, one person, this is a beautiful start. We welcomed people into our home city, and I hope they felt the love and belief that we have in one another. People generously kept thanking and congratulating us on a fabulous event, whilst we are blessed with amazing partners and logistics, this was not something largely innovative or incredible for me, it just feels like what is natural — its the way we want to live.
15 months ago, I really bought into the idea, that this wasn’t anything special we were creating, but instead just what we know, its a natural way for us. Why couldn’t we build places that this could just mean this was a sustainable way for us to even think about what change could look like? I wrote a blog, I wrote that blog with a very heavy heart too, every year after TEDxBrum I struggle with the isolation, and the feeling everyone is going back to reality. I can’t understand why reality can’t be more like what we know, why can’t we continue with this spirit and create a world we want to live in, that we are proud to hand to our children.
I realised the thousands of pounds, time and energy we put into this was too much like single super heroes and also not sustainable, because many of us are now nearly broke, (but happy)! From an idea last year about the Hub, we now have a whole team who have left their jobs to make this happen, we are close to bringing something more permanent. Something, that will mean normality is a family of inspired soul, that are through tiny or big actions are committed to change, and to finding ways to make this inspiration, hope and opportunity becomes for the many not just the few. So, my final thank you is to those who have again put their trust into a new journey, and crucially that meant for the first time in 4 years I have woken up after TEDxBrum and not completely crashed into isolation, and despair that this hope is over until we create another event or try to find capacity to sustain this as volunteers. Whilst, we still may be investing ourselves yet, I feel excited and convinced a new normal is getting closer. A deep heartfelt thank you from me personally, this is a truly unique place to be, I feel thrilled today and overwhelmed in a wonderful way.
Indy Johar said yesterday, there is never a single superhero, always an army. This is an army in every way. I hope this gives a tiny insight into the army behind TEDxBrum. If we have any chance of tackling our big issues, its big, complex, involves us all, a new lens, and different way to organise ourselves, and like I felt so many times love as our bottom line.
Fired up, and ready to go.
Thank you.
