The Walter Cronkite School’s First Amendment Forum played host Wednesday to a conference, held in conjunction with the internationally acclaimed nonprofit organization TED, which brings together innovative ideas through talks at both national and local levels.
The TED — which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design — Full Spectrum Conference was streamed live from Long Beach, Calif., in the Cronkite building throughout the day.
According to the organization, TED2012: Full Spectrum was held to celebrate the belief that the ancient art of the spoken word is being reinvented with new approaches that will leave a powerful impact on audiences everywhere.
The live conference scheduled breaks to allow time for local presenters to share their ideas with audiences at watch parties that were streaming the feed.
This TEDx event, which is not organized by TED itself, was held on all four ASU campuses, each featuring different speakers. Barrett, the Honors College, has hosted TEDx events in the past and worked to expand the program to all campuses.
The university worked directly with TED to be able to stream the conference in the school, gaining a licensing agreement from the nonprofit and then searching Arizona for speakers who would inspire and enthuse their audience with their ideas and presentations.
Barrett program coordinator and planner of the event Sashaun Wood said she wanted ASU to bring a diverse group of speakers to the table.
“It was important to bring people with ideas worth spreading,” she said.
One of those people was Patrick Grzanka, a Barrett faculty member, who presented, “10 Rules for Being a Feminist Man.”
Grzanka’s theory and presentation demonstrated his beliefs that feminism in this day and age is about social justice for all people and not just women. One of his main points was that men shouldn’t pretend to not have feelings.
“Emotions tend to be considered feminine, but emotions are an important resource for identifying problems,” he said. “You should embrace emotions and talk about them.”
Music therapy freshman Candice Bain said she was inspired by Grzanka’s presentation and thought it was exactly the type of talk for which TED is known.
“His redefinition of feminism is something that should be spread,” she said. “Men would benefit from this. I don’t see how any man could listen to that talk and not take something from it.”
Other presenters that took the stage at the Downtown campus were Jessica Boehm, a freshman journalism student, and Matt Lehrman, the executive director of local nonprofit Alliance for Audience and ShowUp.com.
At the end of the conference, Wood said she hoped the conference viewers left the event stimulated from the innovational talks.
“I hope they were inspired,” Wood said. “I hope they were able to imagine a world with amazing possibilities.”
Contact the reporter at jasmine.barta@asu.edu
Editor’s note: TEDx presenter Jessica Boehm is a contributing reporter to the Downtown Devil. She was not involved in reporting on the event.
