"New Connections?" It's about the Stories

Of course the IdeaFestival is about ideas that matter.

But the best part of the four days, for me, are the stories from the presenters, many of whom will share something intimate from their life about a key discovery, or describe why they find themselves at the nexus of a movement in the art world, or how they first realized that they would devote their lives to music or business or science. It's the essence of the festival's promise of new connections. Sure, you're likely to put two and two together in ways that will send a bit of electricity down your spine - it's happened to me more than once - but it's the personal story that will ignite the synaptic snap, crackle and pop.

To get a sense of what I'm talking about, watch prodigious savant, synesthete and best-selling author Daniel Tammet share his surprisingly relatable story of self-discovery from IdeaFestival 2010. He talked about going to the library and finding a book with his name on it, and described why, as a young boy with autism, that was so important. He delivered with perfect comic timing a one-liner about living in Lithuania. He shared his life-changing surprise that other people shared his peculiar love of numbers. His elfin poise gave testament that every mind mattered, and that one needn't shout to be heard. It was deeply and emotionally resonant for someone, like me, who has so often preferred books to people.

He made clear that he was still growing and discovering.

This year, I'm most looking forward to hearing from digital disruptor Baratunde Thurston and theoretical physicist Lisa Randall, whose respective insights into contemporary life and Planck scales touch on some strange physics. Both track - If I may - the transformation of scraps of information from the margins to meaning.

If you're thinking about coming to the IdeaFestival, there are a VERY limited number of tickets to individual events that are now available. The volume of all-access and day passes sold this year has been record breaking. So if want to see Baratunde or Lisa Randall, or any of the other incredible story tellers who will be at IdeaFestival 2012, now's the time to act. 

Word's getting around.

Wayne

Individual session tix now on sale!

Tickets for individual events have gone on sale today, and are in very limited supply. If you've had your eye on a particular speaker, but simply couldn't buy an all-access or day pass, now is the time to get a ticket to see your favorite IdeaFestival presenter!

Wayne

"The Click Moment"

The IdeaFestival is built around the idea that creativity and lasting innovation require a diverse array of people and ideas. Frans Johansson couldn't agree more. Probably best known as the author of "The Medici Effect," he's out with a new book, "The Click Moment," about the instant when two seemingly unrelated ideas come together in an entirely new way. Here, he talks about the value of "intersections" in his own life at Think Jar:

Think Jar Collective: How did you initially get into this notion of “intersections” fostering creativity?

Frans Johansson: There’s a long and a short answer.  The long answer is that I grew up in a very unique environment that allowed me to explore the idea. I was raised in Sweden, to a Swedish dad and an African American and Cherokee mom. So there were a lot of different intersections between Sweden and the US and being black and white, multiple cultures; all these things were intermingling.

These ideas really began to crystallize when I went to college and studied environmental science. I think I chose it because it was such an inter-disciplinary major that allowed me to explore ideas in chemistry, physics, biology, geology and so on. I actually thought  that I was going to do Ph.D. in marine biology but I ended up going to business school (Harvard) and then I started a software company. So, all of those ideas I think were and have been processing in the background. I’ve lived a life at intersections between different industries, fields, cultures and disciplines.

"Intersections" just happen to be an IdeaFestival speciality. It's why we worked so hard to bring people like Ray Bradbury, author and prodigious savant Daniel Tammet, and alternate reality game designer Jane McGonigal to past festivals. It's why we'll bring poet Nikky Finney, theoretical physicist Lisa Randall, serial entrepreneur Peter Sims, and host of other incredible and talented people to Louisville this September. Each of them have unique and inspiring stories to share with you - trust me, you don't want to miss Spencer West and Sarathbabu Elumalai at Thrivals.

Read the Johansson interview at ThinkJar, as well as "the rules of randomness and how to stand apart" at 99U. As it turns out, "intersections" are not just good for creatives or for the temporary feel-good high.

Opportunity lies there.

Stay curious.

Wayne

Image: Some rights reserved by jonycunha

For Neil Armstrong, "Staying Put Meant Death"

"Staying put means death - it is true physically, true spiritually and true intellectually."

In honor of the passing of Neil Armstrong, the first human to set foot on the moon, I'm re-posting a video that summarizes for me why exploration is so important to the human species. In this three minute video, Mars scientist Nathalie Cabrol describes how she decided she would devote her life to space exploration and why she thinks it's so important still, especially now. But it's the quote above that captures the essence of her argument.

Forget for a moment that Cabrol is talking about her field of planetary exploration and ask yourself what worthwhile discovery has ever been made that didn't involve risk - risk to financial status, to reputation and yes, to individual lives. By the time Armstrong and Aldrin climbed through the hatch between the command module Columbia and entered the spidery and impossibly thin womb of the lunar module Eagle in orbit around the moon, they had devoted thousands of hours to to simulated lunar landings. They had practiced countless scenarios. But they didn't know whether would succeed, or whether they'd be coming back at all. I think it was the not knowing that made all the difference. Despite sounding alarms from an overtaxed and primitive flight computer, and warnings that their fuel was nearly exhausted, it was the not knowing that took them to the surface in less than ten minutes following their lunar de-orbit burn.

For a pie-eyed little boy who watched these explorers, one after another, return in scorched and buoyant capsules under red and white banners, and who would later earn his license to fly, the last forty years have been a massive let down. Fresh from a trip to another body in our solar system, we've been flying in circles ever since. In that time, the budget for space exploration has been cut by over 90 percent from its Apollo height. And yet one can argue that it was the electronic breakthroughs - like the integrated circuit - created from the impossible idea that humans could go to the moon that made today's digital culture possible. Peter Thiel sums it up when he says we wanted a future of flying cars and got 140 characters instead. So I guess there's that.

Yay?

"Staying put means death - it is true physically, true spiritually and true intellectually." Cabrol's video is less than four minutes long. If by the end of her brief appearance you're out of your seat, fists pumping, I think you'll feel right at home at the IdeaFestival.

It's a place where explorers gather.

Wayne

In Creative Economy, Workers need Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose

I've posted this video before, but Daniel Pink captures so much of what is important about the dawning whole-brain economy that it's worth re-blogging.

"What is the surprising truth about what motivates us?" 

If, as Pink has suggested elsewhere, we're moving into an age where entrepreneurship and the ability to think laterally as well as deeply will be the most financially rewarding, if the risk takers and meaning-makers ultimately win, then workers, whether employed professionally by someone else, or alone in the studio before a blank canvas, need autonomy to be at their best. They need mastery.

They need purpose.

If you believe this too, you belong at the IdeaFestival. Come join us in September!

Wayne