Development of TEDx community in Slovenia

TEDx community in Slovenia is one of the most active TEDx communities around the world, if we take a look at number of events organized per capita. First TEDx event in Slovenia happened on 25th of May 2009 in Ljubljana, soon after TEDx concept was born and offered as an option from TED.

Next big move was TEDxLjubljana event in Kino Šiška for 400 attendees, which was also my first TEDx event ever. We were growing, and going to bigger and bigger venues. First really big event we did was in Opera for 550 people.

But that was still to small, so we moved to the biggest event hall in Ljubljana - Cankarjev dom for 1500 people. Tickets demand stays the same - every time they are gone in less then 1 minute. We usually open the free tickets on Eventbrite platform and almost 1500 people are waiting to press "get the ticket" button quick enough. Pretty awesome and it's similar with other TEDx events in Slovenia.

Since 2009, TEDxLjubljana organized 22 events with 131 speakers and 7486 attendees. That also boosted birth of other TEDx communities around Slovenia. If you visit http://www.ted.com/tedx/events and search Slovenia and click past events, you will find an amazing list of events - 61 events happened in Slovenia so far. From livestreams, standard events, University events, salon events, youth events, women events. I managed to attend 41/61 events in Slovenia. Yes, I’m a bit weird, I keep the list. :)

Some extraordinary things have happened on TEDxLjubljana stage so far that I’ll never forget and I wish to share some of those moments with you.

 

I'll never forget Juan and his dedication to make his speech perfect. We had to spent him measures of our red carpet, so he could practice at home. He rehearsed like 60 times. Watch his speech (in english) here.

We organized an event just under the highest slovenian mountain. Speakers had to walk around 6 hours and afterwards, they gave a talk at Kredarica in a mountain hut, 1 hour walk below Triglav. Next morning, we conquered Triglav together and we even took a TEDxLjubljana sign with us. Since the hut was really small, most of the event organizers decided to step out of the room to give space to others. 

 

Kredarica hut for event underneath Triglav, where speakers were standing 0,5 meter away from the audience due to lack of space. We first wanted to do the event outside, but it was too tricky due to the wind. Watch my favourite talk from Triglav event here (in slovenian).

Our team member Dan even took TEDxLjubljana sign on the top of the Triglav.

1500 people thumbwrestling in Cankarjev dom

We even had a stage proposal in front of 1500 people

In September 2015, we organized first TEDx event on a plane, ever and 4 brave speakers managed to handle their public speaking stress and flight combined. I truly admired them and it was also funny, that we were flying from Ljubljana to Maribor and since a flight would be too short to handle 4 speakers, we went to Split, Croatia, turned around and went back to Maribor.

The video of first TEDx event on a plane

 

 Crazy physicists / chemists experiments on my first event as an active volounteer

Twitter momentum after TEDxChange. Whole team was sitting at the bar, reading Twitter posts, that were mostly saying "best event ever" etc. We were so motivated and proud of our speakers and of the event. :)

 
 

TEDx community in Slovenia isn't special only due to the high volume of events. While attending some international TEDx gatherings, I noticed some things about TEDx community, that are specific to TEDx community in Slovenia.

1. Everyone knows each other and different organizing teams developed from friends and family. Someone did events in Ljubljana, her brother started with events in another city and a friend brought TEDx to his own community. We’re very connected, since we only have 2 million people in the whole country.
   
   
2. We all give a lot of emphasis on speakers preparations. I can say, that credit goes to TEDxLjubljana, where speakers preparations are biggest part of the event preparations (giving feedback, working on a story, filming the speaker etc.). We managed to bring our good practices to other TEDx communities in Slovenia (mostly by meeting with them as soon as their event appeared on TEDx website).
   
   
3. Our events are free. The only TEDx community that ever charged for an event in Slovenia, was the one in Maribor, with a fee of 20 eur and Celje charged 8 eur once, as far as I know. I think that is pretty awesome, that we're keeping our events free and involving companies to sponsor the event. We’re also making events with super low budgets. While talking to some foreign TEDx organizers, I couldn’t believe the budgets I heard they're operating with. We keep it simple and sustainable.
   
   
4. We keep TEDx local, which means, that most of our speakers are slovenians and are from local community to local community. I think that foreign speakers represent around 5 % of all our past speakers and I think that makes sense. It's also environmentally friendly.
   
