A dose of inspiration: TEDxGreenville

Friday, we took a day away from the grind to join some of Greenville's finest at TEDxGreenville. TED is a California event (short for Technology, Entertainment, Design) that brings together creative thinkers to present "Ideas worth spreading." TEDx events are organized independently in the same spirit.

TEDxGreenville was an engaging, fast-paced and thought-provoking collection of 29 local designers, entrepreneurs, entertainers and original TED videos to give us all food for thought.

Some highlights included:

• How Christian Long saw unconvential classroom design bring out the best in a group of young students
• Some sassy flamenco foot stomping seldom seen at the 10am hour
• Jim De Piante's account of the obstacles IBM overcame to make WATSON a worthy adversary on Jeopardy (who knew three years ago that WATSON was the underdog)
• Gripping poetry enactments about the pain and determination of two women by Say What and Say Word poetry slam teams
• A must-see video of how Salman Khan is reinventing education 
• A tear-jerker from Shannon Pierce, who shared how pain was the mother of her invention
• Some introspection as kART Across America asked us, "What is your art?"
• A glimpse at Alex Bogusky's interesting, if ambiguous, COMMON project - an effort to create a capitalist utopia that gives new product ideas a leg up
• And the wry and witty Phil Yanov punctuated the presentations as master of ceremonies.

Great job, Greenville team. Presentations were top-line enough to be engaging, keep the day moving and foster questions and conversation during the sunshiney, riverside break time.

If you want some food for thought and unique entertainment too, check out a TEDx in your area!

Why SLANT loves John Underkoffler

We caught this tweet from Fast Company on Friday: The Genius Behind Minority Report's Interfaces Surfaces, Unveils Mind-blowing New Tech http://bit.ly/bdjmmo

The video of John Underkoffler's TED presentation is an amazing show of gestural interfaces that (according to Mr. U) will be commonplace in a few years.

Our favorite part was this quote around the 13:00 mark - it reinforces our own thoughts from our recent GUI + UX video

"For some of this technology, ground center is a combination of design which is crucially important. We can't have advances in technology any longer, unless design is integrated from the start. And efficacy, agency... we are human beings, creatures that create. We should make sure our machines aid us in that task and are built in that same image. " - John Underkoffler

Take some time to watch it. And envision the awesomeness of the future (and the forthcoming buffness of computer users from all of that arm movement).