On February 16 2019, we attended the first TED Social event which took place in London.
It was a very privileged experience for us to meet with all those wonderful people in the very cosy and welcoming atmosphere of Kindred London.
The night started with a glass of champagne and some delicious snacks. It was also very nice that we received an e-mail from Anna in advance not to take pictures for social media during the event. For a very long time, it was the first night we spent disconnected to the online world and enjoyed the real connections inside the room.
The community tables allowed us sit anywhere we want and the dinner was served. I believe not only at our table but at all the tables, people were genuinely interested in one and other. So as soon as we sat down, everyone started talking to the person next, across and sometimes even far away to each other.
Later Chris Anderson took the mic and gave a nice welcoming speech. Right after him, Anna Anderson, who just started managing Kindred, explained how she imagined this new place to be and how she will try to built up a good community in London with Kindred. I think there was no better way for her to give a head start to create community by this wonderful TED people.
The mic was an open mic. Chris told us that everyone who wants to share something can come up and talk about it. Like in everything when you have permission no one wanted to start this process until Sophie Scott took place. She gave her funniest speech about laughter which quickly broke the ice of the open mic. After that we heard lots of casual sounding yet amazing speeches from other TED speakers including, Anab Jain, Anil Seth, George Monbiot, Ian Firth, James Veitch, Jamie Bartlett, Stephen Webb, Tim Harford.
And of course last but not least, my personal favorite, Sir Ken Robinson (which we also found a chance to meet personally) took the mic and spoke about his new citizenship in US and his 9 month of grandson. It was funny, smart and also insightful.
After all the speeches, it was time for some music from the incredible voice of Luke Sital-Singh
As the waiters poured more wine to empty glasses everyone became friends with one another.
For us, the nice thing about this community is, even though our work and background are quite different than scientists, researches, doctors, inventors etc. we always find a good ground to speak with everyone.
I believe it is the universal power of animation and visual arts. Not everyone can speak about physics, medicine etc. but everyone can a have word about visuals and animation.
I think the reason for that is it’s simplicity.
In 21st century animated visuals are in everywhere, they take a big part in our every day life.
We become much more connected with visuals and visual learning than words.
We feel lucky to be part of the visual landscape that connects people all over the world.
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