Fun, education and Wojtek the soldier bear
TEDx Kraków, independent TEDx event based on TED conference that I wrote about on Barts News and helped to organize, took place in Kraków on 15 October this year - precisely two months back from today. I should have written this post earlier, but at first I was waiting for official photos and videos to be published (it took forever) and later I was swept off my feet by waves of work and other unpredicted events (don't ask).
In the upper hand right corner: yours truly with his girlfriend and coffee-sipping buddy
From gamer's perspective, the most important presentation was the one on Black Sheep's Strategy, delivered by noone else than Michał Kiciński and Marcin Iwiński, two gentlemen behind Good Old Games and two Witcher games. I found it very interesting, despite knowing most of facts presented and despite my gut feeling that not all of their choices were as concious as they were claiming them to be. I also felt proud, because it was my idea to invite them, one that I have conducted from the very beginning (early event planning) and executed through all stages (convincing Speaker Committee, contacting Marcin and Michał, suggesting themes and so on).
The dynamic duo behind GOG and CD Project Red
As for the other presentations of TEDx Kraków, it was similar to all independent conferences, meaning that some were brilliant, some okay and some downright bad. Let me highlight a few ones that I thought to be interesting.
From a geek's perspective, I especially liked the one given by Pawel Moskal on medical imaging with anti-matter. Explaining rather difficult scientific topic in a way that general public can follow, smart remarks on how science works and some witty jokes. I really enjoyed this one, even if the author was not the most confident public speaker ever. I was a little disappointed by the presentation by Paul Mankiewicz from Gaia Institute - the topic was extremely interesting, combining modern-age ecology, high technologies and urban planning, but unfortunately the delivery was nowhere near as appealing as the subject. Other nerdy presentations included Szymon Slupik's thoughts on future of mobile computing and overview of technical center in Wrocław by Mirosław Miller.
The event gathered about 500 participants
There were also non-technical presentations and some of these were truly excellent: the audience responded particularly well to Charles Crawford's Physics of Diplomacy, I found Uwe and Gabi von Seltmann's story touching and endearing (you can read the transcript here), John Scherer's talk on finding one's passion was really neat (as much as I normally abhor motivational speeches) and Richard Lucas' account of Wojtek the soldier bear was just hilarious. It was all topped by musical performances by Sambor Dudziński (very moving show), Andrew Shapiro and Olga Szwajgier (Youtube movie doesn't do her justice, her voice was off the scale).
As for presentations I didn't like, they were given by two people obsessed by food sovereignty - Jadwiga Lopata and Sir Julian Rose. The first one essentially spent all her time claiming that natural food is better (of course, but why exactly?), GMO is bad (she didn't explain why) and Polish countryside is a reservoir of knowledge and kind folks (which it isn't). I know many similar old ladies, but they aren't usually invited to conferences - why this one was is a mystery to me. As for the other speaker, he was extremely annoying, manipulating facts about GMOs and using insinuations bordering on lies - but this comes as no surprise from somewhat unstable gentleman from Prince Charles' circles.
You can read others' impressions of TEDx Kraków in English, as well as in Polish (here and here). The overall reception was very positive and the event went down in the history as one of the more successful TEDxes in Poland . You can judge it for yourself by checking the presentations on Youtube, but in my personal opinion it was much better than TEDx Warsaw and at least on par with TEDx Poznań (no link, because website expired).
One more afterthought: while TEDx Kraków turned out to be an enriching experience, I was unpleasantly surprised by reactions from some people who, upon hearing that I was organising a TEDx event, went to extremes to explain to me why it was hipster bullshit with no educational value, a complete waste of time and so on. I know from experience that whenever someone is doing something pro bono for others, they meet with mixed reactions, but the amount of negativity I've received from some (prior to the event!) was something I did not expect.
TEDx Kraków, independent TEDx event based on TED conference that I wrote about on Barts News and helped to organize, took place in Kraków on 15 October this year - precisely two months back from today. I should have written this post earlier, but at first I was waiting for official photos and videos to be published (it took forever) and later I was swept off my feet by waves of work and other unpredicted events (don't ask).
In the upper hand right corner: yours truly with his girlfriend and coffee-sipping buddyFrom gamer's perspective, the most important presentation was the one on Black Sheep's Strategy, delivered by noone else than Michał Kiciński and Marcin Iwiński, two gentlemen behind Good Old Games and two Witcher games. I found it very interesting, despite knowing most of facts presented and despite my gut feeling that not all of their choices were as concious as they were claiming them to be. I also felt proud, because it was my idea to invite them, one that I have conducted from the very beginning (early event planning) and executed through all stages (convincing Speaker Committee, contacting Marcin and Michał, suggesting themes and so on).
The dynamic duo behind GOG and CD Project RedAs for the other presentations of TEDx Kraków, it was similar to all independent conferences, meaning that some were brilliant, some okay and some downright bad. Let me highlight a few ones that I thought to be interesting.
From a geek's perspective, I especially liked the one given by Pawel Moskal on medical imaging with anti-matter. Explaining rather difficult scientific topic in a way that general public can follow, smart remarks on how science works and some witty jokes. I really enjoyed this one, even if the author was not the most confident public speaker ever. I was a little disappointed by the presentation by Paul Mankiewicz from Gaia Institute - the topic was extremely interesting, combining modern-age ecology, high technologies and urban planning, but unfortunately the delivery was nowhere near as appealing as the subject. Other nerdy presentations included Szymon Slupik's thoughts on future of mobile computing and overview of technical center in Wrocław by Mirosław Miller.
The event gathered about 500 participantsThere were also non-technical presentations and some of these were truly excellent: the audience responded particularly well to Charles Crawford's Physics of Diplomacy, I found Uwe and Gabi von Seltmann's story touching and endearing (you can read the transcript here), John Scherer's talk on finding one's passion was really neat (as much as I normally abhor motivational speeches) and Richard Lucas' account of Wojtek the soldier bear was just hilarious. It was all topped by musical performances by Sambor Dudziński (very moving show), Andrew Shapiro and Olga Szwajgier (Youtube movie doesn't do her justice, her voice was off the scale).
As for presentations I didn't like, they were given by two people obsessed by food sovereignty - Jadwiga Lopata and Sir Julian Rose. The first one essentially spent all her time claiming that natural food is better (of course, but why exactly?), GMO is bad (she didn't explain why) and Polish countryside is a reservoir of knowledge and kind folks (which it isn't). I know many similar old ladies, but they aren't usually invited to conferences - why this one was is a mystery to me. As for the other speaker, he was extremely annoying, manipulating facts about GMOs and using insinuations bordering on lies - but this comes as no surprise from somewhat unstable gentleman from Prince Charles' circles.
You can read others' impressions of TEDx Kraków in English, as well as in Polish (here and here). The overall reception was very positive and the event went down in the history as one of the more successful TEDxes in Poland . You can judge it for yourself by checking the presentations on Youtube, but in my personal opinion it was much better than TEDx Warsaw and at least on par with TEDx Poznań (no link, because website expired).
One more afterthought: while TEDx Kraków turned out to be an enriching experience, I was unpleasantly surprised by reactions from some people who, upon hearing that I was organising a TEDx event, went to extremes to explain to me why it was hipster bullshit with no educational value, a complete waste of time and so on. I know from experience that whenever someone is doing something pro bono for others, they meet with mixed reactions, but the amount of negativity I've received from some (prior to the event!) was something I did not expect.
