My paper plane after the event. Photo by the author
Last March 12, I was privileged to attend the TEDxADMU with the theme “Viewpoints”, held at the Newport Performing Arts Theater at Resorts World Manila. It is reputably the largest TED event in the Philippines. Because I missed the TEDxDiliman registration early this year, I intentionally searched for other alternative TED events. There are many of them here in Metro Manila.
TED events have become very important to me personally. As a historian by training, I get ideas from these conferences on how to creatively spread my own historical perspective not only through cyberspace (via this blog) but also via my research work. Furthermore, TED has challenged me to push the boundaries of my world, to see possible trajectories and potential creative paths our country can take in a future full of optimism. TED conferences highlight new and strange ideas, shared by none other than the very people that have tested them and have found them to be effective. So these ideas can be anything under the sun.
Lo and behold, I found out about TEDxADMU. I first thought that it was exclusively for Ateneans (I’m from UP, by the way), but I still tried applying for a slot. Fortunately, I got accepted, and was able to attend the event. My expectations were really high.
At first I wasn’t familiar with most of the speakers, unlike in TEDxDiliman. But my unfamiliarity was compensated by the on-the-edge talks of real experts from the field of social work, human rights, advertising, and education, to architecture, robotics, and the space program. After the conference, my mind and heart were filled to the brim. I took notes on all of them, and frankly speaking, I was awed by the ideas, by the passion of the presenters, and by the artists who presented their art and music.