   
5. We are not very international and we're not involved in international TEDx community. Since TEDxActive and similar events are quite expensive, our team doesn’t attend international gatherings, such as summit will be in Canada this year. We were a part of TEDx weekend in Vienna and we hope to go to more events like this one in Europe.
   
   
   You must think that I'm some kind of TEDx fanatic. I love the idea, the concept of ideas worth sharing, I love working with speakers, meeting interesting people and organizing TEDx events in Ljubljana. I even did my bachelor thesis on an example of TEDx organizers under the topic of organizational identification (my thesis in slovenian, here).
   However, TEDx community is far from perfect and here are some strange things I'd love to see change:
   
   
   TED is awesome, but at the same time quite elitistic. Event are really expensive and prices of attendance fees don’t change, if you’re from US or from Moldavia. TED Active events mostly happen in US or Canada and cost around $2000 for TEDx organizers + you have to pay your plane ticket. That's so not going to work out from someone from Slovenia, with an average salary of 1000 eur. Not mentioning someone from Moldavia with average salary of 150 eur? I think TED could adapt the prices and take care of equality, with so many speakers on stage exposing it an an important issue in 21st century.
   
   
   TED is also quite american. Which means, that sometimes they are a bit unflexible. For example, they allow only one event per University. That might make sense for US, but how can you limit a number of student TEDx events per university in a country, such as Slovenia? In the whole country, we have 3 universities. After I started TEDxFDV and Urska started TEDxUniversityofLjubljana, they’ve been complaining about 2 events under the same university for last 3 years. Now, TEDxFDV will officialy never happen again. Luckily, we know how to continute with good things and since we all know each other anyway, now there will be TEDxUniversityofLjubljana event on FDV, Faculty of social sciences.
   
   
   TED is quite stuck on the concept of license and the person behind it. That is the person, that holds the license for a local event. Don’t get me wrong, I totally support the system and agree, that they have to "control" TEDx events as much as they can, so that random local TEDx events don't damage the TED brand.
   
   
    Again, in our example, concept of license holder is very limiting. Let’s see, what happens, if a person decides to not have an active role in a TEDx community anymore. For example, Matej Golob was main license holder of TEDxLjubljana for past few years. After an event in 2014, he decided he won't be active anymore. But since he was a person from our team, that attended TED conference in Edinburgh and his attendance actually allowed us to organize events bigger then 100 attendees, we came to a problem. If he isn’t applying as a licensee, we can start from 0 - with events for less then 100 attendees. And when we somehow manage to get one of our members to attend TED, so we should spend around $3000, we can organize events for more then 100 people. 
   With experienced team, 20 events organized and tickets for our event, that are gone in 1 second, we of course could not take this step back. So, to make TEDx license people happy, Matej Golob is still the one applying for license, which is both annoying for him and our team. But, it is easier for TED to trust our team, if a known name applies the event, i guess. Anyway, please TEDx, there are other people in TEDxLjubljana team, that have organized +20 events in past 5 years, so relax. And rethink your system.
   
   
   I highly recommend you to visit ted.com and watch some of the amazing content, that is avaliable online, for free. Also, if you haven't attended any local TEDx events in your region, I highly encourage you to do it. For me, TEDx events are kind of like a brain orgasm. :)
   
   
    
   
   

Taking care of relationships & keeping in touch

During Xmas holidays I watched a TED talk, that had a huge impact on me. Robert Waldinger shared a summary of a 75-year-long study on happiness.

So, what really makes us happy? It's pretty simple and far from becoming rich or famous. Good relationships make us happier and healthier, being socially connected to family, friends, community, also the quality of close relationships. Good life is built through good relationships.

It’s not like this was sth totally new for me. I just think that the weight of the data - 75 years - is what impacted me so much. I thought about it for few days. So, what were some concrete actions I took?
I didn’t make a plan how to get new friends, since I barely find time to keep in touch with my existing relationships. I was thinking about the quality of my relationships and how I can deepen them.  

1. I made xmas gifts for all my friends. The gift was printed Year compass, small booklet that makes you reflect on 2015 and plan 2016. I love it, since it shows my values and what I find important and it also encourages my friends to relfect & plan. Reactions to the gift were really positive and it's great, since I was able to give a small gift to all of my friends (baking cookies is getting a bit old, right?).

