play dream create

Play, Dream, Create

May 7, 2010 City Winery New York

TEDxEast2010_Program-v1h.indd 1 4/30/10 11:09:45 AM

Welcome to TEDxEast

May 7, 2010Dear TED enthusiasts:

Welcome to the second TEDxEast! What began as a conversation among friends has grown into a twice-annual event that seeks to collect and present some of the best thinking the city (and sometimes beyond) has to offer. The theme “Play, Dream, Create” explores the ways in which New Yorkers can cultivate a larger sense of joy, expand their ambitions, and develop something altogether new.

The day has been planned, in the TED tradition, with talks that highlight innovation, bold thinking, and human achievement in Technology, Entertainment, and Design. And true to the format of the TED experience, TEDxEast presenters will give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes or less. The following pages will introduce you to these inspiring speakers.

The event will be simulcast to several hundred students in NYC as organized by volunteers at NYU and Columbia University. We have made these simulcasts free for students, in the spirit of ideas worth spreading, but have encouraged the students to join our efforts to help support TEDxKibera and donate what they are able.

Today’s program provides an opportunity to examine the interconnectedness of art and science, business and philanthropy, social bonds and gaming—and, of course, to bring together a disparate group of people who are passionate about ideas.

We invite you to set aside your habit of purposeful multitasking, disconnect from cell phones and smart phones, and dive deep into the world of ideas.

Welcome to TEDxEast,

Julianne Wurm Organizer/Curator

Marisa Farina

Vico Sharabani

Lucy Flores

Tommy McCall

Melek Pulatkonak

Connie Frances Avila

Dr. Rona Frederick

The TEDxEast Advisory Board includes “TEDsters” Jason Johnson, Taylor Milsal, Christine Mason

McCaul, and Sunny Bates



agendaCheck in and lunch

Opening remarks Julianne Wurm

Session 1: PLAY Dennis Crowley Founder, Foursquare

Raymond Gaspard Broadway producer “A Steady Rain”

Blake Frank 8-year old piano prodigy

Sam Lessin Trustee of the Awesome Award and other stuff

John Henry Harris LEGO / The Business of Play

Conversation Break

Session 2: DREAM Malia Mason Mind-wandering expert, professor at CBS

Company XVI Contemporary yet baroque-inspired dance

Helio Mattar A catalyst for corporate social responsibility in Brazil

Ellen Gustafson Co-Founder, FEED

Richard Saul Wurman Writer, questioner and founder of TED and TEDMED

Conversation Break

Session 3: CREATE Suzanne Vega Musician

Pysops Marie/Marco Designers and founders of PSYOP

Sheena Iyengar Professor at CBS and author of “The Art of Choosing”

Bruce Feiler NY Times best-selling author of “The Council of Dads”

Closing Remarks Julianne Wurm

Wine Reception Hosted by City Winery


speakers

Speakers at TEDxEast

Dennis Crowley How to Turn Real Life Into a Video Game

Crowley is best known for co-founding Foursquare, a service devised to makes cities

easier to use and more interesting to explore. He’s currently an adjunct professor at NYU’s

Interactive Telecommunications Program. One of the world’s few people to have been

named one of the Top 35 Innovators Under 35 by MIT’s Technology Review magazine

(2005) and have won the “Fast Money” bonus round on the TV game show Family Feud

(2009), Crowley says he wants to continue down the road of encouraging people to do

interesting things.

Raymond L. Gaspard The Power of Serendipity

Active for more than 40 years in the entertainment industry, Gaspard was the founder

of the WestSide Arts Theatre, which he ran for more than a decade. He subsequently

founded the Union Square Theatre; he then served as president of the Frederick Douglass

Creative Arts Center. He left that position to focus on his most recent theatrical offering on

Broadway: the record-breaking production of A Steady Rain, starring Hugh Jackman and

Daniel Craig. He wants to create positive connections between individuals and cultures.

Blake Frank Piano prodigy

An 8-year-old student, who attends school in Manhattan, Frank loves math, science, and

tennis. But the piano is where this self-taught musician works magic.

Sam Lessin The End of Ownership: What we can Learn from How we Play

The founder and CEO of drop.io, a rich media file-sharing company, Lessin also started

the Y+30, a popular monthly discussion group where industry experts lead talks on

what the world might look like in 30 years. He writes extensively about information and

technology, and he’s a micro-trustee of the Awesome Foundation, which has chapters in

four cities (and is expanding). What Lessin wants to create is change.



John-Henry Harris The Business of Play

Trained as an industrial designer, Harris has always had a keen interest in developing

products and services that tackle social and environmental issues. But a new question

has begun to intrigue him: Why, as adults, don’t we play more? Through his work as a

Creative Designer at Lego, he’s learned that play is an integral part of any design process,

and he wants to convince people to harness the possibilities of play to empower, bond

and inspire employees to work more passionately than ever before. He believes that in the

space where boundaries are flexible and there are no goals play can occur.

