Hacking the Red Circle

Trent Yeo, the organizer for TEDxQueenstown in New Zealand was invited by TEDxChristchurch organizer, Kaila Colbin, to join a team of five to work for nine months, then spend nine days on the ice.

The group came together in celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Scott Base, Antarctica New Zealand's research station. The event was a unique opportunity to herald the success and participation in Antarctic science and research from the New Zealand base on Scott Island.

TEDxScottBase went out to 60 viewing parties around the world on every continent on Earth including a couple of locations in Antarctica such as the South Pole. All of the gear was registered and packed and sent on a plane three months ahead of the event.

Our conversation covered a lot of ground, as Trent also runs a TEDx in his town and is involved with other New Zealand TEDx Organizers. We talked about how creating small events has a different sense of satisfaction. Trent remarked, "Small is beautiful."

If you love adventure, you're going to love this episode. If you listen carefully, you'll hear the sea birds in the background.

Doug Coleman, the organizer of TEDxJacksonville, is humble and unassuming, which belies his event's impact on the city. He's retired now, but hardly hanging around at the beach. Instead, he's busy producing a Level 2 main event, Salons, TEDxLIVE, TEDxChange and TEDxWomen events. He was inspired by early TEDx events he attended because they were collaborative and optimistic. He and his team of 25, produce 8 or 9 events a year.

Doug talks a lot about the team. It's in his hack, and it's in a lot of this episode. He says his superpower is about collaboration, and really, it's his skill in finding the right people to serve on the team. Towards the end of the episode, he talks about IKIGAI, which is a Japanese philosophy about the reason for being. It's a guiding principle for him and how he selects people to join TEDxJacksonville.

Doug does something very interesting at his event. They have a voting system, and one of the questions is, "Which speaker's talk should we shoe to the Mayor and City Council" He's committed to having TEDxJacksonville be a positive impact on the Community.

Samantha Nienow is the organizer of TEDxBemidji, in Minnesota, and a professional slide designer at her firm, Red Zest Design. She’s produced the decks for speakers at 14 events and this year produced her first event.

Samantha says that her job is to help the speakers feel comfortable and confident. She loves presentations and takes great care in getting to know each speaker. Once she feels like she understands them, she can set about helping them tell their story visually.

She got her start doing presentations by stumbling upon Nancy Duarte’s book, SLIDEOLOGY in 2009. Nancy is a TEDster and has helped hundreds of speakers on the main stage with their slides. When Sam saw the book, which suggested she could make a career out of creating presentations, she never looked back. She soon realized that there was a TEDx event, TEDxFargo, only 150 miles away from Bemidji and ventured there to see how she could help. Thus begins her story. Thanks to Greg at TEDxFargo for introducing us to Samantha.

Samantha created a special page on Red Zest for Hacking The Red Circle listeners with links to resources and examples she mentioned during the conversation. Thanks for the tips.

Elena Crescia is a TEDx Organizer, a TED Talk Translator and a force of nature. She is from a city of 20 million people and is not awed by producing an event for 10,000. Seriously. Not at all. Last year they successfully hosted 5,000 in a new football stadium and saw they could easily double the crowd and reach more people. So, they said, "Yes, let's do that."

The stadium is large enough for them to have an inflatable planetarium with five telescopes and a working television studio, built just for the day. There are some logistics to deal with that other organizers don't worry about, like firefighters, ambulances and other emergency services to name a few.

So far, the team at TEDxSaoPaulo has organized over 30 events, and Elena says once you've done a big event, it's impossible to go back. With 10,000 in the stadium, it's still only half full. What do you think they'll do for 2018? Stay tuned.

Maurizio Berti from TEDxCesena produces an event that highlights the area and emphasizes the hospitality that the region is so well known for. His hidden talent is attracting speakers using food, in the form of Piadina's, as a compelling reason to come to Cesena, located on the eastern edge of Italy near San Marino.