2. I organized a home party. Sometimes I didn’t feel like hosting one – you have to invest some money, tidy up, wake up in the morning to a mess, tidy up again. But ... the shitty part of a home party lasts around 2 hours (shopping + cleaning), but a good party usually lasts much longer. I will organize a lot of parties in 2016, I love it! :)

3. I messaged my foreign friends that I have on Facebook and haven’t talk to in a while with a summary of my 2015. I sent around 35 messages, all the same, starting with

“Hi _____, I’m sending this to everyone I wish to keep in touch with. /Summary of 2015 - personal, honest, including professional and personal aspects/. I ended with “How was your 2015? It would be great to hear back from you.”

The response I got was amazing - people I haven’t spoken to in 3 years responded in a few minutes. I will do this every year. I also learned sth even more amazing. When you are honest and personal and you share the good and the bad, people become honest and personal too. I'm sure I learned much more about my foreign friends life, then I would, if I'd contact them on Facebook with "Happy 2016, how are you?"

Sending quite personal summary of my 2015 was defenitely out of my comfort zone. But I totally recommend it to everyone, it's also a great way to keep in touch with people, that you meet on international events, where you become friends in few days and then loose touch. Dan, thank you for inspiring me with your yearly letter to your friends thingy. :)

4. I made a list of people that live in Slovenia, that I haven’t seen in a while, and that I wish to keep in touch with. I invited them for a coffee. Every one said yes. I can't wait to see them and catch up.

5. I started sharing more personal things with my family, telling them about good and bad things, that are happening in my life. I think I haven’t had that good of a relationship with my parents since I was a little kid. It’s far from perfect, but it has improved a lot. Moving out helped a lot too. :)

6. Doing cute small things for my boyfriend. For example, when we went travelling, I prepared an envelope with challenges we can take during the trip and that can bring us even closer together. One of the challenges was to write how we feel about our relationship. Another one was staring in each other’s eyes for half an hour. Both left me crying. :)

7. When someone suggested to meet up, I said yes. Always being too busy for people around you does not bring anything good.

Do you have any great ways to keep your relationships healthy and happy? I’d be thrilled to get some more ideas.  

Looking back at 2012 - thank you!

I want to thank all the people who made my 2012 really awesome. I will remeber this year by people, events and places, that impacted me the most. It was a challenging year, but I was doing exactly what I enjoy the most - being busy and under pressure. Any regrets? Sure. Not attending TEDxSummit in Doha. You can't have it all. :)

January

In the end of December I became a president at ŠS PRSS (Student PR section) and it was one of the best decisions I've made so far. I enjoyed every minute of it, my board was great and we developed our NGO  a lot, so I am really proud of these intense 9 months. Even though I was really really afraid (of failing, I guess) how everything will be, it turned out that responsibility made me even more motivated to work hard. Now we already have a new board with even more motivated girls and it's a pleasure to observe what is happening this year. Thank you, Ana, Maša, Barbara, Nina, Eva, Milena for reading all emails I wrote and for supporting my crazy ideas!

4 generations of presidents of ŠS PRSS

February

It's not a real year, if I don't travel. But there is one thing I like more then travelling - combination of travelling and education. So Mind the box project on Malta was really perfect - trainings on creativity + hanging out with my Komsip friends + discovering Malta. I will always remember last night. We were sitting in the circle and each person could ask 1 question to the whole group. We wrote a Q on a piece of paper, so nobody knew, who asked what. Group on this event wasn't really connected and we are also not really keeping in touch after the event, but in this evening people really got open and shared their experiences. I can't wait to repeat session like this some day and I still think about the things we talked about sometimes. Thank you, Hanna, for this awesome session, thank you, Mamo, for sending email about the project to LSS group, thank you Demjan, Luka, Urška and Maja for fun times on Malta.

 Our home on Malta

March

March was time for TEDxBled. Biggest TEDx enthusiasts from TEDxLJ team also joined this project, this time in a different role - judges for speakers, that applied online.  We each watched like 50 videos and chose the best candidates. Talks from Hayley Lapalme and Maris Slezins are still in my head. I will also not forget rehearsal in late hours, switching car and amazing Nate Ware, who was the best feedback giver I ever heard. Thank you Dan, for making TEDxBled happen and big thanks to all the attendees of Challenge Future summit, that really inspired me. For sure I'd love to attend next CF Summit!

