Inspiration & Disappointment: My TEDx Story
By Nick | November 23rd, 2009
When telling a story, it sometimes helps to start from the beginning. I was in a meeting discussing FUCK CANCER, a non-profit for cancer diagnosis, with Tommy Humphries (and his team at PACWEBCO) and the organization’s founder, Yael Cohen. We were trying to come up with a marketing campaign that would truly resonate with survivors and their friends & family. Awareness was not enough; there had to be purpose to our campaign. It had to make people’s lives better. I am now sitting on the board of FUCK CANCER to help make this vision become a reality.
It was the ideas that came out of that meeting that got me invited to TEDx Vancouver. We talked about game design, and how powerful it could be in transforming people’s behaviour. For example, the videogame Re:Mission is designed to help children cope with the symptoms and treatment of their cancer. We talked about the power of personal stories, and how they can inspire change in others. We talked about how essential it is to have a social context at the heart of the experience, not tacked on at the end. Tommy, the entrepreneur leading the web project, recommended me to Cyrus (one of the organizers of TEDx Van) as a potential speaker based on these discussions.
As a huge fan of the TED Conference, it was an opportunity I could not ignore. I immediately started a discussion with Cyrus about the ways in which game design has crept into our day-to-day lives, and why we should be actively working to make sure it was used for the betterment of society. Games are a powerful tool of manipulation, as they can influence behaviour without having to explain themselves too much. We don’t have to ask why someone plays a game, we can just accept that it is “fun” and not think any deeper. I talked about some examples of pervasive games, from the Prius battery monitor to Air Miles Reward cards.
When Cyrus confirmed that I was speaking at the event, I knew I had to step things up a notch. In addition to well-articulated ideas, I needed a unique visual style. I was up between Academy Award Nominees and Titans of Industry. So, I decided on an ambitious project of using Apple’s 3D motion graphics software, Motion, to create a talk that zoomed and moved as if it were shot from a fast-moving helicopter. The videos would then be sliced up and strung together as a Keynote presentation to allow me to control their pace. Click here to see a short sample of what I am talking about.
Unfortunately, this visual style would be my talk’s undoing. Through a series of missteps and miscommunications, and some last-minute changes to the presentation equipment, the organizers could not get my talk to play. I had re-encoded the video in three different formats to no avail. My talk was moved from the morning to the afternoon session, and then ultimately pulled from the schedule. While I was obviously disappointed by the experience, I believe that a greater opportunity lies ahead.
The show must go on, and so I am now working with the organizers to create a community event where this talk can be seen and discussed. I think it brings up important questions about ethics, morality, technology, and human behaviour on the web. I hope that many of the TEDx attendees will be able to make it to the event, as well as some of the TED fans who were not accepted into the event or were intimidated by the daunting application form. I am happy that my talk will be seen in a more open forum and that it will still be exposed on the TEDx website.
If you are interested in reading more about TEDx Vancouver there will be many more posts here on Senses, and be sure to check out Sean Cranbury’s excellent summary as well.
Tags: motion graphics, non-profits, Social Media, tedx
