IDENTITIES WORTH SPREADING
This takeaway blog article is a quick dive into my relationship with the Ted Talks method of information sharing. I share some quick takeaways from my TedxToronto 2019 experience, and finish with an update on my current status with experiential education with regards to how I plan to refocus my work in social innovation for 2020.
I haven’t been to a live Ted Talks in many years, and for many years I wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t because of the enjoyment factor, nor the value. I recently realized that back then, my appetite for live Ted was being satiated elsewhere. I realized now that I stopped attending the live TedxToronto event at the same time I started creating 2.0 Toronto, my own version of the Ted conference.
Photo collage from our signature event formats: The Summit - a fitness and wellness concert. The Mindshare - a peer to peer boutique Ted Talks. The Mastermind - a panelist podcast presentation, and The Masterclass - a workshop for working-out then working inward.
Ted Talks was the inspiration to my 8 year run with 2.0 Toronto. By creating a platform that served to better connect its professionals through live skill sharing and storytelling, I was able to elevate the standard of what our profession could offer its professionals and their beneficiaries. Whether 2.0 carved a dent in Toronto fitness or not, I was personally thriving with purpose and meaning far beyond my imagination, as if I had spoken on the Ted stage itself… 8 years in a row!!! The combination of experiencing the Ted format, with my rising leadership in the fitness industry, and the desire to solve systemic problems, all inspired me to create something from the head by the heart.
A full circle has run its course now, and I am back to 9 years ago.
Before I commit to creating another organization for the next 8 years, and call it 3.0, I wanted to take this time to share my takeaways through this blog. This year’s TedxToronto was held on Saturday, October 26, 2019, at the Evergreen Brickworks. The theme was ‘Rise’, where 12 speakers ranging from artificial intelligence, to climate change, to the business of sport, to indigenous fashion, spoke from their heads and hearts, to spread ideas that aimed to help all of us rise as citizens of Toronto. I had a wonderful time supporting friends, connecting with like and unlike minds, and reuniting with a cultural phenomenon so uniquely integral to my past, present, and future.
Kardinal Offishall, the TedxToronto 2019 host with the most character, charisma, and charity.
Kardinal Offishall did a solid job hosting this year’s Ted talks. The crew chose well. He is truly a Toronto spokesperson and Canadian ambassador, someone you can rally behind. I initially thought of him as a jovial, Jar Jar Binks kind of jokester, not truly knowing his depth of character, but in seeing him live and slightly out of his element as a show host, he came to life in the spotlight with true humility, humour, and honour. He was easily able to raise the energy when needed as an expected big stage performer. He poked fun at himself to share his down to earthliness. He sided with the audience on slight production misses but maintained a tasteful composure as a Ted representative. Kardi also challenged the audience to go deeper on tougher topics while also taking us into his processing journey. He spoke genuinely about his life, and brought forth sincere stories with the Ted cast and crew that helped remind me of the relationships I’ve had with 2.0. The hours of dedication he put forth voluntarily was very surprising and admirable, considering he could have been conducting other more lucrative opportunities. His relatability was outstanding. Would be great to see him again in this role. FYI, his 6th studio album Pick Your Poison is set to release this year, hoping to hear some collabs with other musicians that support the Toronto Raptors ;)
Here are my quick takeaways from each of the speakers:
Danielle Goldfarb of the Riwi Corporation pedals the need for a wider set of perspectives to uncover and voice the real truth. It’s the voices of the unheard that provide our data with less bias. These are the blind spots that differentiate what we know from what is actually happening.
Cassandra Diamond of BridgeNorth underlined that mental health problems do not exist in a vacuum. Mental health, just like our physical health, are all intertwined holistically within all of our systems that co-act to keep us alive. They also influence and are influenced by those that surround us, the places we go, and the things we do. Getting out of a difficult situation takes a tremendous amount of courage and energy, but staying out of that situation is a whole different ball game. It requires a yearning beyond our own self-healing to self-actualize.