April

April was TEDxChange@Ljubljana time! While the streaming from Berlin really really sucked, second part with 8 inspiring speakers was really awesome and Smelt location was just perfect. I will never forget rehearsals with speakers and afterparty for the team, where we were reading all the comments from Twitter - great feeling of satisfaction. Big thanks to all TEDxLjubljana team members and speakers who inspired us. Watch Mitja Mavsar (in Slovene) or Jugoslav Petković (in english). 

Speakers and organizers

May

May was one busy month. First TEDxFDV happened and attracted 400 people and I had to stand on the stage in front of them! I'm not doing that again, since I was too stressed, but I am glad to say TEDxFDV is happening again this year! Big thanks to my amazing team (girl power!), help of TEDxLJ and speakers - thank you Sašo and Luka, for getting involved in TEDx world so much! I will never forget cozy rehearsal place at Dlabs, afterparty in Netcafe and all the people who I saw at the event and are now regularly attending TEDx events.

Girl power - top shit organizers from ŠS PRSS

July

I love Indonesia. Travelling there for the third time with Jošt = the best holidays I could imagine. I recommend it to anyone that loves friendly people, green nature, waves on the sea and good food. Summer is my holy time, when I give my hands some rest from all the typing emails, my brain some rest from all the projects and my mind some time to think about nothing. In summer, my project is me. I need to thank my awesome boyfriend to support my travelling ideas.

 What could be more relaxing then

 watching surfers on Uluwatu?

August and September

I moved to Hanoi for 2 months. New culture, new friends, new daily routine. Basically I just needed to take a longer break from exhausting half a year that I had - it was a damn good break, full of extraordinary good food, international friendships and humid weather. Afraid of the upcoming year, where for the first time in my life I could really choose, how I spend my time (no school after 16 years) I cleared my head and came back, with my batteries full. Big thanks to all the other interns, Aiesec FTU Hanoi organizers, but mostly I need to thank my host family for taking care of me!

"Tomorrow, mango juice place?"

November 

My first long-term training event; European school 1 with Aegee Aachen. Another awesome experience, which made my autumn really exciting. Working in a team of 7 trainers on weekly skype meetings and taking care of development of 20 participants of the one week long event. I will never forget reflection groups, feedback groups, trainers meetings, training delivery and all the awesome people I had the chance to work with! Big thanks to Katja, for giving me the opportunity and my best roommates, Anja and Caro. 

My reflection group: Šarka, Bogdan and Farid

December

Gluhwien and parties. Hmhm. Not really. Working hard for TEDxLjubljana: Turning a new page. Really nice ending of this year - limitless energy on the event and even more positive feedback after the event. I will always remember ... speakers rehearsals on IBM, running up and down the stairs in Opera and folding Pocketmod booklets. Honestly, big thanks to all the speakers, that affected my way of thinking and brought me to some important realizations about attitude. Big thanks to the team, for surviving this crazy year with 4 events!

Proud speakers and organizers

On the end I need to thank my friends and family supporting me while rather investing my time in work then in relationships. I guess I need to take another look at this TED talk. Let the 2013 be at least 67 % as awesome as 2012! :)

In love with TEDx - 300 % inspiracije v treh dneh?

Petek zvečer, na Bledu. Prva »live« vaja z govorci, ki so nestrpno pričakovali nedeljo – dan, ko bodo v okviru dogodka TEDxBled nastopili pred 500-glavo množico. Nekatere govore sem slišala že večkrat, preko youtuba, nekateri so me navdušili prvič. Vsekakor pa so me vsi ti govorci spomnili na izjemno energijo, ki vedno obdaja mednarodne dogodke in zaželela sem si, da bi imela priložnost spoznati in z njimi preživeti cel teden na Challenge future. Čeprav sem domov prišla ob dveh zjutraj, zaspanosti nisem čutila. Navdušenje nad na novo spoznanimi ljudmi, premlevanje vsebin nekaterih govorov in aplikacija določenih sporočil na moje življenje mi niso dali miru.

