"Be the change that you wish to see in the
world." A quote of Mahatma Gandhi is the core message of this
TedxBarcelona Change evening. The main theme is health care. Together with 200+
persons I sit down in the Col-legi Official d'Odontólegs. Hoping to hear about the future, to get a glimpse on how we
preserve our health in 40-50 years from now. Will it be similar to the science
fiction books and movies we are able to read and watch on screen? Will the new
basis be 3D printing or gen manipulation? Or is it something we can't think of
today. What if health care wouldn't be necessary, because diseases and ageing no
longer exist? Let the story telling begin. Lay back in the olive green chair
and listen to the TEDx talks: here and now. But before that, get in the right
relax mood to make you receptive for disruptive thoughts that will stretch your
mind. The Mediterranean music fills the room and the soft voice of Susanne
warms it.
Big lighting. A white screen turns black, white and
all the other prism colors. We get thrown into the galaxy and suddenly we are
live in Seattle with Melinda Gates, Halimatou Hima and Roger Thurow. They talk
about social allies, illimi, women voices, disease of the soul when looking
into the eyes of someone dying of hunger, youth leadership and the role of influence.
Roger Thurow, a factivist, is putting the following
bold question out in the world: Why is famine still happening in the dawn of
the 21th century while we are producing more food than ever before? Ending
hunger must be the singular achievement of our age.
A great story about influence, using social media and
a happy ending is 'Damn. I need a kidney.' A guy from Minnesota was helped to
bypass 7 years of waiting queues, because 19 people reacted to his tweet and
there was a perfect match. This is what I mean with creating your own future.
You should really see the gifted poet David Fasanya to
get convinced on how facebook could help change to see scarcity and give a real
call to action or share knowledge on a compelling story so that the voiceless
gain voices (instead of posting ‘I just
brushed my teeth’).
And last, but definitely not least two fifteen year
olds telling on how they prevent polio and ensure clean drinking water in their
slum in India. And what do they want to become? A moviemaker and a lawyer,
because lawyers know everything.
Besides talks, promoting is being made. The catapult platform got introduced to crowd fund projects worldwide to help girls, women, communities, businesses - just everyone. And also the pop up fellowship good. is about creating your civic community is worth a visit.
Besides talks, promoting is being made. The catapult platform got introduced to crowd fund projects worldwide to help girls, women, communities, businesses - just everyone. And also the pop up fellowship good. is about creating your civic community is worth a visit.
It is amazing how by our connectivity achievements,
all around the world we can listen to these words on hope and positive
disruption. When a story in Seattle finishes, applause is heard in venues in
Dunkerque, Brussel, Dubai, Oslo, Vienna, Khartoum, Berlin. At the same time, on
the bottom of the screen you can see reactions from all these places.
Commenting on twitter on the talks or quoting phrases.
Back to Spain, to the creative, dynamic city Barcelona to experience the power of ideas worth spreading from 14 presenters real time.
Back to Spain, to the creative, dynamic city Barcelona to experience the power of ideas worth spreading from 14 presenters real time.
Such as the danger of HIV, since still more than half
of the youth population doesn't know how to protect for it. The alternatives
for food help, giving cash so local people can decide how to invest and spend
it themselves. About challenging negative stereotypes by seeing the good thing
of a radiator (radi-aid) and the danger of the response 'oh dear'. How finding
peers can help to build a system to take control and provide solutions for
diabetes type 1. What the best job EVER looks like. How a single drop of blood
can help to deal with the fact that every 5 seconds a person is considered
obese, every 2 seconds someone dies from cardiovascular diseases. To
collaborate on large scale as an approach to resilience revolution in the horn
of Africa. On how to increase informed decisions. Makeing inthe crowd a
solution for discovering malaria parasites by gamification. And, that all
children should have the possibility to flourish as a genius 14 year old kid
from Spain.
