As many of you know, one of our new initiatives over the past year has been to establish TEDxYMCAAcademy. It would not be unrealistic to say that the TED and TEDx series of events have become an important part of our popular culture over the better part of this past decade. Our friends at TED self-describe TEDx events like this:
TEDx was created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading.” The program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level.
At TEDx events, a screening of TEDTalks videos — or a combination of live presenters and TEDTalks videos — sparks deep conversation and connections. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis.
As The Academy is a Community School in the truest sense of the word, we love being able to include many of you, our Toronto friends, in our event. In addition, we livestream each TEDx event, bringing thousands of viewers from around the world, as do the videos from the events that we post on our site. Attending (and, for us, curating) a TEDx event is a lot of fun!
So, our TEDxYMCAAcademy 3.0 (it’s hard to believe that we’re already on our THIRD event!) has the theme “Machines and Minds.” As is the case with theme-based TEDx events, we leave this open to interpretation – it is designed to be intentionally elastic.
We really hope you join us on October 13th. Tickets are always free and you can get yours here: machinesandminds.eventbrite.com
We are all looking forward to seeing you there!
Don Adams – Head of School