Brian and I

Me

Brian

Brian on stage at TED before the audience was let in

And again.

Brian during his talk (from ‘whatcounts’ at Flickr, click through)

Here are a few photos from the past few days.

Dork

Dork Dressed up

Two Dorks Ready For Dinner

Dinner

It’s Freakin’ Sputnik, For Christ’s Sake!!!

Brian On Stage – The only photo I took. I didn’t even look at the camera when taking it. I hope we can get copies of TED’s photos!

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 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.