Here we go again! TEDx Amsterdam mania and fanaticism renewed

Let’s just get this out of the way. Yes, I am still a hardcore TED groupie. Okay, I did not spend all of last year crossing the days off the calendar but did engage with tremendous foreplay - the communication process building up to next week’s TEDx Amsterdam event. Creating the profiles of this years’ speakers to release to the press flirted with my senses, compelling me to look them up on Wikipedia, YouTube and other digital platforms, consuming them voraciously in their presentation style and novelty of their ideas. Almost started to stalk some of them on Twitter but my saner part was kind enough to remind me that I really don’t have much in common with Computer-mediated Epistemology or Musical Cognition in the long run. Ah but that is why this event, a gathering of artists, designers, scientists, architects, technologists, and activists is so unusual and addictive – the adrenaline rush of immersing into unknown territories and specialties with just one common thread –ideas worth sharing and worth pursuing. As an academic used to being surrounded by the usual suspect fellow scholars, this is refreshing and indeed how I believe new ideas often truly emerge.

This year will focus on the theme of “human nature” and will kick start with the “living brain,” the Dutch National Ballet rendition of the human brain through dance form. I also did not know until a few days ago while creating Jim Stolze's profile, the founder of TEDx Amsterdam, that he is the European ambassador of TED and that he did this fascinating study about how the internet positively impacts happiness. Also I have to admit, I am morbidly curious of Tinkebell, a controversial Dutch artist best known for handling animals in her work where she actually made a handbag from the fur of her cat. In the age of the YouTube cat video fandom, this is rather hard to get away with!

And what has changed with our communication team since last year? Well, it will be an exciting reunion as we have digitally engaged much through this year and will be nice to bond in our Press Corner again. Rumor has it that we have special lap pillows to not burn our thighs off with our laptops. Also, not sure if this year Fokke and Sukke can tease us on being Mac heads as I will be breaking the chain with my run of the mill PC due to a certain incident involving drowning of my MacBook Air with a bottle of water.

Evidently some people one may argue, do not deserve to be part of the Mac Commune but I do feel liberated though from the cult with my 'damn if I care' laptop. What is definitely an exciting new intervention is working with Louise Fresco, a former UN director and sustainability expert to come up with the days’ summary of good ideas and happenings. All in all, same place, same time, round the clock idea immersion from 9am to 9pm...the promise of a supreme high is just around the corner!