I am not convinced that TED audiences or the organization are so committed to execution. I hope these talks DO lead to collaborations as Dave B. suggests.

I thought your “billionaires/edutainment” comment was accurate and not so terrible, really. Perhaps it will help.
I wish TED was more aware of their (at times) off-putting impression that it is much more interested in self-congratulations, running a modern-day salon, and encouraging investment in all things technological. Technology is suspiciously *the* answer for everything. It is ok for TED to be tech-focused, but don’t shroud the organization in open-mindedness when in fact the acceptable range of solutions to the big questions posed is quite narrow.

I followed your conference and a few others from Buenos Aires-Argentina, through the web. Sporadically, I also checked Twitter -hashtag #TEDxNYED, confirming tweets may be of little help if you are interested in a holistic understanding of thinking and arguments.

There is indeed (good and bad) theatrics in academic performances, and it is peculiar to different languages and cultures (in the case of USA, for example, jokes play an almost ritual role). Those of us teaching to large audiences develop with the years a sense and a command of theatrics. There are also those who become masters in using it as a substitute to substance.

Many of us working on education and interested in educational change share your concern about excessive focus on ideas (and on norms and policies, I would add) rather than on implementation. However, we cannot assume that speakers are the ones who provide the ideas and attendees are the ones that – you hope – “will go on from thought to action”. Not all speakers are “just talkers”, and there are many in the audience who are not only doers and implementers but also thinkers, intellectuals and professionals engaged with actual practice and social transformation.

Let me take this opportunity to add what I have already asked TedTalk organizers through Twitter. Why do speakers come only (or mainly) from one part of the world – the North? Why are such talks focused on Anglophone speakers? Our world is multilingual and multicultural. We have great scientists, thinkers and doers in our countries in the South. Hopefully we start seing more global diversity and equity in the selection of TED speakers, so as to honour and reach the wide international audience, beyond the US.

Rosa Maria Torres
@rosamariatorres
Researcher and international education and learning adviser
Quito-Ecuador

Back to the issue of execution, I find myself increasingly frustrated by visions of the future of education shared at conferences and online when those visions seem far away from day-to-day practice. For example, I’m always impressed by what Michael Wesch does in his teaching. However, I’m equally impressed by the challenge of helping college and university faculty members understand and implement Wesch’s teaching strategies.

That being said, like the development of Zotero, the potential of something like TEDxNYED starts with an idea but it the collaborations that happen afterward that make it a true success.

It is not the speaker and their idea but rather the community of attendees and viewers that have continued to think about the implications of TEDxNYED.

While this version of TEDxNYED may have been more focused on ideas, it was my hope to introduce them to attendees and viewers who were not familiar with those ideas so that the community could motivate and execute in their physical and virtual communities.