Ideas Worth Spreading

Well, today was Wednesday. And you know what that means at DIS – field study day! I’ve already mentioned a little bit about field studies in a previous post, and how enriching they can be to the classroom experience.

Today, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to volunteer at the TEDxCopenhagen event with my Digital Media and Marketing Class. Since our class is project based, and my project happens to be working on an event/conference that takes place in October, it was exciting to see how an event on a similar scale is run and managed. Even cooler was that our volunteer coordinator, Monika, is a DIS alumna!

TED, for those of you who are unfamiliar with this organization, is a group of global conferences where experts and researchers in all disciplines give passionate lectures in engaging, creative ways. TEDx runs on a similar format as normal TED talks. The difference is that TEDx events are independently organized, provided they are licensed by the official TED, and are separate from the main TED event of the year. There are dozens of TEDx talks going on in any given month, and in any given location – my own university hosted one this past semester! If you’re interested in finding a local TEDx talk near you, click here.

The theme of this conference was mobility. “Mobility?” you might be asking. “How can someone have an entire set of speakers around mobility?” Don’t worry. I was a little confused by the theme at first as well, but the more I listened and learned, the more I discovered what a fascinating issue mobility is.

Mobility is physical ability, certainly, which has an extreme impact on people’s lives. Do people in wheelchairs have equal access to transportation? But it extends beyond the physical as well. It extends to transportation issues, like bike lanes and metro systems, which in turn links to issues of efficient urban planning. And what about mobility and health? And innovation? And human rights? One of the previous TED talks shown was a talk by women’s rights activist Manal al-Sharif, who was imprisoned for daring to drive a car in Saudi Arabia, where women, in practice, are not allowed to drive cars. She helped start a campaign encouraging Saudi women to drive and take into their own hands their mobility.

Mobility, in sum, is opportunity.

After helping set up for the lunch break, I listened to a talk given by Ole Kassow, the founder of Cycling Without Age. Cycling Without Age is a volunteer organization that gives bicycle rides to patients in nursing homes all over Denmark, allowing the elderly to cycle once more and feel the wind in their hair. Kassow emphasized how much good this program had done for the men and women who had once been stuck inside their nursing homes. Those with dementia began to speak more freely and cheerfully. Those who used tranquilizers to sleep no longer needed them. Moods improved drastically. Kassow and his team of volunteers changed lives by just getting people outside and getting them moving.

Most recently, he and a team of 15 volunteers drove 20 elderly people on a tour from the Danish city of Odense to the German city of Hamburg over the course of three days. That’s a distance of over 300 kilometers. And according to a 90 year old passenger on the tour, it was the best vacation she’d ever been on.

During the break, my friend Hope and I got the chance to try out some pretty awesome tech. The first was a Me-Mover, something I would describe as a combination between a bike and a scooter. You get this quirky little machine moving by lifting your knees up and down, almost like a stair stepper. It was a little awkward at first, and definitely weird, but by the time i got the hang of it, I was speeding up and down the yard, side by side with the creator of it! I liked it so much, after my first ride I got on for another. And then another. And then another. It was incredibly fun and incredibly addicting, and I wish more than anything I could ride one around Copenhagen every day. Although I imagine the Danes in the bike lanes might give me even stranger looks than I already receive.

Hope on the Me-Mover, moving herself!

My second foray into a mobile technology was something you might have heard of – an Oculus Rift. For those of you who haven’t, it is essentially the virtual reality headset of past dreams come to life. Needless to say, when I finally noticed they were giving demos of the Rift on the other side of the room, a nerdy panicked freak out ensued, which quickly transformed into completely valid excitement. I stepped up onto a narrow crate and strapped the Rift onto my head, transforming my entire world. I was no longer standing in the old Vilhelm Lauritzen Terminal at Copenhagen Airport. I was standing on top of skyscrapers, jumping over their edges, walking up and down wobbly wooden planks, just a wrong step away from a stomach turning fall to the concrete below. My only control was my head. I only had to look a certain way to walk in that direction. I have to admit, even though I knew it was only a game, I couldn’t help but feel nervous as a teetered over those unsteady bridges, and my heart skipped a beat or two when I finally fell off the top of a building. The experience was completely surreal.

The Oculus Rift makes you look super cool.

After the break, the talks continued, and I resumed my role as a volunteer by helping set up the backstage area for the networking reception afterwards. Thankfully, there was a screen in the area streaming the event, so I never had to miss a moment on the TEDxCopenhagen stage.

Attending a live TED event has always been a goal of mine. I’ve watched more talks online than I could count, and they’ve challenged me to think of things in ways I’d never imagined. To be blunt, TED inspires me. And I hope today, with this successful event, I helped someone else become inspired as well.

TEDxCopenhagen, you were too cool.