I will fail at trying to describe my personal Arab Spring. I will fail because I can’t boil down, into a two-dimensional realm, a four-dimensional reality.
Two weeks in the Middle East as the guest of both the TED organization and the Doha Film Festival/government of Qatar changed my life, yes, but more than that, expanded my life, reaffirmed some squishy beliefs I wanted to have and meshed and merged me with people who are changing their worlds, which in turn, is shaping and changing the whole world.
As part of the TED community (at the core, a conference started nearly 30 years ago to spread ideas about Technology, Entertainment and Design), I have been a witness and a tiny participant in shaping the way those ideas spread for five years now. Challenged by TED prize-winners to get involved in our own communities in areas of storytelling, education and healthy-food initiatives, a once appreciative but rather passive group of attendees have turned into a group of activists. Individuals were granted licenses to host TEDx events in their communities, adhering to strict standards with a passion to elevate thinkers in our communities. There can be no self promotion, no politics and no religion. In all of 2010 there were 100 TEDx events globally. This year there are seven a day.
In most of the world, a TEDx event opens up a global treasure trove of ideas and access and human connections that may have never existed until those events happen. It is changing individuals who are changing their surroundings who are changing the world. And we are helping each other.
The conference in Doha, Qatar, put 600 organizers from more than 90 different countries in a place that was unfamiliar to nearly everyone. It was the ultimate level playing field on shifting sands that forced us all out of our element. We were there with a single focus, to learn from each other and from the TED Team how to continue to host events that opened up new platforms and ways of seeing to people who will, in turn, take those ideas and find unscripted ways to make them meaningful.
Right from the airport we shared rides with other Tedsters who were off their time clocks and feeding schedules and were adjusting, recalibrating. We had roommates in our apartments suites and, though we were all going from the time the sun came up (first light was around 4 a.m.) until the conversations stopped from sheer exhaustion long after dinners and after-dinner gatherings, there were moments of shared cultures over coffee in our kitchen (sweet rolls and fruit were delivered around 5 a.m. each day) or late at night with a glass of wine staring out at the city filled with skyscrapers and lights. It was all otherworldly and exhausting. And exhilarating in a way that makes you proud to be part of the human condition at this exact point in time.
What happened for some of us is we saw the future. (There were only a handful who were over 45. Most were young, highly educated, self-motivated, pulsating creatures.) The first few days we put names and faces with places. There was the blonde from Dallas. The handsome black man from Trinidad living in Toronto named Keita. The beautiful, artistic Gabriela from Mexico City. But by the middle of the week, the conversations, heat and overstimulation started to blend the differences together until it became “the person from the community who needs to create better access to health care,” “the person who is working to bring higher education to a rural village,” or “the person who lives to infuse the world with more creativity and art.”
What I saw, just a glimpse, was a new world, a world of what can be. Where individuals learn their real power comes from combining with like-minded folks to insist upon fairness and access to fresh water and fresh ideas for all. Social justice and democracy and equality in all its best shapes. A world where open source becomes the norm for good government, education and planet sharing. These young global citizens demand nothing less. These are not already powerful leaders, entrenched and established. This is the global tribe of nerds and geeks and wonky folks who were never picked first for The Team.
Day to day, drafty windows, aging parents, rebellious teens and difficult relationships can feel all consuming. In every corner of the world. But technology has proven to be the great equalizer. It allows not only immediate access to the exact same information, it allows it to anyone of any gender, in any country, in any belief system, in any climate and any culture, of any age.
We live in a world where ideas worth spreading and sharing know no boundaries. And I am proud to be part of the global community of TED, who take the responsibility of those actions seriously. Every day, on Sundays in this and so many other Parks on the planet…
For a travel log with photos, visit TEDxParkCity on Facebook.
Teri Orr is a former editor of The Park Record. She is the director of the organization that provides programming for the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Center for the Performing Arts.