Minds drenched with ideas at TEDxCapeTown

The full-day event included four sections consisting of short, catchy inspiring talks, interspersed with entertainment by local musicians Hot Water, Nomadic Orchestra and The Bone Collectors, as well as a special performance by Ard Matthews.

Be water my friend

The inspiration for the theme of the one-day TEDxCapeTown conference was taken from a Bruce Lee quote and video clip entitled Be Water My Friend, which also ties in with the recent World Water Day as well as the local water week campaign.

TEDxCapeTown took its inspiration of technology, entertainment and design from the celebration of water. Many different ideas and ways to think about water were introduced across the 28 talks on the day.

Ideas worth spreading

The event was organised by a small committee and hosted by Bernelle Verster and Justin Beswick. Bernelle is also the official TEDxCapeTown license holder

One of the organisers and hosts, Justin Beswick, opened the conference by sharing their vision for TEDxCapeTown: "There is so much going on in Cape Town, but not enough cross-communication happening, sharing of ideas, talent and skills."

At R250 a seat, the 400-capacity Mega Vue auditorium at Ratanga was saturated with fresh sponge-like minds, soaking up the insights and ideas presented by the selection of local speakers. Speakers had a time span of 18 minutes each, and spoke on all manner of topics from those closely related to water and the environment to ideas and analogies referencing flow and other water-like qualities.

The talks were filmed on the day and will be available on the TEDxCapeTown site soon, and include:

• Patrick Kayton: Going With The Flow
• Preven Chetty: The River
• Caron von Zeil: Reclaiming Camissa
• Bernelle Verster: Musings Of A Water Maverick
• Peter Janse van Rensburg: 10 Nifty Things You Can Do With Nanotechnology
• Edwin Roberts: Share The Vision, Dream And Future Realities Of Broadband And Biometrics
• Claire Janisch: The Genius Of Water

TEDx is a programme of local, self-organised events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organised.

For more about TEDxCapeTown, go to www.tedxcapetown.org and follow on @TEDxCapeTown

For other TEDx events in South Africa, you can attend TEDxStellenbosch on 29 July, 2011, or TEDxSoweto on 24 September, 2011.

Photos by Paul Ward