Super Quick Recap

Posted by tedxunipittsburgh - 05/10/2010 at 9:46 AM

If you were at our event on May 8th, please fill out TED’s feedback form to let them know what you thought: http://bit.ly/tedxfeedback

Also send your thoughts and experiences from the event to info@TEDxUniPittsburgh.com.

If you weren’t at the event, here’s a super-quick recap of the afternoon:

The theme of our TEDxUniPittsburgh event was EXPERIENCE.
The afternoon was divided into three sections:

  • NEW Experiences
  • DESIGNING Experiences
  • HAVING Experience

It was held in the Randy Pausch Interdisciplinary Studio at CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center. We had over 100 guests in attendance.

To introduce NEW EXPERIENCES, the afternoon began with an interactive performance by Liz Chang, Dane Toney, and Michele de la Reza from Attack Theatre.

Our host, Michael Capristo, introduced roboticist Marek Michalowski. Marek gave a talk entitled The Dance of Social Interaction.

We then watched our first TED Talk video of the day, Derek Sivers, How To Start A Movement:

Continuing the New Experiences session, Jesse Schell spoke about education in The Future Is Beautiful.

Then we had a SURPRISE speaker, David Newell, better known as Mr. McFeely of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. He gave an inspiring talk about Fred Rogers and the New Experiences involved in that revolutionary educational program.

This concluded our New Experiences session. During a 30-minute discussion break many connections were made, ideas shared, and snacks consumed. To facilitate conversation, every guests’ name tag listed three things that they are passionate about (which we got when they filled out their ticket application). We also featured a few ETC project such as Mocotila and the Innovation Oakland kiosk project in our discussion area.

Andrew Hosmer kicked off our second session, DESIGNING Experiences, with Talking Through A Robot. He reflected on his experiences in designing a robot named Quasi.

Our second TED Talk video was Tom Wujec, Bulid A Tower, Build A Team.

The ETC students were represented well by The Yume Project. On stage were four of the five team members: Christine Barnes, Mike Honeck, Andy Ping Li, and David Teot. Their other team member, Yan Lin, was unavailable for the event. They presented the results of their semester’s work.

J.D. Whitewolf followed with the talk Designing Experiences: How The Brain Works (And What To Do About It!).

With the Designing Experiences session complete, we had another 30-minute discussion break. This time we asked guests to clear the room so we could prepare another surprise for them.

Our third and final session, HAVING Experience, began with that surprise. Underneath each seat was a Powerball Lottery ticket. So far, I am aware of $6 having been won from that surprise.

After the surprise we watched our final TED Talk video, Jane McGonigal, Gaming Can Make A Better World.

Our final speaker of the day was Daniel Szecket with his talk Jumping In: Choosing vs. Deciding.


Gregory Lehane | Mary Rawson | Tammy Ryan

To conclude the day, we had a one-act play called DINKS. The play was written by Tammy Ryan, directed by Marci Woodruff, and starred Mary Rawson and Gregory Lehane.

But wait, there was one more surprise…

Some lucky people in the audience had a golden ticket in their programs. They each won a book that was donated by O’Reilly books.

See what people have been saying after the event. #TEDxUniPgh

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