Umbereen Inayet of Nuit Blanche advocates for freedom fighting beliefs via narrative therapy. The question of who owns power and who holds that responsibility is perhaps within the eyes of the beholder. Focusing on our own narrative and creating our own art is about expressing oneself in everything we do. This right emboldens when we join together with others that believe in journeying united.
Anthony Morgan is a Civil Liberties Lawyer who spoke about integrative reform. He believed that we have a priority issue with a focus on problems before people. What clicked for me was his words, “we can’t arrest ourselves out of gang violence”, just like we can’t outrun a bad diet. What I took away from his talk was the importance of using past issues to reconstruct systemic solutions. We often solve what’s right in front of us, the symptoms of deeply seeded issues. We need to trace these symptoms back to their source, and reverse engineer our laws to enable a new level of liberty.
Gulshan Allibhai, owner of Lahore Tikka House spoke eloquently about ethnic enclaves as reflections of diversity that must be protected and preserved like historical heritage buildings. She insisted that landlords, developers, and investors must listen to communities to retain its authentic character, and not homogenize the beauty of our diversity. Diversity is not only our strength but it’s truly our value to the world.
Mark Cohon, Mr. CEO, and past Commissioner of the CFL spoke about the secret ingredient to success. His impressive background and stellar speaking ability elevated the entire conference for me. His business savvy impacted my own thoughts on my career journey, considering my current career progression into more business and consultancy. He said that success doesn’t come from shareholder value, profit margins, and breaking into new markets, it comes down to one thing, and that is trust. Trust is all about connection, deeper connection, connection to the human. To me, that’s truly 2.0.
Esie Mensah is one of the most epic, beautiful humans I have seen. She is a world renowned dance choreographer. Having worked with Rihanna and Drake, she has hit the top of the totem pole of the dance world, but with more hoops to jump through than you could ever imagine. Esie spoke about the shade of our skin as a limiting or liberating factor to success. She emphasized how twisted our mentality has become about how race, skin colour, and ethnicity have influenced value. Our view of success should come from the merit of the spirit instead of the shade of the skin. Her story encouraged me to stay committed to my lane and pace, for the times when merit isn’t being recognized for the right reasons, not hold anyone to that, and allow that commitment to become the momentum force out of the negative. She uses her ancestors as mentors as they are the root force and guide to her future.
Andrew Reeves is an Environmental Journalist that also spoke eloquently with great insight from such an odd back story about gigantic Asian Carp fish. I came to quickly understand his message, that the wrongdoings are our own doings, and the wrongs are ours to right. His contribution to improving the environment comes from the reporting of outcomes. I believe his work is integral to inform the public and get the message out there that climate change and its issues are on every single one of us to resolve. I am reminded of my favourite Marshall McLuhan quote: “On spaceship Earth, there are no passengers, we are all crew.”
Michelle Xuereb is a Director of Innovation, which I currently identify with to the utmost. As I also innovate in my field of fitness and wellness, a key ingredient to our ability to innovate comes with adapting ahead instead of coping after. Foresight is one thing, but fore-action is what counts in this ever-changing hyper-sped up world. Her words about taking action over achieving perfection is one that hit home with my current projects. I am currently struggling at times with a paralysis by analysis, and writer’s block when designing programming for my projects. What I’ve been working with this year are two business principles; 1. Put forth a minimum viable product with low hanging fruit, and 2. When at bat, aim to get on base instead of aiming to hit a home run. Also, two human principles: 1. Meet people where they are, and 2. Know how you want to show up.
Sage Paul is an indigenous fashion designer and artist and hit me with a simple message that reminded me that what I wear is a political decision and message. The fast fashion industry has gotten me to think twice about what I shop for and where I shop for it. The movie ‘True Cost’ was a game changer for me. Sage took that to the next level by bringing those thoughts to local impact and local levels of influence.
