:: gia’s blog ::

Here are some more photos from our trip. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, Brian did his talk. It was very well received. I was so happy for and proud of him.

Here are a few photos from the past few days.
Read the rest of this entry »

I am at TED with Brian now. We arrived in Monterey yesterday, registered, had a walk, then went to the TED Speakers’ Welcome Party. As you can imagine, we met all kinds of interesting people – scientists, entrepreneurs, artists. We *didn’t* speak to Al Gore, Robin Williams, Cameron Diaz or Meg Ryan – but I will probably end up talking to Robin Williams at some point (I interviewed him years ago) and Brian’s after Cameron Diaz (he wants to invite her to CERN… well, that’s what he said to me anyway;).

This morning I attended TED University – short talks/courses about disparate, but very ‘TED’ topics. My favourite was 8 Ways To Get Into Space by Peter Diamandis (the Chair and CEO of X Prize). After his talk I met Eric Anderson of Space Adventures. His company is why Brian and I started speaking in the first place. So I told him that if it wasn’t for him, my husband and I wouldn’t be married. I think he thought that was kinda cool. I’m *totally* going to introduce Brian to Eric and Peter when I see them again.

Another TED U course was How To Get In To See Anyone You Want by Sunny Bates in which she defined people called ‘connectors’. I realised that’s a big part of what I do- introduce people who I think will like each other, work well together, have something to give to each other. She’s made a very successful career doing that… It made me realise I should try and figure out how I can benefit from all of the introductions I make which end up benefitting others…

Now, Brian and I are going out for some lunch. The talks start later today, so Brian’s going to those and I’ll stay at the hotel and work. I don’t have a pass to all the talks. I chose instead to attend only the evening events in exchange for TED paying for Brian’s business class flight.

Aren’t I a lovely wife?

I’m watching at least one TED talk a day as Brian and I are off to TED at the end of next week (he’s talking :).

I saw an interesting one this morning by Amory Lovins. It’s about weaning the US off oil by 2040, yet he talks about building more cars, not less and making sure people who can’t afford cars now, can get them. This is what I’m talking about. So much of the Global Warming discussion is about insisting that we stop living our life in the way we currently do and live like people in a 60s commune and that no matter what we are doing to help the environment now, it really just isn’t enough, we can give up even more. It’s just not feasible at all.

So it’s refreshing to see someone offering solutions that don’t include the ‘this is where a miracle happens’ approach of thinking that everyone in the world is going to give up living their lives how they want to.

I’m watching loads of TED Talks as Brian and I are off to TED in a few weeks (look at Friday’s speakers *ahem*). There’s just so very many excellent talks… I saw this one this morning and thought at least a few people here would be interested in it.