Still loving TED

I was hoping to blog everyday from TED but it’s just too hard. Every minute awake here at TED@Aspen is filled with sometime very fantastic to occupy the mind or body. Dan and I are working with a group called The Little Kids Collective to create the conference wrap up and we are mostly working late at night. Day time is filled with watching all the amazing speakers that are giving us the fodder with which we create the wrap up.

Today I brought my laptop and am blogging while watching speakers – duh! I guess I could have thought of that sooner – especially since the have a room called Blogger’s Alley.

Some very fun people I have to let you know about – other members of the collective. Ze Frank is this very funny guy I’d never heard of before. Certainly my fault and not hit… he’s doing great things. Check out his site. Watch The Show with Ze Frank. Raw and hilarious.

Rives – I wish I met this guy like a decade ago. Slam poet, funny man, and a guy I’ve had a good time hanging out with for the past few days. Check out his site and see some of his work on YouTube. He’s Rainman meets Lenny Bruce.

Jill Sobule – I wrote about her in the last post and yes – more and more of the same. She’s amazing. Such a wacky sense of humor which can instantly be transformed into a song on her guitar which is never far away. I’m really excited about working with her in this conference wrap up because she really floats so well from idea to a place where none of us guys go. She’s a team player in a smelly room of guys eating pizza and trying to get their jokes heard.

Every speaker mentions Craig Venter – what a legend. I watched his talk and was inspired, confused, and scared.

There is a really good blog about the TED conference and you should check it out. I’m just watching the talks and taking it all in… Way too soon to put it back out.

First night at TED Aspen

I have to start this post by saying – I am a HUGE fan of Jill Sobule. I mean, CDs, blogs, following her career, it’s a funky thing, not in that stalker way, just in that “how many 45 year old married guys follow Jill Sobule’s career?” kind of way.

I met her years ago at the TED Conference in Monterey, CA and we did our very first text messages with each other on the Treo 180 given out in the legendary TED gift bag. It was way too fun. I had never heard of her and we just happened be standing next to each other and traded numbers. Then later that day I saw her perform and I was all about Jill. Loved her songs, her twisted sense of humor, the way she carried her guitar without a case and plugged it into the system like it was her first time on stage.

So back to tonight – first night at TED 2008. They had a dinner for all the speakers and it was a major schmooze opportunity. I bumped into Jill and Rives right when I walked into the restaurant. We were inseparable. We ended up at the same table with a few of the folks from TED HQ who were very cool (Jennifer and Emily – nice story about the bus ride, Jennifer!).

The Raspyni Brothers, Jill, and Rives have been pegged as “The Little Kids Table” at TED and it is our job to take this entire week of cerebral excellence and make it funny in an 18-minute wrap up. If tonight was any indication, we are off to a really great start. Julia Sweeney was supposed to be here but came down with that nasty flu so we are one great comic mind short.

So many wonderful laughs and for a while it was just performers connecting… sharing stories from the road and from the stage. Highs and lows, successes and failures. Jill was just a girl with real stories and Rives was a world traveler and the biographies didn’t matter. Great food and a decent 2005 Chardonnay made 2.5 hours fly by.

Tomorrow we start the real work – watching some of the great minds of our world “tell a story they’ve never shared before” as the TED instructions state. It’s an amazing conference and I am so happy to be here – for the 5th time!

Oh, and as a side note, landing at the Aspen airport is a visual treat. The runway seems to be cut right into the mountain because the last 3 minutes of the flight you are face to face with fantastic views. Good design.

Seems only fitting that it’s where TED begins.