Sobota popoldne, v Osilnici. Na drug konec Slovenije po novo dozo inspiracije. Kot na Bledu se je tudi v Osilnici odvijal mednarodni dogodek – Trainers forum, na katerem so se zbrali najboljši trenerji iz 16 različnih NGOjev in 4 dni delili svoje ideje. Zvečer je potekal TEDx Trainers forum (ted-like event, kar pomeni, da je dogodek izgledal skoraj tako, kot izgleda zares, samo da ni bil uradno registriran). V dveh urah se je zvrstilo 8 govorcev, tematike pa so se večinoma nanašale na trenersko sceno. Podzavestno učenje, realizacija, priložnosti za učenje, odnosi, vizija, povezovanje.. Nekaj najbolj všečnih izjav sem zapisala:

»Going to Erasmus is mainstream.«

»They don't know how much you know until they know how much you care« (odnos med trenerjem in udeležencem)

»You can't feel the impact of your story, if you don't share it.«

»If we want to care for our participants, we have to take care of ourselves. We need to lower our stress level to be able to care«

»Passion should be reflected in your daily job, driving to work with glow in your eyes.«

Nedelja popoldne, na Bledu. Končno se je dogodek odvil tudi v živo. Prvič sem poslušala samo Sandija Češka, ki ni bil prisoten na vajah z govorci, tako da sem vedela, kaj lahko pričakujem. Tudi to je bil verjetno razlog, da sem pričakovala, da nad idejami govorcev, ki jih bom slišala že x-krat, ne bom tako navdušena. Energija v dvorani na samem dogodku pa je ustvarila svoj čar – motivacijo nastopajočih si začutil v pogledu in govorici telesa. Najboljše od vsega pa je bilo to, da nihče od govorcev ni le predstavljal svojih idej, ampak je dejansko predstavil realizacijo ideje oziroma projekta.

Izzum družabne igre, ki opozarja na okoljske probleme, iBam, Singapore open universitiy of life, projekt prehranjevanja s 7,43 dolarji s poudarkom na vlaganjem v lokalno agrokulturo, poslovna šola za begunce, odločitev med kariero novinarja in pevca, reševanje problemov v majhnih skupnostih, način razmišljanja države, prenos znanja za nepismene, ulična telovadba kot način zmanjševanja nasilja. Tu je le nekaj glavnih idej, ki so bile predstavljene na dogodku. Najbolj od vseh me je s svojim nastopom in energijo navdušil Vadim iz Romunije, zato bom povzela nekaj njegovih misli:

»As soon situation gets rough, people leave. In Romania we are experiencing national culture of giving up. So, how do you remind a nation that it's great?  How do you motivate the motivators?«

»It's not the country that controls you, it's you that controls you. Once you can control you, you can control the country.«

Ponedeljek zvečer, v Slamiču. Načrtovanje novih podvigov, priprave na TEDxChange in ugotavljanje “hmhm, saj to je že čez dobra dva tedna”. Prijave na dogodek bodo potekale na materinski dan ob 20.00 preko http://tedxchangeljubljana.eventbrite.com. Če boste spremljali zid mojega socialnega omrežja, na prijavo (skoraj) zagotovo ne boste pozabili. Se vidimo na naslednjem dogodku, do takrat pa ne samo “ideas worth sharing” ampak “ideas are worth sharing!”. Delite, povejte, izražajte, sprašujte. Tako boste še korak bližje do realizacije svoje ideje; če pa bo le ta res dobra, vas morda povabimo na TEDx.

Najbolj netedxovski TEDx

Najprej moram povedati, da so bila moja pričakovanja glede včerajšnjega dogodka precej visoka. Na TEDxMaribor sem pričakovala izjemne, navdihujoče, dobro pripravljene govorce z zanimivimi zgodbami, kakovosten catering, dosledno sledenje časovnici in profesionalno moderiranje. Predvsem pa sem pričakovala, da bo dogodek glede na to, da je organiziran s strani profesionalne agencije za dogodke Adrema, še presegel moja pričakovanja in me navdušil z organizacijskega vidika. Zakaj so bila moja pričakovanja glede TEDxMaribor le delno izpolnjena?

Prvi razlog je sigurno to, da je bilo drugače. Moj okvir TEDx dogodkov glede tega, kako bi moralo vse skupaj potekati, je postal zelo ozek. Prav zato me vse, kar sega izven tega okvira, do neke mere moti. Navajena sem dogodka ala TEDxLjubljana in verjetno je neupravičeno pričakovati, da bodo na isti način zgledali tudi vsi ostali TEDx dogodki. Lani me je to zmotilo že na TEDxu, ki ga je organiziral Zavod Ypsilon. Podobno se je zgodilo tudi v Mariboru – ob nastopu prvih treh govorcev in uvodnega nagovora Kamenka se sama pri sebi cel čas komentirala vse »napake«, ki se dogajajo na odru.

