TED in Amsterdam

TED is back again in Amsterdam! It will take place on November 25th. I was completely unaware this event took place in different cities around the world. But I am delighted to find it out!

It seems to be difficult to get a ticket to follow it on real life in the Stadsschouwburg, the place that this time welcomes the event. Not for the prize, because it is free, but because the organization will choose the guests depending on a criteria based on the talent of the person that applies for it. Fortunately, for the rest of us that will not be awarded with one, there will also be some other places that will organize the vision in streaming, as a branch of the official event.

For those who do not know anything about the TED conferences, it would be interesting to have a look at their web page where you can watch for free a high number of conferences shorter than 30 minutes. What I personally find really interesting about this format, besides the quality and interest of the themes treated, is its short extension, that allows you to watch one or even two meanwhile you are eating that nice bread with something at lunch. All of them have subtitles, not so important for dutch people, but a reason to be able to follow them for a Spanish guy, believe me.

I came across these conferences watching the one of Ken Robinson about the educational system, if I do not remember wrong, in which he defends a different education that would support the creativity of the human being since the childhood, instead of teaching everyone with the same method that do not allow them to express themselves and develop their own and different skills.

After it, and in a non systematical way, I watched some other interesting conferences, such as the one Steve Jobs gave in an university, (I do not know why this also belongs to TED), ‘how to use experts, and when not to’, by Noreena Hertz (no idea who she was) or the one in which the artist Janet Echelman explains her work with fishing nets.

It is always inspiring to watch people with a clearer mind and opinion about a subject explaining it in an entertaining way. I highly recommend it.