On Friday, Ian and I had the pleasure of going to TedX in Manchester, hosted by the BBC. It may be a little cheeky to admit, but we also went to the Sheffield one a few weeks ago - hopefully that's not breaking any rules, or depriving anyone of desperately desired tickets. Despite being part of the same series of events, they were completely different days - comparing them isn't really fair (but I'm going to do it anyway!)
On the whole both events were well organised (especially since it sounds like all the events were pulled together fairly quickly), at great venues, and were a good way to spend precious work hours. Manchester was amazingly welled staffed (I reckon about 30 people shepherding us around, producing, filming etc), well organised, and the studio where the talks were held was a spectacular space. Apparently it was the largest TedX in Europe so far - and the scale and number of attendees felt suitably impressive, with hardly any empty seats. The Sheffield event was much smaller, and judging by the number of unused name badges on the reception desk, a large number of people who'd booked tickets didn't turn up. Although this mean there was more of the (excellent) buffet for us!
Comparing Manchester and Sheffield
If you had to sum them up in one word, I'd say Sheffield was whimsical, while Manchester was serious. Sheffield had a talk about autonomous musical tapping boxes; Manchester had social media etiquette. At Sheffield the prerecorded talks got rounds of applause, whereas one person's clapping at Manchester was met with a slightly embarrassed titter around the room. I think this was even reflected in the venues - the Electric Works with its eclectic interior design, semi-opaque bubble wrap walls and of course the Helter Skelter - vs BBC Oxford Road which is a monolithic, concrete, battleship of a building (an architectural wonder in that the break out rooms had one glass wall, yet still managed to feel dark and claustrophobic!)
Talks
While Sheffield's talks seemed to have more focus on business, inspiration, and online interaction with the real world, the Manchester talks were (to me) slightly disappointing - very social media oriented, and covering topics which have been covered at many conferences many times before. Is journalism dead? Are social networks the future? While I was happy to sit and listen to the speakers, perhaps because it's my "area" they didn't provide any revolutionary insights, or indeed answers - to others who aren't as familiar they may have been more so (although I got the impression that the majority of the audience were already familiar with these types of things). I did find the talks on things which are outside of my normal mindset interesting - for example Manchester's changing architecture was fascinating.
I also struggled to get the "point" of some of the talks - for example, while the presentation about Gaydar was interesting (as it isn't a site or community I am familiar with), I wasn't sure what the conclusion to take away was - is it that Gaydar exists and is a nice place? Or a nasty place? That niche communities in general exist? That niche communities are a good thing? Or a bad thing? That niche communities exist alongside mainstream ones?
Personally, I'd single out Phil Griffin's talk about architecture and Hugh Garry's talk about the summer festivals film as being my highlights of the day. Possibly co-incidentally, these were the two talks which didn't use Powerpoint slides beyond background imagery. Draw your own conclusions.
At both venues I did enjoy watching the pre-recorded talks - watching them in a room full of like minded people is such a different experience from watching them on your own on a computer screen. It struck me that for all the talk of online interaction and communities, and revolutions in broadcasting and communications, we were basically doing what people have been doing in cinemas for the last century or so - sitting in a dark room, enjoying the shared experience of watching something interesting unfold on the big screen. I'd be interested in exploring whether anyone else is interested in a regular TedX cinema type event.
One thing which I've noticed more and more at various events is the constant Twittering which goes on during talks. Following the Twitter stream is great for following the thoughts of other delegates, and maybe I just can't multitask any more, but I tried to do it and found it impossible to concentrate on what the speaker was saying AND read/write tweets in real time. It must be somewhat dispiriting for a speaker to look out and see half the audience looking down and typing. I think if I was ever to speak at one of these I'd ask people to listen properly and save their tweets for afterwards, like a grumpy school teacher!
Questions
One bit I found very disappointing at Manchester was some of the questions asked by the audience. The first question of the day, to Matthew Postgate of BBC R&D wasn't a question, but a political, anti-BBC rant, which I thought was extremely rude and inappropriate.
Firstly, the question was of no relevance to the speaker or the talk he'd just given. Perhaps if it had been the BBC's Director General on the stage, it would have been a fair question, but it wasn't. The questioner had an opportunity to ask a question to the head of what has been one of the most innovative and groundbreaking research departments in media over the last 50 years, and instead chose to make a sub-Daily Mail rant. What a waste.
Secondly, it was completely against the spirit of Ted(X) - the introductory video we had heard just a few minutes before had said that TedX was about spreading ideas, specifically NOT about pushing any political, commercial or religious agenda. Fail.
Thirdly, the questioner seemed to fail to see the irony of ranting about how (and I'm paraphrasing) the BBC is stuck in an ivory tower, failing to reflect modern Britain or engage in a conversations which are relevant to ordinary people, at an event funded by the BBC with the aim of engaging with the public and industry about contemporary media issues, which was organised by a BBC department (Backstage) set up to find innovative ways of opening up the BBC and its data to the public.
Fourthly, it meant that questions for the rest of the day were limited to 2 per speaker, and audience questions seemed to be abandoned entirely by the end of the day. Personally I'd like more time for questions, as long as they were short, and relevant to the speaker.
Despite this, overall, both events were very worthwhile, and I hope the desire and funding for more TedX events in the north is forthcoming.
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Reply #2 on : Mon October 12, 2009, 19:21:00
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Reply #1 on : Mon October 12, 2009, 13:08:56