TEDx Mid-Atlantic -- Tells Stories to Inspire

Sydney and Perth have done it. So have Dhaka, Bangladesh and Flanders, Belgium. They've done it in Patagonia, Chile, Halifax, Canada and Shanghai, China. And, last week Baltimore, joined the ranks of cities that have hosted a TEDx conference, a global movement of independent conferences and talks that give leading thinkers with ideas worth spreading a platform from which they can reach out to communities of people seeking inspiration.

Started in 1984, the goal of the non-profit organization was to bring together people from three seemingly disparate worlds, Technology, Entertainment and Design, TED. Similar to the Ignite speaker events, TEDx headliners are given just 18 minutes to share their knowledge, experience or story and connect with the audience.

The China syndrome

It was on a trip to China last summer that Dave Troy, a Baltimore-based entrepreneur and founder of Beehive Baltimore, attended his first TEDx conference.

"The folks who organized that trip put together TEDx Shanghai. It was fairly small with just 120 people and had speakers. There were Chinese students and Chinese nationals as well as expats and people working in the Internet industry. It was sort of a mixture. I thought the day was certainly fascinating and I thought it was something we could do in our region just because of the depth of the talent available in the Baltimore-Washington-Philadelphia corridor," he explains.

Confident that the conference would be a perfect fit for the area, Troy sent in the application for TEDx when he returned from China.

The decision to expand the scope of the conference beyond Baltimore was also easy.

"I thought that the Mid-Atlantic moniker gave us the excuse to call up people all throughout the region that we thought were interesting and get them in, rather than strictly limiting ourselves to Baltimore. Baltimore really is pretty central to the whole Mid-Atlantic region and that was a pretty good excuse to do it in Baltimore," Troy says.

A trip to TedxGlobal held annually in Oxford, England gave Troy all the inspiration he needed to put on the conference in Baltimore.

"What I wanted with TEDx Mid-Atlantic was to make it feel like an additional day of TEDx Global. The same kind of scale, the same kind of scope, the same kind of quality of speakers, and pay attention to the way the day flowed and try to give a very full experience. I think we achieved that," he says.

Putting on a show in the barn

So, with a cadre of volunteers, Troy set out to find some of the area's most innovative and interesting speakers.

Mike Subelsky, founder of Baltimore Improv, OtherInBox and Ignite Baltimore, says he knew right away that even though Ignite is a great event that TEDx would "be even better."

"There are a ton of people [in Baltimore] who are really smart, really creative and do interesting work, and are hungry to hear about new ideas. I know that from my experience with Ignite. And TED has a really global brand and this was our chance to reach people who haven't been to any of these other events, but know what TED is," he says.

"I was amazed at how everything just came together. Ana Vidovic, we didn't have that space filled until a week before hand. We just kind of figured we'd leave one slot open and let it get naturally filled. We'll just walk around and eventually we'll fill it with somebody," Troy says.

Troy, Subelsky and other volunteers including, Heather Sarkissian, president of MP3Car.com, Nate Mook, 600Block.com, James Bon Tempo and Ida Cheinman, were able to raise some $25,000, which grows to $35,000 to $40,000 when the in-kind donations are calculated in.

Story Power

The theme for TEDx Mid-Atlantic revolved around the power of stories. Everyone has a story that they tell themselves. We see the world through a prism of stories.

According to Troy, designers tell themselves stories "to help understand how people will use the things they create. Stories are at the heart of entertainment. Journalists compose stories that help us understand our world. And stories are often the key element of ideas that spread: we tell each other 'great stories' about people, events, places and ideas."

However, the powerful metaphor Troy essentially pulled it from thin air.

"When I put together the initial description of the event together and pulled together volunteers that was a decision that needed to be made. I just felt there was something inherent in that that kind of worked," he says.

Everyone has a story, he notes, adding "the ones that are most compelling are the ones that often get the most play."

The story of Troy

For his part, the story that inspires Troy began in the late-80s when he became really involved with design and tech culture coming out of San Francisco.

"I was quite drawn to that because it represented the kind of hopefulness and people were using design to communicate new ideas. I felt that design, in particular, really could influence the way you view the world. I've been involved in technology for 20-odd years and I was bouncing back and forth between Baltimore and San Francisco, though I never lived there," he says.

"I had a lot of friends and developed a lot of business relationships there. What I finally realized was that my story was not so much to go there and be a part of that, but to bring that design ethos to Baltimore because I do love this region. I finally realized that was what my story arc was. I thought that we could successfully bring that design ethos here to Baltimore and make people feel it, viscerally. I was really proud of that," Troy continues.

Inspiring words

Twenty speakers brought their stories told in just 18 minutes to the Maryland Institute College of Art's Falvey Hall and told them to a packed audience of 600 people, mostly from the Mid-Atlantic region, but with some who traveled from as far away as Washington State.

In general audience members said that they were inspired by presentations by musician and former convict, John Forte, school lunch head Tony Geraci, artist, Naomi Natale, National Geographic photographer, Karen Kasmauski and Aris Melissaratos, senior advisor to the president of Johns Hopkins University.

"Recently, I had been looking for inspiration," says Anne Shiflett, a Baltimore-based entrepreneur. "And though I don't even like rap music, I was really moved by John Forte. His story is just so powerful and what he's chosen to do since his release."

"I'm having a wonderful time. You're going to have to throw me out at the end. This has been very inspiring. Just getting juiced from so much passion and the inspiration I see around me," says Frank, a public health expert.

According to Troy, the conference was one of the most successful TEDx events, he's heard of.

"We're already trying to figure out what the next event looks like, what its going to be and that sort of thing. We'll probably make the announcement in the next few weeks," he concluded.

Photo captions:

Photographer Karen Kasmauski speaks during TEDx MidAtlantic in Baltimore - Arianne Teeple
TEDx MidAtlantic at Falvey Hall at Maryland Institute College of Art - Arianne Teeple
Attendees mingle during a break at TEDx MidAtlantic in Falvey Hall at Maryland Institute College of Art - Arianne Teeple
Aris Melissaratos, the Senior Advisor to the President of Johns Hopkins University - Arianne Teeple
TEDx MidAtlantic founder Dave Troy - Arianne Teeple
The audience listens at TEDx MidAtlantic in Falvey Hall at Maryland Institute College of Art - Arianne Teeple