New ideas, connections shared at TEDx Greenville

By Jerry Salley  

APRIL 5, 2012 2:38 p.m. (0)

“We can’t see any of your faces,” said emcee Phil Yanov to the TEDx Greenville audience, “but we can see all of your iPad screens.”

With iPads, laptops and smartphones in hand, more than 400 people crowded into the Kroc Center auditorium last Friday for the third annual TEDx conference. Throughout the day, a dozen speakers shared their ideas – from an exploration of Greenville’s nascent electric vehicle ecosystem to how a (male) artist’s designer tampon cases can provoke dialogue about uncomfortable sexual issues.

Along with the sold-out Kroc Center crowd – some of whom started hitting Twitter with “#TEDxGVL” posts before the house lights went down at 8:30 a.m. – many more followed the talks live through streaming video at www.tedxgreenville.org.

The event, a locally organized version of the renowned TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference in California, is one of over 3,200 TEDx conferences that have convened worldwide as of 2012, all dedicated to the TED mission statement of “ideas worth spreading.” Besides Greenville, a dozen other cities, including New York City, Seoul and Wroclaw, Poland, were hosting a TEDx event on March 30.

The speakers all explored the TEDx Greenville 2012 theme, “Breakthrough.” Upstate Forever’s John Tynan explained the creation of clean water markets; Clemson professor Dr. Juan Gilbert demonstrated his electronic handicap-accessible voting system; and Greenville native Glenis Redmond spoke on the healing impact of poetry.

Redmond challenged the audience, “If you don’t have poetry in your life, get you some.”

A TEDx crowd is unique, she said. “There’s deep listening. People come to go deep, and they’re willing to follow you. You can feel it in the room. You can go anywhere you want to go with them, and they’re going to go with you.”

Musical performances punctuated the talks. Greenville blues legend Mac Arnold performed, as did Christoph Kresse, who combined bagpipe music with electronica. Greenville attorney Josev Brewer, who raps as sintax.the.terrific, included an audience call-and-response in a hip-hop song he composed and performed on stage, based on audience suggestions, and had posted for download on his music blog by the end of his talk.

Music is a key part of the TEDx experience, said event organizer Marc Bolick. “It kind of flips from your left brain to your right brain to your left brain, and it’s in that process that you start thinking differently,” he said. “Your brain starts to turn into some kind of different machine.”

“There’s nothing else like TEDx for Greenville,” said Yanov. “There’s nothing else that brings together this unique cast of characters. There are always unique acts on this stage; people I didn’t know lived in my backyard, doing cool stuff I didn’t know was there.”

“I think it’s important for building the soul of Greenville,” said Bolick. “Greenville’s got a lot of people working on the infrastructure and the schools and the roads and all that kind of stuff, and I think TEDx Greenville is a great initiative to help spark conversations and recognize people who have great ideas and give them a platform to talk about those ideas.”

How will the TEDx Greenville organizers top 2012?

“I don’t know,” laughed Bolick. But clearly the ideas are out there – at www.tedxgreenville.org, nominations have already started coming in for speakers for 2013.