Zakaj se govorci publiki zahvaljujejo na odru za priložnost, da so tukaj? Zakaj ima moderator tako dolge vložke med samimi govori? Zakaj govorci na odru nimajo računalnika s timerjem, da bi cel čas vedeli, koliko časa imajo še na voljo? Zakaj ne sledimo programu in je kup govorcev dan pred dogodkom zbolelo? Zakaj se govorcem po nastopih postavljajo vprašanja? Zakaj prihaja do tehničnih težav? Zakaj govorci neprestano gledajo na desno, kjer je računalnik z njihovim pptjem? Zakaj se govorci obračajo nazaj in gledajo na ppt? Zakaj se govorci gibljejo po celotnem prostoru in njihovo gibanje sploh ni omejeno? Zakaj imajo govorci težave z mikrofoni in klikerjem? Zakaj zgodbe govorcev niso popolnoma jasne? Zakaj nekatere zgodbe govorcev nimajo jasnega sporočila? Zakaj nekateri govorijo mnogo več kot le 18 minut? Zakaj pptji govorcev niso usklajeni z eno barvo? Zakaj imajo pptji preveč teksta? Zakaj imajo nekateri preveč slajdov? Zakaj je na odru preveč stvari? Zakaj nekateri zamujajo na dogodek in jih na koncu sploh ni bilo? Zakaj je Kamenko tako poudarjal rogljiče pred prvim odmorom, če jih je potem zmanjkalo, preden so vsi prišli do njih? Zakaj je tako opeval kosilo, če so nekateri potem ostali lačni? Zakaj je ob vsakem odmoru zmanjkalo kave, preden sem prišla do nje?

Verjetno se sedaj res sliši, kot da me je motilo ogromno stvari in da na dogodku nisem uživala. Nasprotno, na dogodku sem se še vedno imela zelo dobro, saj sem po prvem odmoru sprejela, da dogodek ne bo izgledal tako, kot sem si predstavljala in da s tem ni nič narobe. Še vedno pa me je cel dogodek motil logotip na nametagih udeležencev; cobranding (soznamčenje po slovensko?) TEDxMaribora z Adremo je bil že pred samim dogodkom zelo očiten, potem pa se je logotip pojavil še na nametagih vseh udeležencev, kar se mi je zdelo »over the line«. Večina udeležencev na to verjetno ni bila tako pozorna, ker vsi ne poznajo pravil licence, ki jih postavlja TED, kadar organiziraš TEDx dogodek, mene pa je res začelo motiti.

Eno najbolj očitnih pravil je predvsem to, da je soznamčenje TEDx dogodkov z ostalimi podjetji, agencijami, neprofitnimi organizacijami ipd prepovedano. Že v osnovi je nekoliko problematično, da dogodek organizira nekdo, ki ima v lasti agencijo za organizacijo dogodkov – potem pa se ime organizatorja pojavi na spletni strani, v emailih, na kuverti z računom… Ravno ta »no name« politika dogodkov TEDxLjubljana, za katerimi dejansko ne stoji nobeno podjetje ali organizacija, temveč dogodke res organizira skupina posameznikov, ki s(m)o navdušeni na konceptom TEDa, mi je pri dogodkih v Ljubljani najbolj všeč.

Poleg soznamčenja licenca TED določa tudi številna druga pravila in določbe – nekatera manj, druga bolj pomembna. Če sama prav razumem, pa je bistveno pri takem dogodku to, da se govorce vnaprej pripravi. Nihče ne zmore dobrega TEDx govora, če z govorom prvič nastopi na samem dogodku, saj vsak potrebuje določene povratne informacije, ki njegov govor naredijo boljši.

Kot primer lahko navedem enega od govorcev, ki nas je včeraj navdušil: Mitja Okorn je na odru govoril kar 40 minut. Sam je rekel, da najraje govori 3 ure. Sama nisem imela nič proti podaljšanemu govoru, ker je bil resnično zanimiv, zabaven in navdihujoč – bistveno pa je to, da bi on s predpripravo na govor vse stvari, ki jih je povedal v 40ih minutah brez problemov lahko skrčil na 18 minut in še vedno ohranil enako sporočilo. Poleg tega bi bil to za njega še večji izziv, ker je dejansko lažje predavati 1 uro, še posebej če govoriš o temi, ki ti je res blizu: izziv TEDa za govorce pa je prav v tem, da morajo svojo idejo predstaviti v zelo kratkem času in da zato res povejo samo najbolj relevantne stvari.