Some are worth mentioning more in detail, because they
had a spark, a real disruptive world changing idea or just turn a smile on your
face, because things can be done differently as well. Others were remarkable,
such as Fran Equiza. He talks about rethinking how to give aid: 'How patronizing
to assume that we know better for the poor what they need and want. We trust
banks with millions of dollars and they deceive us. Being poor doesn’t mean being bad with money, just not being able to have access to it. They should decide upon themselves; giving
cash gives hope. No strings, no restrictions, no advice. Just an investment to
prevent hunger.' However, in order to make this cash flow solution possible, he
relies on the banks. Hence, the message was somewhat contradictionary and I
wasn’t convinced.
A message that was clear on changing stereotypes was
from Sindre Olav Edland-Gryt. Now it is Africa for Norway: Radi-Aid. The
message: mess with peoples mind to get new thoughts. He concluded his talk with
lets laugh ourselves to a better world. Just watch this movie, you won’t regret.
Let me introduce someone who wants to recruit you for
his cause and tells on how his job is very sexy. Quique Bassat: 'My job is
cool. It is the best job in the world. Although I am not an astronaut, rock star,
award winning writer or Michelin star reviewer, who gets great food for free.
None of them, I am a global health researcher. It makes me useful, because I
can make a change.' And he continues, why he can make a change with his
research on health care: 'You are in the top media, they write about you. Influential
people, famous people come to visit you. And concluding, research in global
health is cool, because you can find your love. What are you waiting for, sign
here. You'll love it! This probably was the best introduction of the evening,
although, the following isn’t bad either.
Spotlight on. A man in black. A capital venturist, the
bad guy. Who says no to 98% of the ideas, makes a living of pulling down ideas.
He doesn’t invest in ideas, he only invests in the
execution of an idea with the right team behind it. But, change is on the way.
He is on a mission to stimulate bold innovation. In what? In social health
care, because you can make money out of it, but it also has social impact. So,
he as well, offers a possibility to sign in.
Jordi Marti needs help. He needs a drop of blood to
test for silent killer diseases. A democratization of prevention. A gamechanger
in health care. His request: if you are a healthy medicine student, join us and
help us to let the data act. Dry blood
spot screening. Very inspiring when a solution is being presented, that
enables millions of people to get insight in their medical condition to act
upon.
We love to game, so why not use it for a good cause
like is being done with reCAPTCHA.
Gamification as a diagnostic tool in health care: you shoot the parasites in
the blood. Go to malariaspot.org and help research. Goodbye to the lab rats, which take 20 minutes per
sample, while just 1% of all gamers could investigate all the blood samples
worldwide. And besides helping health care, this digital world creates
employment and it can make our children specialist before they grow up.
Getting out in the fresh air, you realize that you
heard a lot of stories. Serious stories, funny stories, stories that make you
sit on the edge of your chair. And you realize, the TED preparation is good.
Some speakers were really drilled in their presentation: go back in time and
tell a personal story of someone you met back then, show the picture of Walter,
Victor or Lara, and tell her/his sad story that made you aware that change is
needed. And then say: I want to make a change! Involve the audience by asking if they can
identify with a cause by raising their hand, because they know someone or
something: has anyone ever ...? When was the last time that ..? Do not talk too
fast, do the Clinton walk by having your corpus to the audience at all times
and use slides with beautiful pictures and almost no words.
The
speakers I described more in depth made it unforgettable. They made it worth!
But what about the future of health care, here and anywhere? For now it still
seems quite incremental, not the giant step in mankind. But probably we need to
build upon this small steps and one day inventions as dry blood spot screening
and malariaspot will make health care accessible for all. They will show us the
way to the future.Quotes from the evening:
- Challenges are no longer excuses, they are opportunities.
- It is also my responsibility to contribute to a better world.
- Believing in people creates possibilities
- When you have enough to feed your family for a year, you have the chance to dream and work on improvement.
- We must forget about fate and move forward.
- Nowadays, influence is just as important as money.
- You have to ask people personally to support and to act on it.
- Invest today to prevent for tomorrow.
- The future speaks to the present through the actions we take today.
- When used wisely, angriness can be used creatively and spurs new ideas.
