Say Hi to Ted

By: Mr. Wilson on June 14, 2013

TEDxLincoln is looking for speakers for this fall's event. Interested? Applications are due on June 27 so get your ideas ready now. You may not be familiar with the event. TEDxLincoln is part of the TEDx series of independently organized events which feature talks on a wide variety of topics. It is roughly comparable to Ignite Lincoln, at which I spoke last year. TEDx is a spinoff of TED, an awesome event that features some of the world's most brilliant minds in technology, entertainment, and design. If you aren't familiar with TED, you should be. But be warned: once you start watching TED talks you aren't going to want to stop. This year's theme is Seeking Brilliance, Pioneering Change and you can download the application [PDF] here. I'm trying to decide if I want to apply. Check that; I would love to apply, I'm just trying to decide if I have a topic in mind that would suit the event. Maybe you can help me process some of these ideas:

Everything I've learned about interacting with people I've learned via sports officiating. While not entirely true, reffing soccer and umpiring baseball have taught me all kinds of lessons about psychology, human nature, and people management. I could talk for hours on a variety of related topics. Maybe somewhere in there is something appropriate for this event.
Parenting or foster parenting. My Ignite Lincoln talk was about our experiences with foster care so I'm not sure I want to re-hash that. But there are plenty of other foster care tales to tell, including some great stories about people working on amazing projects here in Lincoln to help kids and bio families. On the parenting front, raising Joey has been extremely challenging thanks to a variety of mental and behavioral health challenges. Oh the stories I could tell! Parenting him has forced me to become a better dad, and to deal with many of my own personal shortcomings.
Building communities online. Lincolnite may have its flaws (see this week's series on The Future of Lincolnite for many examples!), but we've got something good going here. Between my experiences with this website and the creation and cultivation of the #LNK hashtag on Twitter, I've learned a few things that may be worth sharing. Who knows, maybe people want to hear about it.

What would you like to hear me talk about for 6-12 minutes?

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June 17, 2013 at 1:22PM

The way people treat youth sports officials never stops being hilariously depressing to me.

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