Joseph Palermo is a software engineer and known for his company’s viral ‘deepfake’ audio of celebrity podcaster Joe Rogan. He spoke about machine learning and artificial intelligence. With all this fear surrounding the technologies that will enable anyone anywhere to manipulate the voice and video of another, Joseph assured us of some solutions, but many of us didn’t buy it. What I know is Murphy’s Law, what can happen will happen. Joseph alluded to the need for more focus and attention on researching the implications and implementations rather than just the impact of this new machine learning advancement. With great power comes great responsibility. A fun fact, Joseph is a family friend and we’ve been trying to connect for many years, and we finally did! Super proud of this guy! Let us continue to support Joseph’s research and development not only as an engineer, but as a human activist. The more we support brilliant minds to push the boundaries on the offensive, but also on the defensive in regards to machine learning and technological advancement, I hope that due diligence will create a foundation for a future of sustainable exploration and positive discovery.
Shireen Ahmed is a Muslim Sports Activist and believes that sport is a vehicle for cultural connection, as Torontonians, we are all witness to how The Toronto Raptors, our championship winning NBA basketball team single handedly brought an entire country together. We recognize the power and positivity of sport, but need to remind ourselves that sport should reflect the entire populous, not just the privileged. A camera only has one lens to receive input, but many outputs to influence how we perceive. Just like Danielle Goldfarb on data research, it's not the squeakiest wheel that should get the grease, it’s the wheel that doesn’t squeak that should be heard. Not all problems of injustice are heard. It is up to those in places and spaces that can see and hear what’s between the lines, behind the curtains, and below the surface, to shine the light on the darkest of destinies. Whistleblowing is one thing, but informing with integrity and intelligence is another.
The crew of TedxToronto 2019 at the end of the conference.
I called this blog article ‘Identities worth spreading’ as a spinoff to the signature Ted phrase ‘Ideas worth spreading’ because I felt the conference encircled personal stories of identity in an ever changing social landscape in Toronto. Toronto, as diverse as it is, is a truly beautiful mosaic masterpiece, but to be honest, sometimes a complex mess of a puzzle. With many minds coming together to share their cultures, values, morals, beliefs, and ideas, the ability to do so in a united, harmonious, and effective manner, is as dumbfoundingly challenging as was my 120 mile ultramarathon this summer. When I leave a dinner table of diversified thinking with an agree to disagree mindset, I can’t help but question the value I received from it. Did I leave feeling more informed, more confused, more aware? I guess value and return on investment comes down to expectations, but when time is of the essence and their are too many cooks in the kitchen, what gives? How can we grow better together while acknowledging our differences, and ultimately, get sh*t done.
My resolve has come down to creating better platforms.
Bill Gates’ recent docuseries on Netflix, “Inside Bill’s Brain”, unpacks his latest projects while providing us an insider view on how he thinks and behaves. What I’ve taken away from Bill is his ability to integrate innovators from various fields because of his tremendous processing power for innovation. He is obsessed with solving problems, and collaboratively doing so with others very different from himself. He has no problem raising funds, researching and developing solutions, but finding the right people at the right time at the right place and for the right reasons is something beyond masterful.
As I reflect back to appreciate all that I’ve done, something I am working more on, I can’t help but encourage myself to be more grounded, be more down to earth, and work on the foundation instead of the future. As I look forward to all that I would like to accomplish, I can’t help but encourage myself to better pace my affinity for progression as I do with my ultramarathons. Rather than push through one project after another, and pivot from one opportunity to another, instead I should focus on better positioning myself in front of people akin, at strategic places, at the most aligned of times, for the right reasons.
In other words, pick my battles.
With the incredible opportunities I have been given over the last few months, I am of course overwhelmed, but overjoyed. I have been given platforms to provide more betterment to others, and as such, will create better platforms for 2020. My hope is to go back to the roots of 2.0, and recreate a new version of the Summit, but this time, with partners that have an admirable balance of passion and purpose, that truly believe in innovation integration with respect to health, humanity, technology, and economics.
Thank you for reading. See below diagrams for my mind mapping inspiration.
