UNIVERSITY PARK — The mission of the TED organization is to offer conferences throughout the world offering “ideas worth spreading.” TED talks began in the 1980s by focusing on “technology, entertainment and design.” They now have expanded to incorporate talks on science, business, the arts, global issues and more.
While the organization holds an international conference, it also promotes locally sponsored, locally held conferences. These are called TEDx events.
For the sixth year, the Penn State community has sponsored TEDxPSU. This year’s event, “Drive Your Reality,” was hosted by local entrepreneur Spud Marshall. Alex Murdoch was curator, leader and event manager.
This year’s TEDxPSU included many talks by distinguished Penn State professors and lecturers. The event took place in Schwab Auditorium and was live-streamed worldwide on the Internet.
The program had many highlights.
■ Pawel Nolbert was brought to Penn State from Poland to discuss his approach to creativity and communication. Nolbert has a corporate client list that includes some of the world’s largest business organizations.
■ Sajay Samuel, of Penn State, offered his thoughts on the reasons that a college education costs so much and how the debt burden can be eased. His talk — which was not free of controversy — questioned the value and efficacy of a college education. He also suggested that some degrees should cost more to achieve than others, depending on their eventual value in the marketplace.
■ State College business leader Scott Woods, president of West Arete, a successful custom software company located on Allen Street, spoke about his own philosophy of business and how he came to see the value of an employee’s time and spirit.
Woods said that 15 years ago, he and his wife sold all their worldly possessions — except their car — quit their jobs and traveled throughout North America and the world to climb mountains and sheer rock formations. Their conquests included remote walls in South Africa, alpine peaks in Peru and Half Dome and El Capitan.
Woods leads a company of 12 employees who all receive a one-month sabbatical each and every year they are employed. He explained that these sabbaticals have helped create a highly productive, highly loyal workplace.
■ Penn State climate professor Richard Alley discussed his evolution from geologist to climatologist. He has traveled the world in search of evidence to substantiate climate change. He has been compared to a cross between Woody Allen and Carl Sagan.
■Khanjan Mehta, founding director of Penn State’s Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship program, has traveled the world with Penn State students to work on a variety of real-world solutions in low-resource regions.
The conference also included a colorful performance by Natya, a Penn State student dance company, performing a story from Indian culture.
The event was completely sold out this year.
TEDxPSU will soon post all of its talks on YouTube. It is expected that some of them will be viewed by millions of people worldwide. A talk delivered by Penn State professor Sam Richards in 2010 was ranked one of the most popular TEDx talks that year.