He started like most of us, doing an event for 100, and now produces events for 800 to a 1000 people. He also is a part of an Italian cohort of TEDx organizers that support each other through workshops, attending events and sharing camaraderie. With over 30 TEDx events in Italy each year, their annual gatherings are quite spirited.

He's excited about doing TEDx Adventures this coming year in addition to Salons to continue to grow the local TEDx community.

Keita Demming, the co-organizer of TEDxPortofSpain in Trinidad believes TEDx is an in-depth exploration of what it means to be human. He also knows we have to be a little bit crazy to be organizers, especially when you are an expatriate living in Toronto and producing an event in your home country. He says he sees potential in things others don't see.

Keita wants to know how TEDx can have an impact on his island nation. "How do we make this country one of the most desirable places to be?" When I asked him if he was an activist, he suggested no, "I'm a citizen." Indeed. One who cares deeply about his country and its future. He thinks because they live on an island, it's easier to affect change.

This might be one of the few Mother-Son Organizing teams. Keita's mom, Dennise Demming is deeply involved in the operations with him. Note: If you know of other family-run TEDx events, let us know, we'd love to have them on the show.

Craig Burnett is one of the co-organizers at TEDxOshkosh, located in Wisconsin. In 2012 he saw Dan Pallotta's TED talk, and it changed everything for him. Craig likes to explore conflicting ideas. After the licensee, Michael Rust came back from TEDxNormal, he was convinced that Oshkosh was ready for a TEDx.

They do something fun at their event which is to ask each attendee to sit in a different seat for each session. They get a little push back, but held their ground, as this is a great networking ploy.

Oshkosh is proud of their heritage as an event city, as evidenced by a talk about the Oshkosh AirVenture which brings 500,000 people and 100,000 airplanes to their town of 60,000. They had an excellent TED talk about the AirVenture. TEDx fits a niche that the community has warmly embraced and provides a perfect venue for ideas worth spreading.

More at https://hackingtheredcircle.com/tedxoshkosh-craig-burnett-co-organizer/

Annemarie Galeucia runs operations for TEDxLSU. As an educator, she focuses on communications coaching and loves giving students the experience of running a TEDx. Her experience in high-stakes communications helps her mentor and prepare students for real jobs.

TEDxLSU celebrates the ideas from Southern Louisiana, and she coaches students and speakers to translate these local ideas for a global audience. Their event in the LSU Union Theater peaks out at 1,200 people. She mentions that the people of Louisiana love to throw parties and TEDx is a great excuse to throw a big one.

To improve communications, she strongly recommends that teams use SLACK to stay connected. She's a big fan of the TEDx Hub and has found many resources there that she shares with the larger team.

Andrei Dinu wrote his dissertation on Organizing a TED event in Romania in 2008 before TEDx was conceived. He focused on the benefits, what to do and how it would work out. He says, “TED found me, and I found TED.” He loves partnering and curating and believes that the highest level of event production in the world today can be found on the TED stage.

He’s doing something that is fascinating, called Open Mic. This year, he held it in conjunction with TEDLive by partnering with a local Cinema. The top three winners were invited to his 2017 event.

I liked his focus on long-term relationships with partners. His oldest has been with them for five years. He even will give partners the benefits of working with them, even if they have to take a year off in-between due to budget constraints. That’s an interesting idea.

Marc Winn is a Changemaker. When he started his TEDxStPeterPort (Guernsey) journey, he asked himself a simple question, "How do we make Guernsey the best place to live on Earth?"

Now, a few years later, they've asked and answered that question and have a new one, "How can we, as a community, contribute to future Guernsey and help to turn that plan into a reality?" The curation of their most recent TEDx addressed this question with the goal of creating the equivalent of a 20-chapter book that drives action. The 20 talks were carefully considered as to how each one pushed the overall agenda forward and created an incubator for action.

Marc is an inspiration. He loves mischief, has a wickedly compelling grin and as you'll learn, is incredibly talented when it comes to leading the team towards the bigger objective. Most significant surprise for me? They do not have group meetings. Ever. Seriously, you'll need to listen to hear his rationale, and he makes a compelling case.