Thoughts from TEDx Philadelphia

Last Friday I had the pleasure of volunteering for the TEDx Philadelphia conference at the Temple Performance Arts Center.  This was my first true TED experience.  I had briefly attended a couple of talks at TEDx Penn about 2 years ago, but last Friday I really got the full experience from beginning to (almost) end.

The very recognizable "X" from the TEDx Philadelphia Conference

These TED conferences are packaged nicely.  Everything feels specially crafted, from the programs to the name badges.  And then of course there are the actual talks.  The trademark "small, intimate setting to share large ideas" platform is really cool.  I saw 4 talks and the two that really blew me away were Nikki Adeli from Science Leadership Academy, and Simran Sadhu from Youth Build Charter School.  Nikki, a 17 year old student, did an awesome job talking about how adults need to invest in and trust the youth of today.  Simran, the Executive Director of YouthBuild, was full of energy while describing some of the amazing projects the charter school had completed.

I had a great time volunteering and got to meet some great people who also took their time to help the cause.  I hope all of us stay in touch at least every now and then; it's so important for us "millennials" or whatever we're called to encourage each other as we try to contribute to Philly. 

There were some great energy at this conference that I hope we can emulate in our ReThink Philly EdTech conference that I'm co-organizing and hosting (April 10!  Be there!).  Indeed, the TED experience was very impressive, and I hope that our city can carry the enthusiasm into the rest of the year and beyond.