Live Blog Part Deux: The TEDxSMU First-Timer Experience

October 10th, 2009 by Ajay Waghray

5:57pm: Kapow! That blew by fast. Hope y’all enjoy the live coverage of TEDxSMU on the Cohabitat blog. This quite honestly one of the best things I’ve ever decided to do, I’m glad we could share the ride together. I’m sure this won’t be the last time we see each other. Feel free to follow me on Twitter until next time at http://twitter.com/ajaywaghray/. I’ll keep you up-to-date on what’s going on with me since we’re such good friends now. In the meantime, I’m gonna try to see if I can sneak my way into the TEDxSMU after-party at Reel FX Studios. Take care, until next time!

- A-Slice

5:19pm: POLYPHONIC SPREE!!! Side note, I saw these guys at ACL in 2003. They’re awesome, I can’t wait.

5:16pm: If you guys have been enjoying this blog, I’m going to have some of my own stuff up soon. Feel free to follow me on Twitter, @ajaywaghray. Shameless plug over. P.S. TEDxDubai has 1,000 attendees. WOW!!

5:11pm: Sorry I didn’t post for a while, Turk really roped me in. He was discussing what he did for a school in Africa, planting trees, building rainwater collection systems, and a high school for the kids to continue their education.

“It’s not hard to changed the world. Just pick an issue you care about, and take action.”

5:03pm: “Women grow 80% of the food in the world and own less than 10% of the land.”

5:00pm: “The cameraman that took this picture told me that I looked like a human q-tip.”

4:55pm: Turk Pipkin’s up from The Nobelity Project. Working with Nobel laureates to do advocacy for solutions that work. All of their work is online at The Nobelity Project.

4:53pm: I love how we’re talking about old people having sex while a 12-year-old is holding up her lyrics. This is hilarious, I love Jill Sobule.

4:50pm: “Okay, which one next, end of the world or Googling old people?” Googling old people Googling old people!!

4:48pm: Ryan Plesko’s tweeting during this by the way, you can check him out @plesko.

4:42pm: Tanya Pinto’s up now, she went over to India and discovered very wise yet malnourished children. She began Baal Dan to help children in need in India. Apparently she’s big on peanut butter.

It saved her life, I can see it being a big deal!

Jill Sobule’s up now. “I can’t decide what to play, maybe a song about Mexican wrestlers?” Yes please.

4:37pm: Audience talk, we’re talking about barefoot running. I love barefoot running!

4:32pm: Ray Zahab talk now, here’s the link: Ray Zahab

4:25pm: People keep making fun of me for being very excited about William. They might think that it’s just because he’s been on the Daily Show and TED previously. I’m going to have to tell you now that this is not correct.

The reason this guy fascinates me is because he learned what I learned in college in engineering at 14 through books he couldn’t read. He built a windmill that took years of engineering for companies in three months. He provided electricity for an entire village while only barely knowing English, before he graduated high school, and without Google. If that’s not enough to impress you, I’m not sure what will. It was a true honor to meet him earlier today.

4:21pm: William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer everyone, check out the links I posted below.

4:20pm: “We implemented a recycling program. In Baghdad of all places.”

4:13pm: Jeff Talley was the provincial engineer in Baghdad, appointed by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to secure Baghdad for the Iraqi people.

P.S. Still adding pictures to the previous post. Sit tight, I promise I’m working on it.

4:12pm: By the way, here are the talks for Session 3: Change Your Life. Talks are from Jeff Talley, William Kamkwamba (loved his appearance on The Daily Show!) and Bryan Mealer, Tanya Pinto and Turk Pipkin. Musical performances will be by Jill Sobule and more Lewis Warren (great googily-moogily, this kid is 12 and a genius!).

4:06pm: Starting a new entry for this session. It’s getting a little crazy with all this data! That break was extremely necessary and productive. Shook hands with Bobby Haas, met some new folks including Tony Cecela who went to school with Tom Rielly, What a great networking arena. Now, Jeff Talley, he’s been to warzones? Go on…

Tags: cohabitat, TED, TEDxSMU