So of course I know about TED. And you probably do too. Watched the videos, loved them, inspired by some of them even. Know someone who has been. Along came TEDx Johannesburg and I figured it’d be nice to attend. You know. See what it’s like. Ambled on over to the web page and discovered that the organisers actually wanted me to fill out a form! With questions and stuff.

OK so why would you want to know that? Answered the questions and hit submit and then thought not too much about it. But I was chuffed to get the email saying that I would be attending. A little buzz started within me, belying my cool and detached attitude toward the event.

Sunday rolled around and we made our way to the venue the long way due to the 94.7 Momentum Cycle Challenge. As an aside, we made excellent time and were not much inconvenienced by the race and actually like cyclists and the race (#wannabecyclists). Our expectation was a room of young geeks as opposed to our 40-something geekness. First assumption knocked on its head. There was a wonderful melange of people. Young and old. Grey and not. Women and men. Very little stereotyping.

Each attendee was issued with a nicely printed board on which you had to write your name and include a line on what you wanted to do before you die. Excellent ice breaker that allowed people to sidle up to each other and nonchalantly say, so you wanna go to the moon hey....... Mine said to dive the wrecks of Bikini Atoll. Should be doable.

The event kicked off with a nervous host laying out the day and we were off. Back-to-back talks from people I had never heard of. Subjects that I would not have considered interesting at all.

From Iain Thomas talking about his experience with the site his project I Wrote This For You www.thisisforyou.co.za www.pleasefindthis.blogspot.com, to Hennie Eksteen digging deep with earthworms, to Annah Mabunda and her clinical work, to Claire Janisch blending with biomimicry. Topics ranged from dung beetles, a desk for your lap, or should that be for the lap of those students who don’t have desks. From the Broccoli Project to Moments of Inspiration and Playful Interventions from Marcus Neustetter. A perspective on taking reading for granted from Nhlanhla Buthelezi to Prof. Clarke Scholtz telling us why you shouldn’t drive over elephant dung.

For full coverage of the event trot over to master-wordsmith Ivo Vegter’s page – www.ivo.co.za. Whilst this will be sufficient to cover the verbal side of what took place it is the meeting of minds, the applause, the spirit, the intentions, the gravitas of meeting these strangers and sharing their stories with them, and them sharing their stories with us, that makes attending an event of this nature so extraordinary.

My leavebehind for the day? There are lots of people who are consciously making and trying to make a difference. Often starting with nothing more than: I would like to or how can I make a difference? These people invest of themselves. They persevere. They have passion. And isn’t that what it’s all about. A dream. A passion. Doing something because you really think it’s worth doing. And if many of us do this. Who knows. Something might happen. Things might get done.

So TEDxJohannesburg is not the end. It’s really only a facilitator. It’s a starting point. And from that perspective it was awesome.