Being atypical, the TEDx rules, and Regina Holliday, at #TEDxAlvaPark – November 8, 2012

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According to the TEDx General Rules:

The typical presentation should be an 18-minute talk by a single presenter. No talk should exceed 18 minutes. No panels. No break-out sessions. Usually: No podium.

We’re following most of them except for the part about the single presenter, at TEDxAlvaPark , which will happen at Henry Ford Innovation Institute (@HenryFordIdeas), on November 8, 2012, in Detroit, Michigan.

Here’s the title slide from our talk, and here’s how this happened.

After TEDxAlvaPark 2011 (See: TEDx AlvaPark, Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, where “any idea is welcome” | Ted Eytan, MD), Henry Ford’s Magician-in-Chief, Madhu Prasad, MD, asked if I might like to give a talk in 2012.

I politely declined, especially after watching 2011’s presenters, including Veronika Scott, who kind of blew me away with her passion, drive, and spirt of Detroit.

Then I think he asked again a few times, and then I decided I could give the talk, if I could give it with Regina Holliday (@ReginaHolliday). Everyone including Regina said yes.

And so, we’re doing this one together, and the theme is perfect – it’s “The embrace of failure,” and as usual, Regina takes my comfort zone, smashes it to pieces, and resets its boundaries farther away.

This talk includes live tweeting, bouncing ball games, and painted jackets.

I’m okay with it, I really am

Will we pull it off? Did I believe one day that I’d be doing something like this, this way? Probably not, but if I saw into the future how much fun it was going to be, I’d probably be okay with it :).

Oh, one last thing, I’m dedicating this post to my inspirator and colleague Aaron Hardisty (@AaronHardisty) at the Garfield Innovation Center (@KPGarfield), who sent the tweet below to me 2 weeks ago. You didn’t lose anything, my friend, not a thing.

Lost the bet for @tedeytan bringing in members; fingers crossed for 3×3 presentations

— Aaron Hardisty (@aaronhardisty) October 24, 2012

Hashtags: #TEDxAlvaPark and #ReginaTEDTed – follow us!