Why TEDxNYED sucked
That headline is hyperbole in honor of Jeff Jarvis.
I haven’t written my review of TEDxNYED yet because I’m waiting for the videos to appear online. I’d like to verify my notes and memories of specific speeches before I make my reactions public. As it stands, it may take several posts to summarize my thoughts on the experience.
Many participants and speakers posted their comments immediately following the event, and, surprising to some, not all of the reviews are “parades of rainbow sparkle ponies.” While some speeches appear universally appreciated, many others left general senses of So what? and Why?
This mixed reaction led to a little back-and-forth, with TEDxNYED fans suggesting that the detractors were looking for more than the conference aspired to be. The fans point out that TED’s motto is “Ideas Worth Sharing,” so looking for anything more than that is foolish. At least one participant realized this halfway through the day, and enjoyed it much more thereafter.
But I would argue that the TED-like format of the presentations, the application-only attendance policy, and the relatively narrow topic doomed TEDxNYED from the get-go. In other words, the effectiveness of TED doesn’t generalize to smaller thematic events.
In hindsight it seems painfully obvious: Pick a random person working in educational reform or technology. Ask them to explain their work in 18 minutes or less. I’d venture from personal experience that half of them will spend the entire time justifying their work. That is, they will do nothing but explain the problems they see.
Now put those technologists and reformists in front of people involved and/or interested in those fields. Most of the audience will already be aware of the issues in education. So many of us at TEDxNYED just sat there mute, listening to vociferous preaching and approving grunts from the choir. From a particularly perspicacious commentary:
[I wondered] how much further does this get us?…and wondering, feeling the discomfort of the lack of diversity in the room, lack of real diversity in the opinions, the fear of spending yet another day in the echo chamber
I had hoped that TEDxNYED would be more than that because it was thematic. Instead it was an attempt to force the square peg of the TED format into the round whole of educational innovation.