This past Sunday I spent the whole day at Carnegie Mellon University’s TEDxCMU event. Being a fan of the TED concept, I was excited to get a free ticket to my own local version. The CMU conference proved very fruitful for myself as a means to connect to some interested supporters and as a time to think and relate my project to others.

The conference as a whole, however, left something to be desired. The production of the event was definitely high quality, but the content of the speakers was redundant and somewhat bland.

The high point was definitely Luis Von Ahn who presented on his Recaptcha and DuoLingo projects: both spectacular. Any project that is a win-win-win for everyone involved is genius.

While I appreciated CMU’s interest in trying to have an inspiring theme for the event, I think the lack of substance left the overall experience a bit flat; too much self-help, not enough creative power. Although I gladly stayed for the entire event, I know a number of folks who did not have the stamina or the interest to stay through the end.

The idea of getting people together to share innovative ideas/strategies/designs is powerful; personally, however, I would be more interested to see some focus. They’re printing kidneys, IDing packets, serving Zimbabwe, and designing brands: how does it fit together? Either a person’s ideas should relate to one purposeful topic or they should be so ground-breaking and important that everyone ought to hear about them.

I am curious what will come of the TEDxED; a more focused discussion around one specific topic could be exciting and more beneficial. It could result, I hope, in a more complete conversation. There is nothing I love more than to participate in serious discussions on how to better serve the world… and the TED concept has the ability to be just that.

Regardless, many thanks to TEDxCMU for putting together a valuable event. I would consider joining again. Just a note: when an event is that long, it needs to tell a more compelling story, and it needs to tell it with complete excellence.

TEDxPghEd anyone?