Suzanne Vega Musician

In the 25 years since her 1985 debut album, Vega has sold over 1 million albums, been

nominated for seven Grammy Awards, kicked off the main stage at the first Lilith Fair,

served as a judge for the Orange Prize for Fiction, and learned to drive (at age 43). Her

newest album, Close Up: Volume One, Love Songs, is the first in four-part project to

re-record her old songs in stripped-down and intimate form: “It’s the kind of project I hope

will go on for a long period of time. I’ll keep adding things to it…If people wanted to remix

and send me their versions…I kind of see it as a fluid thing. It will keep going forever. Until

I’m not around to run it anymore.”

Malia Mason The Spotlight and the Watchdog: Understanding the Wandering Mind

An assistant professor of management at Columbia Business School, Mason uses brain

imaging and traditional experimental approaches to explore why the mind is driven to

wander despite our heroic attempts to keep it focused on the task at hand. To Mason, our

tendency to daydream reflects an amazing capacity to attend to current responsibilities

while simultaneously unknotting larger problems or planning our next move. This is what

allows us to say that we are not stuck here, that we are not creatures bound only to an

external world, but able to envision a different, future.

Austin McCormick Company XIV

McCormick has been compared to Serge Diaghilev, and The New York Times says “his

inventive works are a brainy, high-entertainment mix of music-hall, cabaret, theater and

dance.” His dance/theatre company, which is based in Brooklyn, works in a Neo-Baroque

style that combines the lushness of ballet’s beginnings with contemporary movement.

For McCormick, the best way to create is through collaboration—with actors, designers,

dancers, and singers developing and deepening each piece.

Play, Dream, Create


Helio Mattar Imagine a Sustainable Future

After 22 years as a corporate executive, followed by a stint in the Brazilian government,

Mattar helped found Akatu Institute for Conscious Consumption, a nonprofit devoted to

awakening the transformative power of individual consumers in the quest for sustainability.

(Akatu, a word in Tupi, the language spoken by Brazilian Indians, means both good seed

and better world.) Mattar, who holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from

Stanford University, believes that there’s freedom in needing less. “That’s not just cheap

philosophy,” he says. “The more you need, the more you work, the more stress you have,

and the more you buy.” His goal is to rupture that cycle.

Ellen Gustafson The 30 Project

Working at the U.N.’s World Food Program (WFP), Gustafson knew that 300 million children

around the world were going to bed hungry. So in 2007, she co-founded FEED Projects.

The idea? Design and sell chic, eco-friendly bags at places like Bergdorf Goodman and

Whole Foods and donate profits to the WFP’s school feeding efforts in sub-Saharan Africa

and Southeast Asia. Three years later, the project has raised nearly 6 million dollars and 55

million meals, and is expanding its reach to parts of the U.S. and Haiti.

Richard Saul Wurman A Conversation With RSW

Spurred by the dance between his curiosity and ignorance, Richard Saul Wurman has

sought ways to make the complex clear. He has now written, designed, and published 82

books on topics ranging from football to health care to city guides. Wurman’s latest book

is called 33: Understanding Change & the Change in Understanding. Wurman created

the TED conference in 1984, bringing together many of America’s clearest thinkers in

the fields of technology, entertainment, and design. He also created the eg Conference

and continues to co-chair the annual TEDMED meetings.

Marie Hyon and Marco Spier Life, Work, Love

Hyon and Spier are co-founders and Creative Directors of Psyop, an award-winning

design and animation company. Their work—which includes projects for Converse,

Adidas Olympics, Fox Nascar and partnering on Esquire’s Augmented Reality issue—has

been called jaw-dropping and is in the National Design Triennial of the Cooper-Hewitt and

MoMA’s permanent collection. In a world of message overload, their motto is to persuade,

change, and influence.

Speakers at TEDxEast


Sheena Iyengar Creating Our Lives Through the Power, Mystery, and Beauty of Choice

“No one asks better questions, or comes up with more intriguing answers,” says Malcolm

Gladwell of Sheena Iyengar, the inaugural S.T. Lee Professor of Business at Columbia

Business School. Iyengar focuses her research primarily on how people make choices,

and her research—which has involved a jam-tasting booth at a fancy California market

and speed-dating sessions—demonstrates (among other things) the hazards of too many

options. She’s learned that to create the life you want, “You have to be choosy about what

you choose.”

Bruce Feiler The Council of Dads: Renewing the Power of Friendship

One of America’s most popular voices on faith, family, and finding meaning in everyday

life, Feiler is the best-selling author of nine books, including Walking the Bible, Abraham

and most recently, The Council of Dads. The last, a selection of the TED Book Club for

May 2010, is a moving account of the year after he was diagnosed with a malignant

tumor. His dream: “To be alive in five years. To visit ten more countries. To walk my girls

down the aisle.”

Rives co-host

Flat pages can’t contain Rives’ storytelling, even when paper is his medium. On stage,

his poems burst in many directions, too, exposing multiple layers and unexpected treats:

childhood memories, grown-up humor, notions of love and lust, of what is lost forever

and of what’s still out there waiting to unfold. He’s also the co-host (with Kelly) of

TEDActive at Palm Springs.

Kelly Stoetzel co-host

As the Content Director at TED, Stoetzel spends most of the year working on the speaker

program. She’s also the producer and co-host (with Rives) of TEDActive, the intimate,

relaxed, participatory, and speculative event that features special workshops, unique

experiences, and a live simulcast of the speakers in Long Beach.


Play, Dream, Create


thx

Thank you from TEDxEast


play dream create

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