Pri dogodku mi je bilo seveda nekaj stvari tudi zelo všeč, da ne bom podajala samo negativne kritike. Kamenko se je seveda izkazal v vlogi moderatorja z zabavnimi komentarji – ko je stvar prevzela Alenka, je bila razlika več kot očitna (ni bilo slabo, ampak spet – drugače). Všeč so mi bili številni odmori na dogodku, med katerimi sem po navadi najprej tekla na wc, potem pa klepetala z ostalimi udeleženci dogodka; vesela sem bila, da se je dogodka udeležilo toliko ŠSPRSSjevk, poleg tega je bil tam tudi ŠS DMS in del ekipe TEDxLjubljana.

Všeč mi je bila raznolikost tem, ki so se v enem dnevu pojavile na odru – priznam, da že od srednje šole naprej nisem niti slišala besede elektron, na odru pa so se poleg fizike pojavile tudi psihologija, arhitektura, medicina, kultura, šport, mediji, komedija, spiritualnost, spolnost, depresija, glasba, smrt, zaporniki, umetnost, univerza.

Všeč so mi bili emaili pred dogodkom, ki sem jih brala z užitkom.

Všeč mi je bila glasba – ko harmonika postane več kot samo harmonika in ko nekdo na odru pokaže resnično ljubezen do pedalnega klavirja.

Všeč so mi bili izbrani govorci – kar nekaj od njih mi bo v spominu ostalo dlje časa. Prvi del dogodka, imenovan »out of the box« nam je postregel z idejami o drugačni univerzi.  Po besedah Daniela Rebolja nas maja v Mariboru čaka prva Out of the box konferenca (očitno bo treba spet v MB), njihova vizija pa je postaviti prvo Out of the box univerzo. Koršak pa je predstavil idejo o univerzi prihodnosti, imenovani RAZUM, ki naj bi povezala znanost in umetnost. Uroš Lobnik nam je predstavil arhitekturne načrte mesta Maribor in ideje, za katere upajo, da se bodo implementirale v času EPK.  Samo Kralj je prvi del zaključil z govorom, v katerem se je spraševal, ali lahko ustvarimo genija. Video o drugačnih srednjih šolah je sicer nekje vmes prekinila tehnična težava, še vedno pa me je navdušila ideja o šoli, kjer se vse učiš s pomočjo izkustva (they learn best by doing things for real).

Najbolj so me navdušili predvsem Mitja Okorn, Matej Tušak in Dalibor Miklavčič. Dalibor je edini, pri katerem sem res lahko čutila, da je zaljubljen v svojo idejo o pedalnem klavirju in da bi zanjo naredil vse, edini, ki je pokazal resnično strast do tega, kar počne. Matej Tušak me je navdušil zaradi vsebine njegovega govora, še posebej del o tem, kako so lastnosti, ki jih razvijejo vrhunski športniki, cenjene v vsakdanjem življenju (nižja čustvena labilnost, družabnost, samozavest, postavljanje ciljev, delovne navade, osredotočenost na delo, soočanje s porazi, odpornost na bolečino, mentalna priprava, uživanje, stres). Mitja Okorn je navdušil celotno dvorano – s svojo energijo, pozitivnim mišljenjem, iskrenostjo, vztrajnostjo, osebno zgodbo, humorjem, sproščenostjo. Najbolj sem si zapomnila to, da je bil najlepši trenutek njegovega življenja trenutek, ko je ugotovil, kaj resnično želi početi v svojem življenju. Mislim, da bi ga vsi z veseljem poslušali še nadaljnje 3 ure, organizatorji pa so ga po 40ih minutah le stežka spravili z odra.

Če potegnem črto, mi seveda ni žal 18 eur in 16ih ur mojega časa, da sem šla v Maribor. Zanimiva izkušnja, veliko novih tem in izrečenih besed, o katerih še danes razmišljam. Dogodek je bil zame sicer predlog, saj sem med zadnjim delom še komaj sedela na stolu – na koncu pa vseeno zapomnljiv in udeležbe vreden dogodek, vendar ne v smislu TEDx, temveč v smislu nekega dogodka x.