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Written by Michele Kelly, TEDxNaperville Marketing Director

Bronwyn Weaver led the life of a jet-setting consultant to the mining industry.  Now, she gets up every morning at 3 a.m. to survey the fields of her organic farm.  Dr. John Principe was a disenchanted physician.  Now, he is revolutionizing medicine using exercise and a kitchen in his office for patient education.  Rhon Daguro saw technology through his heart’s deepest desires.  He blazed a trail to launch a touch menu technology company.

Roads less traveled were ones taken by many of our TEDxNaperville speakers.  Here is a quick list of useful takeaways for the rest of us:

1)      Take Right Angle Turns

Marry your skill set with deeply rooted beliefs.

2)      Dismiss Fear

Consider this quote: “On the other side of fear is everything you ever wanted.” Enough said.

3)      Live Your Passion

Remember what you loved to do as a child?  Look in family photo albums for big clues to what really makes you happy.

4)      Knowledge Share

Talk to people, from colleagues to soul mates.  Others can sometimes shed light on which roads to take or, at least, put them on the map.

5)      Visualize

If you can see your destination, you can get there.

So, what are you waiting for?  Get going…

Written by Michele Kelly, TEDxNaperville Marketing Director

In this first Friday Flashback, we look back and wonder….

Last November, Justin Ahrens presented See Different, Do Different (see the video) at TEDxNaperville.  No, let me revise that, he moved us, inspired us and broadened our minds like a rubber band set to burst under pressure.  He opened by talking about Mr. H, a teacher who really understood him for the first time in fifth grade.  Mr. H “saw” Justin; it changed the rest of his life.  Then he cited Henry David Thoreau (we love quote junkies!): “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”

Is there really a difference?  Decide for yourself … here are few of our favorite quotes from Justin’s talk.

Can an idea change the world?  Can your idea change the world?

“Look” means to view something with interest.  “See” means to notice something you weren’t looking for.

That’s the ‘aha’ moment where something around us we weren’t expecting happens.  This idea comes out of nowhere.  That’s the magic sauce of life.  Life becomes more exciting, more rich, more full.

How do you see?  I realized I go through life not seeing.  I decided I wanted to be part of organizations that do work that let people see.  TED is a great part of that.  When you take the time to see things differently, things begin to change.

So the question is: do you look or do you see?

Written by Michele Kelly, TEDxNaperville Marketing Director

Let’s talk family history.  In 1984, TED began as a conference paying homage to its now familiar motto: Ideas Worth Spreading.  Thought leaders like digital soothsayer Nicholas Negroponte and mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, among others from technology, entertainment and design, shared the stage along with demos of the revolutionary Macintosh computer and Sony compact disc. Wow, how time flies.  Nine hundred TEDTalks later, TED has become a global community of idea seekers and collaborators.

Now, the “x.”  TEDx is a license from TED.  That little criss cross letter stands for “independently organized” TED event.  Our curator for TedxNaperville, Arthur Zards, even joined 600 other like-minded leaders at the first ever TEDx Summit in Doha, Qatar this past April. The theme?  The Power of X http://tedxsummit.ted.com/.

So, our internal team at TedxNaperville did something that Midwesterners love to do: we kicked that little “x” ever so slightly.  We tilted it 45 degrees so that it stood elegantly on one leg like the Joffrey Ballet’s prima ballerina. We stood that plus sign on its head, tiptoed a few steps back, very quietly, and saw the power of the + — the antithesis of kryptonite but just as bright.

As you would expect, the meaning of this symbol is completely open to interpretation. Positive? Adding? Growing?  Moving?  That answer depends on you.  Two probably won’t be the same, but all will be equally relevant.

Now you know the theme of TEDxNaperville on November 9: +.  What does it mean to you? Let’s start sharing.

Written by James Chesterfield, TEDxNaperville Technical Coordinator

What’s XNet President and TEDxNaperville Curator Arthur Zards doing this week?

Arthur was invited to attend the TEDxSummit in Doha, Qatar hosted by the Doha Film Institute.  The TEDxSummit is a four day workshop where 650 TEDx organizers from around the world meet to take classes and learn from one another how to make great local TEDx events.  The summit features a variety of world-renown TED and TEDx speakers that will open the conference with their powerful and inspiring TEDTalks on April 16^th. Following their talks, TEDx organizers will begin learning how to make truly powerful events.

So how does this relate to TEDxNaperville? When the TEDx curators from around the world meet this week at the summit, they will be sharing lessons and good case practices of everything from stage design and finding speakers to increasing interactivity and inspiring attendees. Arthur will be taking classes and learning from other amazing TED and TEDx organizers, which we will implement in TEDxNaperville 2012 in November. Furthermore, Arthur will be leading an educational session on building engagement, which other TEDx organizers will use to better their events.

You can follow the TEDxSummit at http://tedxsummit.ted.com and on twitter with #tedxsummit.

Additionally, Arthur has created a blog to share his incredible experience at this event and his travels throughout Qatar. To see what he is doing, visit powerofx.posterous.com.